James M. Milne

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James Mollison Milne (1850–1903) was the first principal of the Oneonta Normal School, the school that would become the State University of New York at Oneonta. He led the school from 1889 to 1898, and the SUNY Oneonta library is named in his honor.

Milne was born in Scotland on September 29, 1850, and moved to America as a child. He studied at Brockport Normal School, then Geneseo Normal School, earned a master’s degree from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. from Colgate University. He worked in Cortland, NY, as principal of the Cortland Normal School (1873–1876) and later chaired Latin and Greek there (1877–1889). While at Geneseo, he helped found the Delphic Society and is considered the founding father of the Delphic Fraternity’s Beta chapter in 1889. He married Susan M. Schermerhorn on June 1, 1881. Milne was president of the New York State Teachers Association and also worked with a New York City law firm.

After leaving Oneonta in 1898 following a board dispute, Milne studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1901. He died on November 5, 1903, after delivering a speech at a Masonic gathering in Waterville, New York, and was buried in Cortland.