Sarah Gridley Ross
Sarah Gridley Ross was Skidmore's dean from 1915 to 1929. She taught sociology, helped
shape academic policy and oversaw social discipline. She organized a Red Cross branch
on campus during the First World War and took a maternal interest in many students'
lives.
When President Charles Henry Keyes died in January 1925, Dean Ross assumed the president's
duties for the rest of the academic year. That included discussions with a representative
of the Middle States Association, which would grant Skidmore accreditation that November.
Ross left Skidmore for a position at the University of Wisconsin, but she visited
the college many times, attending reunions up until her death in 1962. A residence
hall on the downtown campus was named in her honor, and one of the apartments in the
former Scribner Village bore her name.