Morris Watson Prince (1843-1931)

Morris Watson Prince was born a minister's son in an old New England family in East Boothbay, Maine in 1843. He went to school in Bucksport and went on to Wesleyan College where he was graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1868. One of his classmates was George Edward Reed. He studied theology at Boston University and in 1871 followed his father's steps into the Methodist ministry.

His career was a successful one, serving in various pastorates in New Hampshire, at Plymouth and Concord. After twenty years as a pastor he became president of the Maine Conference Seminary in Bucksport between 1871 and 1884. Prince retired to his preferred vocation as pastor in Connecticut at Hartford and New Haven, and at New York City in Brooklyn. He turned down several offers from other institutions until his old classmate Reed, now president of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, persuaded him to join his faculty in 1894 as professor of history and political science. His career as a professor was late in beginning, but he served diligently for fifteen years.

He married Katherine Buck and the couple had a son and a daughter. His son, Leon Cushing Prince, graduated from Dickinson with the class of 1898 and succeeded his father in his professorship on his retirement in 1911. Morris Watson Prince, remembered as one of the most popular and beloved faculty members in Dickinson history, died at his home on Mooreland Avenue in Carlisle in the early hours of December 22, 1931 at the age of 89. The class of 1899 endowed the senior history prize at the College in his name. This honor is awarded each year to the outstanding scholar in the Department of History.