The Men of Lafayette, 1826-1893
Lafayette College, Its History, Its Men, Their Record
Selden J. Coffin 1891
Easton
James H. Coffin, LL. D., was born in Williamsburg, Mass., on the 6th of
September, 1806. He graduated at Amherst College in 1828, and the year following
established, at Greenfield, Mass., the Fellenberg Manual Labor Institution, which for
eight years continued to be one of the rarely successful instances of this system in our
country. He afterwards became the Principal of the Ogdensburg (N. Y.) Academy,
and in 1839, a member of the Faculty of Williams College. In 1846 he became
Professor of Mathematics in Lafayette College, where he remained till his death,
February 6th, 1873.
Professor Coffin was an eminent scholar, a diligent and fruitful worker in
Mathematics and the sciences, particularly in the department of Meteorology .His work in
this field he carried on from the time of his graduation, even in the midst of his
constant labors as an educator. He was fitted for it by the best gifts of heart and head.
A man of clear, strong and candid mind, of scrupulous integrity of character, of
conscientious regard for accuracy in the execution of his work, and above all, a lover of
the truth for its own sake. His great work, " The Winds of the Globe," almost
completed at the time of his death, was finished by his son, and published under the
auspices of the Smithsonian Institution in 1876.
Coffin Surname
Genealogy Resources
