Franklin La Du Ferguson

Franklin La Du Ferguson (June 21, 1861 – May 27, 1944) was a minister in the Congregational church and the second president of Pomona College in Claremont, California. He served from 1897 to 1901, the briefest tenure of any Pomona president to date.

Early life Franklin La Du Ferguson was born at Tamworth, Ontario, Canada, in 1861 to John and Matilda Pomeroy Ferguson. His father was of Scotch-Irish descent, and his mother was descended from Mayflower Pilgrims. He studied for the ministry at Albert College

Pomona presidency Ferguson was selected as Pomona College's second president in 1897 by the college's board of trustees, who knew him as a representative of the Congregational Education Society who had successfully sought donors on the college's behalf.

During this time, he also evidently used his office to make illegal personal real estate investments that lost money, putting the college at financial risk. He was also unpopular with the student body, in part because of a request he made upon taking office for a censor of The Student Life, which had published an editorial questioning a fundraising claim he made. The board asked him to resign at the end of his third year. He died in Orlando on May 27, 1944.

Legacy Referred to as the "Missing President," Ferguson is the only past Pomona president not honored by a portrait, and the college's official timeline describes his presidency as arguably the least successful to date.