Rollin D. Salisbury

Rollin Daniel Salisbury (August 17, 1858 – August 15, 1922) was an American geologist and educator.

Biography

Salisbury was born at Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, in 1858. He studied at Whitewater State Normal School in Whitewater, Wisconsin, graduating in 1877 after completing the four-year course in just two-and-one-half years. He taught in a village school in Port Washington, Wisconsin, for one year before entering Beloit College as a sophomore in the fall of 1878. At Beloit, he studied geology with T.C. Chamberlin as his professor. After graduating from Beloit in 1881, he spent one year working for the U.S. Geological Survey as Chamberlin's field assistant, during which time he lived in the Chamberlin household. After Chamberlin left Beloit in 1882, Salisbury joined the college faculty, becoming an assistant professor in 1882 and full professor and chair of the geology department in 1884, remaining there for several years.

In 1892 he was one of the scholars on the Peary Relief Expedition to Greenland.

After working at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for one year, he was called to the University of Chicago in 1892. At Chicago he became dean of the Ogden Graduate School of Science in 1899, a position he held at the time of his death in 1922. He also organized the university's department of geography in 1903, heading it until 1918. He also served as assistant geologist and geologist for the United States Geological Survey government from 1882 onwards. Salisbury House in the university's housing system (located in the heart of Burton-Judson Courts) shares his namesake.