Gulian C. Verplanck

Career Verplanck was admitted to the bar in 1807, In 1808, he was the first secretary for the newly formed Washington Benevolent Society, a Federalist-affiliated club that engaged in political activity and electioneering. An 1809 speech in front of the club members, which was then meeting at the old North Dutch Church, was considered "his entrance into public life." In 1811, he was fined $200 (~$ in ) for inciting a riot at a Columbia College commencement at Trinity Church when the presiding officer declined to confer a degree upon a student who had made political statements with which the faculty disagreed. Verplanck was the candidate of the emerging Whig Party but was narrowly defeated (sources range from 181 to 213 votes) by Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence. Afterwards Verplanck kept his own counsel in politics and supported William Henry Harrison (Whig), James K. Polk (Dem.), Zachary Taylor (Whig) and James Buchanan (Dem.) for president, remaining a Democrat thereafter. He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867–68.

Through his writing, he was considered part of the so-called "Knickerbocker group", who married Anna Biddle Newlin (1816–1883), daughter of Robert Newlin (1770–1840) and niece of Maj. Gen. Jacob Brown, on November 17, 1837. Gulian Verplanck (1815–1845), who died unmarried

Verplanck is the ancestor of William Samuel Verplanck, Jr. (1916–2002), a psychologist who conducted a series of significant experiments in the fields of ethology, experimental psychology, and especially in the field of radical behaviorism.

Memberships and organizations Verplanck spent the greater part of his life in New York City and in 1820, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society. He served as a professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1821 to 1824. He was one of the governors of the New York Hospital from 1823 to 1865. In 1826, he was elected a regent of the University of the State of New York, and in 1858 became its Vice Chancellor, remaining in office until his death. Verplanck was one of the founding members of the Century Club and was its president at the time of his death.