Arlen E. Taylor

THE TAYLOR GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP ENDOWMENT FUND
AT IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY

* HONORING Albert E. And Ruby C. Taylor*

Dr. Albert Edward Taylor, Al to his friends and colleagues, was born on the 9th of March 1908. He spent the first part of his life in northeastern Idaho on a small ranch near Kilgore. His parents, immigrants from Lancashire County, England, homesteaded in the mountainous valley in 1900. In November of 1917, after completing four grades in a one-room log school house in the Meadows, Albert and his mother moved to Central Falls, Rhode Island. In 1921, they came west to Nampa, Idaho.

After a year and a half in Nampa, they moved to Portland, Oregon where Albert completed his high school education at Franklin High School. The damp coast climate in Portland caused illness and health problems for Albert, so he returned to Idaho and lived with his Uncle Harry Taylor who had a homestead adjacent to that of his parents. In 1926, after being out of school a year, during which he held a variety of jobs with a large sheep company, Albert came to Pocatello and enrolled in the Idaho Technical Institute. A year later, the Institute became the University of Idaho, Southern Branch, and hired Ernest J. Baldwin from Moscow to teach Chemistry.

At the end of the 1927-28 school year when Albert received his two-year certificate in Chemistry. Mr. Baldwin asked him if he would act as a temporary instructor during the 1930-31 session. This arrangement would allow Mr. Baldwin to take a leave of absence to complete his doctoral work at Stanford.

It was suggested that Albert could remain a third year at the Southern Branch. For the first time, a third year of Chemistry was to be offered for the College of Pharmacy. Albert was able to complete his remaining 52 credits by attending the University of Kansas during the summer of 1929, the 1929-30 school year, and the summer of 1930. At the end of Albert’s first year of Chemistry teaching in 1931, Dr. Baldwin returned and offered Albert an appointment as Instructor in Chemistry. The offer was subject to his continued study during summer sessions at Kansas until he received a Master’s degree.

Albert received the degree of Master of Arts in Chemistry from the University of Kansas in 1934. After two years of summer vacations he returned to summer session study at the University of Michigan. After many summers, a year in residence at Ann Arbor in 1942-43, and two years of research, he received the degree of Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in August 1945.

In 1958, Albert was appointed Professor of Physical Sciences and Director of Graduate Studies at Idaho State College. A new Division of Graduate Studies was approved by the State Legislature in 1957. After years of expansion and development, the State Board of Trustees approved the designation of “Graduate School” and the chief administrative officer given the title Dean. Albert was appointed to this position on July 1, 1967.

Ruby Leona (Colony) Taylor was born on December 25, 1909, in Manhatten, Kansas where she attended grade school and high school. She married Albert E. Taylor on September 16, 1931, in Pocatello. She attended the Southern Branch of the University of Idaho and Idaho State College, majoring in English. She received the degree B. A. in English in 1952. She then was employed in the ISU Library part-time and full-time from 1957to 1963.

The ranch in Carter County, Montana, which as the potential to fund this endowment, was operated by Ruby’s parents until their deaths. She inherited a share along with other beneficiaries, and the shares of other beneficiaries were purchased by the Taylors. The ranch was sold to a local rancher, with the mineral rights retained, in 1980. The mineral rights on the ranch were transferred to the ISU Foundation in October 1989.

It is hoped that recipients of awards from this endowment will be inspired to excel academically and in their personal lives.