William Rollin Shipman Papers

William Rollin Shipman (1836-1908), a Universalist minister, served as dean of the School of Liberal Arts for seven years (1900-1907).

Born May 4, 1836, in Granville, Vermont, Shipman studied at the local academy and taught in district schools before graduating from Middlebury College with distinction in 1859. He also received his M.A. from his alma mater in 1862 and a D. D. from Saint Lawrence University. Shipman served as the principal of Green Mountain Institute in South Woodstock, Vermont. Prior to leaving Vermont, Shipman had been an avid supporter of the establishment of Goddard Seminary. He continued to serve as the president of the seminary's board of trustees and chairman of its executive committee, while teaching at Tufts. In 1865, Shipman was ordained in the Universalist faith. Although he occasionally preached, he never pastored his own church. He married Martha F. Willis in July 1868 and they had two sons.

Shipman joined the Tufts College faculty in 1864 as Professor of Rhetoric, Logic, and English Literature and also taught other subjects including metaphysics. He was a truly beloved teacher and advisor to his many students, who once even paid for him to take along tour of Europe. Shipman was secretary of the Tufts faculty from 1869 to 1873, and dean of the School of Liberal Arts from 1900 until his retirement in 1907, at which time Shipman was made professor emeritus. He had been a charter member of Tufts' Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Shipman died January 15, 1908.