Carleton B. Gibson

Carleton Bartlett Gibson (18 September, 1863 – 1927) was a 19th– and 20th century American industrial educator, most notable for having served as the first president of the Rochester Athenæum and Mechanics Institute, from 1910 to 1916.Citation
last = Saffran
first = Michael
publication-date = March 2007
title = RIT's presidential history
periodical = RIT news & events
publication-place = Henrietta, NY
publisher = Rochester Institute of Technology
volume = 39
issue = 11
url = http://www.rit.edu/~930www/NewsEvents/2007/Mar02/t6.html
accessdate = 2008-01-18

He was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1863 and attended school at the Barton Academy and the Mobile Military Academy. He graduated from the University of Alabama with bachelor's and master's degrees in 1884 and 1885, respectively and married the former Martha Goodwin Newcomb in 1889. While still in college he became principal of the public school in Mulberry, Alabama. After graduation, he took a job at the State Normal School at Jacksonville, Alabama and helped establish the University Military School of Alabama in 1892. He briefly served as president of the Alabama Central Female College in Tuscaloosa in 1893.Citation
last = Howell
first = Clark
publication-date = 1926
title = History of Georgia
publication-place = Atlanta, Georgia
publisher = S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
volume = III
pages = 264–267
oclc = 1648247

Also in 1893, he left to become the principal of the Columbus, Georgia High School and within the year became Superintendent of the Columbus City Schools. With the financial support of George Foster Peabody, he established the first school for industrial education in the South, the Primary Industrial School of Columbus in 1900.Citation
last = Dabney
first = Charles W.
publication-date = 1936
title = Universal Education in the South
publication-place = Chapel Hill, North Carolina
publisher = University of North Carolina Press
page = 170
oclc = 175517 The school introduced the children of mill workers to two dozen different handicrafts that would prove useful for their later employ in the local textile factories.

Gibson was hired to oversee the Rochester Athenæum and Mechanics Institute in June 1910 by the then board of directors which included George Eastman.Citation
title=New President of Mechanics Institute to Take Up Duties
newspaper=Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
publication-place=Rochester, New York
date=July 2, 1910
page=14 He instituted the Institute's Cooperative education program in 1912, as part of his focus on industrial education. The program required students to study half time and to work half time in shops at Eastman Kodak, Gleason Works, and the German American Button Company.

Gibson took a leave of absence from the Institute in 1914, joining Herbert Hoover's American Commission for War Relief in Belgium with tours of duty in Belgium, France, and Russian Poland. He eventually resigned the Institute Presidency to pursue that undertaking full time in June 1915. The Institute did not recognize his resignation for a full year while it sought another president. Upon America's entry into the War, he organized divisional schools for the Army and served as director of Vocational Training for the American Expeditionary Force in France.

After the end of the War, Gibson was elected Superintendent of the Savannah, Georgia public school system. In 1926, he left education to become a vice president at the Florida Title Insurance Company in Miami.Citation
title=GIBSON GOES WITH THE TITLE INSURANCE CO.
newspaper=The Savannah Evening Press
publication-place=Savannah, Georgia
date=February 9, 1922
page=2

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