The New International Encyclopædia/Murray, David

MURRAY, David (1830—  ). An American educator. He was born at Bovina, Delaware County, N. Y., where his parents had immigrated from Scotland in 1816. He graduated from Union College in 1852. The following year he became assistant in the Albany Academy, and in 1857 was advanced to the principalship. In 1863 he accepted the chair of mathematics and physics in Rutgers College. Having assisted the Japanese Embassy in 1872 in their labor of investigating the educational systems of this and other countries and preparing statistics thereon, he was invited by Japan to assume the supervision of its educational affairs. He removed to that country and was occupied for six years in these duties. At the time of his return to America in 1879 he was decorated by the Emperor with the Order of the Rising Sun. In 1880 he became secretary of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, and held this post nine years. He has published several addresses, and is the author of Manual of Land Surveying (1872); an introductory chapter to Outlines of the History of Japanese Education (1876); The Story of Japan (1894); History of Education in New Jersey (1899).