EMERSON, OLIVER FARRAR (1860-13 March 1927) was head of the English department at Adelbert College (see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIV.) and an internationally recognized scholar on Chaucer. The son of a New England missionary, he was born in Traer, Iowa, and received his bachelor's degree from Grinnell College. After serving as superintendent of the Grinnell schools, he proceeded to Cornell Univ., where he earned his doctorate and taught English. From Cornell he was called to Adelbert College in 1896, becoming Oviatt Professor of English in 1906. An authority in the fields of Old and Middle English, Emerson was the author of A History of the English Language and A Middle English Reader. He also edited several volumes of English authors and contributed regularly to scholarly journals. A resident of EAST CLEVELAND, from where he habitually walked to and from the Adelbert campus, he also maintained a summer home in Mentor Headlands. Locally, he was a founder of the NOVEL CLUB. Nationally, he served as president of the American Dialect Soc. and the Modern Language Assoc. of America. He died in Ocala, Fla., having gone there in an unsuccessful attempt to recover from a heart condition and Bright's disease. Married to Annie Laurie Logan of St. Louis, he was survived by her and a son and daughter. His library was donated to the university, and a memorial volume consisting of his Chaucer essays was published by the Western Reserve University Press.
Oliver Farrar Emerson biographical file, CWRU Archives.