John O. Creager, 1919-1920

Born in Indiana in 1872, John Oscar Creager attended Ohio State, Lebanon University, and Yale, where he received his B.A. in 1897 and his M.A. in 1899. He pursued graduate studies at Harvard, before teaching in private schools and at the University School in Cleveland, Ohio. Creager also studied teacher training methods in Europe and at the University of Chicago. He held positions as President of Lebanon University, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Wyoming, and Wyoming State Commissioner of Education.

He accepted an appointment as the President of the Northern Arizona Normal School [NANS] for the 1919-1920 academic year. Creager--who restored order and confidence to the campus after Dr. Blome's ouster--resigned after only one year because the altitude had affected his son's health. He moved to Tucson and joined the faculty of the University of Arizona as Director of the School of Education. In 1925, he received a Ph.D. from New York University and became Dean of the College of Education at his new alma mater. Creager remained interested in the progress of NANS, returning to Flagstaff for occasional visits and as a speaker. He and Mrs. Leoti Creager were generous donors to both the Boy Scouts and to the NANS library. Dr. Creager died a few months after retiring from New York University in 1943.

Condensed from Platt Cline, Mountain Campus: The Story of Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1983), chapter IV.