My Genealogy Hound

REV. NORMAN PLASS, D. D.
Rev. Norman Plass, D. D., president of Washburn College, Topeka, was born at Claverach, New York, May 4, 1860. His father, who died in 1889, was Gilbert Plass, an extensive land-owner in Columbia County, New York. His mother, who is still living at Hudson, New York, was Mary (Benedict) Plass, of New England descent. The name was originally Van der Plasse, and the family belonged to the nobility of Holland. Among the ancestors are Martin Van der Plasse, the Dutch artist, and Dinghen Van der Plasse, who fled to England among the Protestant refugees, and introduced starching into that country at a time when the English greatly admired the white and stiff garments of the Dutch, but did not know how to produce them. The first settlers of the name came to New Amsterdam, now New York City, in 1673.

Dr. Plass was married June 18, 1884, to Jessie Charlotte Wheeler, of Williamstown, Massachusetts, who is a lineal descendant of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, founder of Concord, Massachusetts, and from Rev. Charles Chauncey, D. D., second president of Harvard College. They have had four children: Harold, born July 16, 1889, who died in 1896; Helen Mary, born December 18, 1892; Raymond Benedict, born February 1, 1898; and Katharine, born May 21, 1904.

Dr. Plass was prepared for college at the Hudson Academy, Hudson, New York, from which he entered Williams College in the autumn of 1878, and graduated in the spring of 1882, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Among his instructors at Williams were Mark Hopkins, the famous educator, and G. Stanley Hall, now president of Clark University. In the autumn of 1882 he entered Yale University, where he pursued courses in the Divinity School and in other departments. In 1886, he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. In 1885, in recognition of scholarly work accomplished since graduation, he received at Williams College the degree of Master of Arts. He was further honored by Williams, at the commencement of 1904, by having conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Dr. Plass was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1886. He has held pastorates, in the Reformed (Dutch) Church, at Schodach, New York; and in the Congregational Church at Detroit, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; Medina and Cincinnati, Ohio; and Barrington, Rhode Island. He has also been State superintendent of the Rhode Island Anti-Saloon League, and was superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of Greater New York, and assistant State superintendent from 1897 to 1899. In the year 1900, he was in the field for the national Congregational Home Missionary Society.

In the autumn of 1901 he was elected professor of Theism and Christian Evidences, and Financial Agent, of Washburn College, Topeka. The following commencement he was elected to the Presidency of the college, in which position he has since continued to serve. Under his administration the college has greatly prospered. (See article on Washburn College).

Dr. Plass is a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity; The American Economic Association; the American Academy of Political and Social Science; the National Economic League; the Constitutional League of the United States; the National Geographical Society; is a counsellor of the Evangelical Alliance of the United States, and a member of the Kansas Academy of Science, and the Commercial and Fortnightly clubs of Topeka.

He is the author of two volumes, published by Revell: “Buds that Bloom on Bonnier Banks,” in 1900; and “How Christmas was Kept in Heaven,” in 1902.