Henry B. Longden
September 13, 1860 - November 8, 1948
Born in Vevay, Indiana, on September 13, 1860, Henry Boyer Longden was the son of Samuel Longden, an English emigrant and a Methodist minister. He began prepatory school at Indiana Asbury College in 1877 and earned the undergraduate degree with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1881 and had the intention of studying medicine. Longden could not earn enough money to pursue this ambition during the few months after his graduation. But shortly before school began for the new year, Longden was asked to teach Greek and science in the prepatory department. Later he taught Latin in the College of Liberal Arts and in 1892 was named professor of German language and literature. He began teaching on his 21st birthday in September 1881. In 1884 Longden received a masters degree and in 1925 was granted a doctor of law degree both from DePauw University. During a leave in 1888-1890 and again in 1898, Longden studied at Goettingen and Leipzig universities and later at the University of Berlin, Amherst College and the University of Chicago.
During Dr. Longden's career at DePauw, from 1881 to 1935, he served in many different capacities as tutor, professor of Greek, science, German and Latin, librarian, registrar, vice president, acting president, and director of the Rector Scholarship Foundation. He was well liked in the academic community and was asked to give numerous chapel talks and addresses. Dr. Longden was interested in the progress of education and served on the Indiana State Board of Education for a number of years. Dr. Longden's teaching career at DePauw spanned from 1881-1922, when he assumed the duties of vice president of the university. In 1919, he became secretary of the Rector Scholarship Foundation and was instrumental in guiding the Edward Rector dollars, a total of $3,500,000, to DePauw University. Rector also made provisions for a hall to be built bearing the Longden name.
