Harry Augustus Garfield

Harry "Hal" Augustus Garfield was the 9th President of Williams College from 1908-1934 and an alumnus of the class of 1885. He is the oldest son of President James A. Garfield, for whom Garfield House is named and brother of James R. Garfield. He is also the great-uncle of Newell Garfield, for which Newell House is named. Garfield also currently serves as the vice-president of CRAG, assisting current President Henry Hopkins with his duties. He currently is the acting chairman of the prestigious Sub-Committee of Alumni-Student Relations as well as the Sub-Committee of Alumni Residential Life. Hal, as he jocularly asks to be called by students who work at CRAG, likes to smoke pipes with English tobacco, having once remarked, "I just can't stand that new American stuff - it makes one wish good old Ephraim hadn't died so that maybe the Americans didn't win the Revolutionary War." He specifically is a tutor in the Alumni-Tutor program operated by CRAG. Having graduated from Columbia Law School, he specializes in 19th-Century and early 20th-Century American Legal Theory, a notorious and rigid critic of his fellow alum, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field (ironically, the founder of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity located in Garfield House). However, having also developed a passion for Nathaniel Hawthorne as well as Herman Melville, he is known to be a trusted friend on late nights for English students ensconced in the The Scarlet Letter or Moby Dick, holding office hours as late as 3:30 AM in order to help students understand their broader significance and context in 19th-Century American society. As he once jokingly remarked, "I mean, I was born in the century - I should probably know a thing or two more about it than you."