University of Virginia Library

GILMER HALL

The President reported that he had also asked the Committee headed by Mr. Gooch, referred to in
the preceding entry, to propose a name for the Life Sciences Building which is to house the
Departments of Biology and Psychology. The Committee had recommended that the building be named in
honor of Francis Walker Gilmer. The President summarized the accomplishments of Mr. Gilmer in the
following manner

Francis Walker Gilmer (1790-1826), author, lawyer, and educational diplomatist, is best
remembered as the "Father of the Faculty" of the University of Virginia. A native of Albemarle
County, Virginia, he took a degree at William and Mary, where he was regarded as a prodigy in
learning, before studying law under William Wirt. Thomas Jefferson described him as the "best
educated subject we have raised since the Revolution" and predicted he would hold any office he
pleased in the State or Federal government. Gilmer's feeble health broke completely during his
arduous mission to England to procure the first professors, as well as books and equipment, for
the University, in which he was appointed Professor of Law, but died before he could occupy the
post. He had a genius for friendship, extraordinary personal charm, and was widely known as an
incomparable conversationalist. Aside from legal works, he left two brilliant published volumes,
his sparkling Sketches of American Orators and his posthumously published Sketches, Essays and
Translations

Following his presentation, the President proposed and the Board adopted the following
resolution

RESOLVED by the Board of Visitors of The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia that
the building now under construction to house the Department of Biology and Psychology at the
intersection of McCormick Road and Alderman Road be and it is hereby named Gilmer Hall in honor of
Francis Walker Gilmer, who was Mr. Jefferson's close associate in the formative period of the
University of Virginia and was commissioned by Mr. Jefferson to visit England to engage the first
members of the faculty