Mark Walrod Harrington, 1895-97

Born in Sycamore, Illinois in 1848 Harrington attended the University of Michigan and received his MA and MS degrees in 1868. He began his teaching career at the University of Michigan and taught there until 1876. Between 1876 and his recruitment as President of the University of Washington in 1895 Harrington studied at the University of Leipzig, Germany, served as a professor of Mathematics at the University of Peking, China, and was appointed Chief of the Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C. When Harrington was removed from the Weather Bureau by President Grover Cleveland he was recruited as President of the University of Washington. He served as president of the University from 1895 until 1897. He returned to the Weather Bureau in 1898 and retired in June 1899. Harrington disappeared from his home in October of 1899. Harrington was not found until being identified by his wife at the State Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey in 1908, where he had been admitted as "John Doe No. VIII", after she had seen a newspaper article about a brilliant but unknown patient at the hospital. According to his wife mental condition was a result of being struck by lightning on the University of Washington Campus during his tenure as President. Harrington never recovered and he died in the New Jersey State Hospital on September 10, 1926