William Glasson was one of two adjunct professors in Trinity College’s School of Law during its early years. He started at Trinity in 1902 as a professor of political economy and social science, and joined the new law school as a professor of political science in 1905. Glasson was appointed chairman of the general college’s faculty committee on graduate instruction in 1916, and consequently became the first dean of Duke University’s graduate school of arts and sciences in 1926. He was also an active editor and author. Glasson’s role in the law school ended in 1929, as the new university’s departments and schools became more formalized.
Glasson completed a Ph.B. at Cornell in 1896 and a Ph.D. at Columbia in 1900. He was a fellow at Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and at Columbia. Before coming to Trinity College Glasson was head of the history and civics department at the George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania for three years. He stepped down as dean of the graduate school in 1938, but continued to teach until 1940. Glasson died in Durham in 1946.
Sources:
Trinity College (Durham, N.C.), Annual Catalogue of Trinity College [serial]
William Henry Glasson, 1874-1946 [perma.cc/F2WB-CZEM], Documenting the American South, The University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill (last viewed May 22, 2015)
- Political Institutions
