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Theophilus A. Wylie

From Bloomingpedia

Theophilus A. Wylie (October 8, 1810 - June 16 1895) was an early professor at Indiana University. He was also a half-cousin to Andrew Wylie, and lived in Wylie House after Andrew's death.

Wylie was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his father Samuel was a Reformed Presbyterian minister and professor and a leading academic at the University of Pennsylvania. After studying theology under his father, he was ordained to the ministry and became the pastor of the New Light Reformed Presbyterian Church in Bloomington. As one of Bloomington's most educated residents, he was asked to begin teaching at what was then the Indiana State Seminary.

Since the school was still a small college at the time, Wylie taught most subjects offered, from math to science to Greek to chemistry. He was also the school's first librarian, and even worked as a groundskeeper. He is also rumored to have installed the first telephone in the state of Indiana, running a wire from Wylie House to a lab on campus.

Theophilus Wylie also served as interim President of the university for six months in 1859, until the hire of John Hiram Lathrop.

Wylie Hall is named after both him and Andrew Wylie.