Adam Leroy Jones

Adam Leroy Jones was one of the group of young scholars whom Woodrow Wilson brought to Princeton to organize the preceptorial plan of college instruction. In 1909 he was called to Columbia to teach philosophy and to serve as Director of Admissions, a post which he held for twenty-five years. Dr. Jones’s life was dedicated to disproving the assumption that academic standards, in order to be high, must necessarily be unreasonable. Through his services with the Association of American Universities, his influence spread throughout the country, and it is recognized today that the contribution of this modest scholar to American higher education has been one of lasting importance. “Hundreds of former students,” wrote the Columbia Faculty in its memorial resolutions, “join with members of the University in affectionate memory of him, the first man whom they met when they came upon the campus. Applicants for admission he speedily freed from their anxiety and, while he sought to judge for himself their qualifications, he made them feel that they were in the presence of a wise and kindly gentleman.”

Alexander Dana Noyes
1935 Century Association Yearbook