Name/Title
Biographical sketch of James Edgar BullEntry/Object ID
000688Tags
James BullScope and Content
Page 38
TYPE: document
DESCRIPTION: Biographical sketch of James Edgar Bull
TRANSCRIPTION: JAMES EDGAR BULL
In all the numerous and distinguished company of those men who have held professorial chairs in New York University, or the University of the City of New York, as it was formerly called, there are few figures remembered so vividly, so gratefully, and so pleasantly, as that of Professor Richard H. Bull. For many years, in the historic old building on Washington Square, which has now given place to a lofty new edifice, he held sway alike over the minds and hearts of the students. His patriarchal appearance, his ripe scholarship, his rare fund of humor, and his warm sympathies and genial disposition, endeared him to all his "boys," as he called them, and fixed him forever in affectionate memory. He filled with eminent ability and for many years the two chairs of mathematics and civil engineering, and contributed largely to the sterling reputation of that great institution of learning. At the same time he was a most successful practical man of business, as president of the New York Savings Bank, and at his death both university and city sustained and realized an irreparable loss.
Professor Bull came of good old English stock. His first American ancestors came to this country in early colonial days, and were among the first settlers and most valuable citizens of Orange County, New York. He married Miss Mary Schouten, whose name indicates Knickerbocker origin, thus uniting the two worthy and masterful races of England and Holland.
James Edgar Bull is their son. He was born in this city on August 26, 1857, and after careful preparation entered New York University in the fall of 1874. He was a good student and a popular companion, the fact that his father was a conspicuous member of the faculty having no influence upon his standing
TRANSCRIBER: Robert Eager
Page 39
TYPE: document
DESCRIPTION: Biographical sketch of James Edgar Bull
TRANSCRIPTION: JAMES EDGAR BULL
Among his fellows. He was a member of the Delta Phi Fraternity, and at the end of his course was elected to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa. He was graduated an A. B., in 1878, and then entered the University Law School, from which, two years later, he was graduated with the degree of LL.B. His graduation thesis on " The History of Crimes and Punishments since the Time of Blackstone and Howard" won for him the two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar essay prize, the highest honor of the institution. Mr. Bull devoted a couple of years to general law practice in the New York courts. Then he formed a partnership with Amos Broadnax, and began practice in the United States courts, and thereafter devoted most of his attention to such practice. The firm of Broadnax and Bull continued in prosperous existence until the death of Mr. Broadnax, in 1894. The present firm of Gifford & Bull was then formed. For several years Mr. Bull's practice has been exclusively confined to litigations relating to patents, patent rights, and trademarks. He has been connected with many of the important suits which, in the last fifteen years, have been brought before the courts in relation to electric light and power appliances. The vast development of electrical devices, and the multiplication of inventions thereof, have made this one department of legal practice of great importance to the industrial world, and correspondingly profitable to those who devote their attention to it. Mr. Bull is a member of the Delta Phi Club, the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association, the Republican Club, the Calumet Club, the Lawyers' Club, and the Baltusrol and Richmond Hill Golf clubs. He was married on August 1, 1885, at Rouen, France, to Miss Sarah Adams Williams. They have two children
TRANSCRIBER: Robert Eager
