Henry Prentiss Armsby

Henry Prentiss Armsby (September 21, 1853 – October 19, 1921) was an American agricultural chemist, animal nutritionist, and academic administrator. He served as Vice Principal and Acting Principal of the Storrs Agricultural School (1881–1883), associate director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station (1883–1887), and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station (1887–1907) and the Institute of Animal Nutrition (1907–1921) at the Pennsylvania State University.

Early life and education Armsby was born in Northbridge, Massachusetts, on September 21, 1853, the only child of cabinetmaker Lewis Armsby and Mary A. Prentiss. Armsby earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science in 1871 and taught chemistry there for a year. He studied for two years at Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School, graduating in 1874 with his Bachelor of Philosophy degree.

Following his studies at Yale, Armsby taught natural sciences at Fitchburg High School for one year. He spent the subsequent year conducting intensive research in the German city of Leipzig. Following his return to the United States, Armsby taught chemistry at Rutgers College in New Jersey from 1876 to 1877.

In 1877, Samuel William Johnson hired Armsby to work as a chemist at the newly formed Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station—the first in the nation—in New Haven. Armsby worked alongside Johnson's other assistant, Edward Hopkins Jenkins. He worked at the Station for four years, earned his PhD from Yale in 1879, and wrote the textbook Manual of Cattle Feeding (1880), a staple in the field of animal nutrition. Following Solomon Mead's retirement in 1882, Armsby was appointed acting principal. During a speech to the Connecticut Board of Agriculture that year, he championed the civic, scientific, and economic value of the school as a venue to produce successful farmers and community leaders. The school, he declared, was not an "asylum for incapables." His short tenure was "somewhat in the nature of marking time," according to one biographer.

Immediately following his departure from Storrs Agricultural School, Armsby served as Professor of Agricultural Chemistry and Associate Director and Chemist of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station from 1883 to 1887. According to the American Journal of Nutrition, "he and Penn State grew up together." The device was based on a design by Wilbur O. Atwater, originally intended for human nutritional research.

Awards Armsby received widespread recognition during his lifetime. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Wisconsin (1904), Yale University (1920), and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1921).

Built in 1905, the Armsby Building on Penn State's campus was named in his honor in 1956. His papers are held at Penn State. tennis, and horseback riding. He worked long hours even when his health suffered in consequence. He was a researcher first and foremost and felt administrative responsibilities to be irksome.

Armsby married Lucy Atwood Harding of Millbury, Massachusetts, on October 15, 1878. The couple had five sons: Charles Lewis, Ernest Harding, Sidney Prentiss, Henry Horton, and Edward McClellan, all of whom eventually graduated from Pennsylvania State University and several of whom became academics themselves.

Armsby died of a stroke at his home on October 19, 1921. He was interred at Pine Hall Cemetery near State College. He was survived by his wife and sons.