Charles H. Clapp papers, 1907-1935

Charles H. Clapp was born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 5, 1883. He received his B.A. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1905 and five years later he received his doctorate from the same school before studying at Harvard University. He served as an instructor in geology and mining and assistant state geologist for the University of North Dakota from 1905 to 1907. From 1907 to 1910 he was an instructor of geology and mining at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Beginning in 1913 he served as a professor of geology at the University of Arizona until he accepted a similar position at the Montana School of Mines in Butte, Montana in 1916. In 1918, Clapp became president of the Montana School of Mines where he then helped establish the Montana State Bureau of Mines and Metallurgy in 1919.

In 1921, Clapp was made president of the State University at Missoula (now the University of Montana). Accomplishments during Clapp’s term as president of the University of Montana included increased enrollment of upper classmen, increased number of graduate students, initiation of Freshman Week, the creation of the School of Religion, and successful efforts to obtain federal funds for a Student Union building, the first government-financed project of its kind on an American college campus. Other campus construction during his term included the library, South Hall (now Elrod Dormitory), North Hall (now Brantley Hall), Corbin Hall, Shreiber gymnasium, the heating plant, and the forestry building.

Clapp maintained his interest in geology. As late as the 1930s his accomplishments in the field included a study of the granite mass known as the Idaho batholith in the Bitter Root and Sapphire ranges and a geologic survey of several sites proposed for a Chain of Lakes dam project north of Havre, Montana.

Charles H. Clapp and Mary R. Brennan married in 1911. They had eight children: Daniel Brennan, Michael Manson, Mary Lincoln, Francis Coyle, Lucy Ford, Prudence, Paul, and Margaret.

Clapp was diagnosed with a rare bacillary infection in October of 1934. Clapp died on May 9, 1935, while in still holding the office of university president.