The university's first president--William Rainey Harper--was not only one of the greatest educators in the United States during the past hundred years or so but an outstanding scholar in his own right, a professor of Semitic languages at Yale University who earned a doctorate there at the age of 18.
芝大首任校長﹘﹘威廉．哈伯﹘﹘不僅是美國近百年來最偉大的教育家之一，而且本身就是位學術界的傳奇人物。他十八歲就獲得耶魯大學博士學位，並且在耶大教授閃族（希伯來、阿拉伯等）語文。