John Milton Gregory

Who was John Milton Gregory?

John Milton Gregory was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction in Michigan in 1858, after several years spent as editor of the Michigan Journal of Education. After leaving office in 1864 he became the second president of Kalamazoo College from 1864 until 1867. Following this, he served as the first president of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from the university's founding in 1867 until his resignation in 1880. While Gregory credited Jonathan Baldwin Turner as the central figure in the university's establishment, Gregory, during his tenure as University of Illinois's first president, helped determine the direction of the university by advocating the presence of a classically-based liberal arts curriculum in addition to the industrial and agricultural curriculum desired by the Illinois Industrial League and many state residents and lawmakers of the time.

Gregory is buried near the Main Quadrangle on the UIUC campus.

John Milton Gregory Elementary School of the Chicago Public Schools is named after Gregory and is located in the historic North Lawndale, Chicago community. The school is currently the John Milton Gregory Math and Science Academy.