When Henry W. Sage endowed funds for a professorship in 1885, he likely didn’t imagine how his gift would transform over the next 140 years.

Sage, who chaired the Cornell University Board of Trustees from 1875-97, is believed to have established the university’s first named and endowed professorship. Named in memory of his wife, the Susan E. Linn Sage Professor of Christian Ethics and Mental Philosophy eventually sprouted offshoot professorships in three new disciplines—psychology; moral philosophy, logic, and metaphysics; and the history and philosophy of religion and Christian ethics. Known colloquially today as “Sage professors,” these were the inaugural chairs initially established in the Susan E. Linn Sage School of Philosophy. While there isn’t a comprehensive record of all who have held these roles, at least a dozen faculty have held some form of these professorships since then.

“The Sage Professorship is probably the only endowed professorship that had four recipients become deans at Cornell—and one president,” says Cornell’s unofficial historian, Corey Ryan Earle ’07, who serves as a visiting lecturer in the American Studies Program.

Establishing a legacy

Portrait of President Jacob Gould Schurman

Jacob Gould Schurman is the first professor to hold the Susan E. Linn Sage Professor of Christian Ethics and Mental Philosophy. He grew up on a farm in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and eventually served as a faculty member at Dalhousie and Acadia universities. In 1886, Sage recruited him, offering a salary of $3,000—which is roughly equivalent to $100,000 today—and a house to live in. Just six years later, Schurman was named Cornell’s third president. He led the university through extensive growth and its transition from a privately endowed institution to one that was funded by a combination of state and private funding. Today, Schurman remains the university’s longest-serving president.

Like Schurman, many generations of Sage professors have established a lasting legacy in Cornell’s history and have deeply influenced the study of philosophy and psychology worldwide. Here are ten of the professors who held, or currently hold, these chairs:

Written by Sally Parker, a freelance writer for Alumni Affairs and Development.

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