Archief SC025 - Rufus Arthur Coleman fonds

Rufus Arthur Coleman was born on 19 June 1886 in Arthur, Ontario. He came from a well-known family of educators, his brother Herbert having taught at UBC and published numerous books of children's poetry.

Rufus Coleman obtained an A.B. degree from Whitman College in 1909, attended the University of Toronto in 1912-1913, and obtained his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1937. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with the life and works of the American writer John Townsend Trowbridge. Coleman was appointed Assistant Professor of English at Montana State University in 1927 and promoted to full professor in 1936 and became Professor Emeritus in 1956. He was also Visiting Professor during summer session in 1938 at the University of Alberta, in 1939 at Washington State College, and at Victoria College, B.C., in 1959.

In addition to his research on Trowbridge, Coleman wrote essays on other American writers including Mark Twain, and also wrote poetry. In 1958 he moved to Victoria after retiring from Montana State, and died in Victoria on 22 January 1975.