Kellas, Eliza (1864–1943)

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Kellas, Eliza (1864–1943)

American educator who was a principal for 31 years of the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, as well as a founder of Russell Sage College and its first president. Born on October 4, 1864, in Mooers Forks, New York; died on April 10, 1943, in Troy, New York; first daughter and second of four children of Alexander Kellas (a farmer and lumberman) and Elizabeth Jane (Perry) Kellas; attended the one-room district school in Mooers, New York; attended Franklin Academy in Malone, New York; graduated from Potsdam (New York) Normal School, 1889; attended the University of Michigan (summer session), 1898; attended the Sorbonne, Paris, France; Radcliffe College, A.B., 1910; never married; no children.

Eliza Kellas was born in 1864 in Mooers Forks, New York, the first daughter and second of four children of Elizabeth Perry Kellas and Alexander Kellas, a prosperous farmer and lumberman of Scottish heritage. Eliza inherited her father's red hair, strong physique, and dominating personality. At 16, she graduated from the Franklin Academy in Malone, New York, and began teaching in the one-room district school in Mooers, New York, that she had attended as a child. Seven years later, she entered the Potsdam Normal School and, after graduating in 1889, stayed on as a member of the faculty. In 1891, she was appointed principal of the school of practice at the Plattsburg (New York) Normal School and in 1895, was promoted to precep-tress of the Normal School itself. While there, Kellas combined teaching with travel and study at the University of Michigan (summer session) and the Sorbonne, in Paris.

In 1901, Kellas resigned her position, and for the next five years served as a governess and companion in the household of a Mrs. Charles P. Cheney, a wealthy widow and the niece of the state commissioner of education. When Cheney married a Harvard professor, the family settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1905, at the age of 40, Kellas entered Radcliffe College as a sophomore. After graduating in 1910 and pursuing graduate study for a year, she was recommended by Agnes Irwin , the retired dean of Radcliffe, for the position of principal of the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York (formerly the Troy Female Seminary). Kellas took up her new duties in February 1911 at the school's new campus (a gift of Margaret Olivia Sage ). Although housed in new facilities, the school had slipped considerably in prestige after the departure of its founder Emma Hart Willard in 1838, and Kellas embarked on an effort to raise scholarship and student deportment. She upgraded the faculty and expanded the curriculum, enriching it with lectures, concerts, and student trips, often paid for out of her own pocket. She instituted a student government and broke with tradition by allowing boys from nearby schools to visit the campus for dances and other social events. Kellas also bolstered fund-raising efforts, and during her tenure the alumni raised money for several new buildings. Within a few years, the Emma Willard school was one of the leading preparatory schools in the country.

At Kellas' suggestion, Margaret Sage provided the money to transform the campus of the old Emma Willard School at Troy into the Russell Sage College of Practical Arts, a vocational school for girls which opened its doors in September 1916. While continuing to serve as principal of the Emma Willard School, Kellas also served as president of the new college, which was authorized to confer the degree of Bachelor of Arts in January 1918. In 1923, a School of Nursing was added, and in 1927, the college severed legal and financial ties with the Emma Willard School to become an independent institution. Kellas spent her later years at the Emma Willard School, seeing it through the lean years of the Depression and a later building expansion. She retired in 1942 and died less than a year later. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy.