First Family

The last of the Compton brothers has finally caved in and become an educator.

With a pat on the back from his good friend Henry Wallace, big, buoyant Wilson Martindale ("Doc") Compton last December ended his profitable career as a respected Washington, D.C. lumber lobby ist, breezed across the continent to settle in the red brick presidential mansion of Washington State College at Pullman.

Last week President Compton was moving into high gear. He named a committee of 40 facultymen to "mobilize the wits, wisdom, and judgment" of the faculty in a thorough review of their program. To Governor Mon C. Wallgren he proposed a whopping $1,750,000 state grant to create new technical and agricultural schools at W.S.C., shake the whole state out of the lethargy of its "raw-materials economy." Thus, with characteristic Compton vigor, Wilson Compton, 54, at last took his place beside his famed brothers Karl and Arthur in the First Family of U.S. education.

The Bible and Common Sense. The Comptons' hunger for knowledge is congenital if not hereditary. Karl, Wilson and Arthur were born, in that order, between 1887 and 1892 to Elias Compton, B.A., M.A., D.D., Ph.D., and Otelia, B.A., LL.D. (awarded in 1932 by Western College for Women for "outstanding achievement as wife and mother of Comptons"). Mother Compton raised her children on "the Bible and common sense."

All three boys had to earn money to get through Wooster (Ohio) College, where their father served for more than 40 years as professor of philosophy, for 22 doubling as dean. No bookworms, all three were multi-lettered sportsmen, good enough to turn pro. But each quickly moved onward & upward to a Ph.D.

In his doctoral thesis, Wilson plotted his idea of the best possible future for the National Lumber Manufacturers Association. It made so much sense that the Association hired him as secretary and manager. While teaching on the side at George Washington University, Wilson served as consultant to both Government and industry, became a ranking U.S. economist. While advising Government and industry on the side, Karl and Arthur, became two of the nation's top physicists.

Conserve, Develop, Utilize. In their swift rise, the three filled increasingly bigger jobs in 13 different schools, collected a total of 44 degrees. In 1930, Karl was named president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1940, Nobel Prizewinner Arthur became dean of the University of Chicago's Division of Physical Sciences. (In 1913, their sister Mary married the president of Forman College in Lahore, India.)

Wilson shares the practical Compton philosophy: conserve, develop, utilize. His postwar prospectus: the Northwest will become to Pacific trade even more than New England ever was to Atlantic trade, and W.S.C. will be one of its prime spark plugs. His educational plans are aimed directly at more diversified industry, more jobs, a "scientific spirit" for the State of Washington.

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