teacher, college president, b. Allahabad, India. He was the son of an American missionary. He graduated from Princeton Univ. (M.A., 1860), taught school in New jersey for several years, and in 1866 moved to Wisconsin to become president of Carroll College in Waukesha. Although the college was virtually bankrupt and instruction had been suspended, Rankin was able to find the means with which to reopen the college. In the years that followed he guided the school through a series of crises that threatened its existence. Twice (1871-1873, 1879-1881) the school closed from lack of funds and Rankin was forced to take other teaching positions. In 1881 he reopened Carroll as a preparatory school, and gradually the college department was reinstated. Eventually the college found benefactors, and in 1904 the Presbyterian Synod made it a four-year college. Rankin relinquished the presidency in that year, but remained on the faculty as professor of Latin and Bible until his death. Wis. Mag. Hist., 29; Waukesha Freeman, July 28, 1910.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]