People · missionary educator, president, St John's University
Francis Lister Hawks Pott
卜舫济Bǔ Fǎngjì · 1864–1947
American Episcopal missionary who led St John's College and University in Shanghai 1888-1941 and co-proposed the Council's Chinese public school.
Francis Lister Hawks Pott (卜舫济, Bǔ Fǎngjì) was the American missionary educator who led St John’s College, later St John’s University (圣约翰大学), in Shanghai for over fifty years.
He arrived in 1886 to teach English at the college, which the American Episcopal mission ran, and became its head in 1888. He raised funds for it in the United States in 1892, and when it was chartered as a university in 1905 he became its president, serving until 1941.
In 1899 he and John Calvin Ferguson (福开森) proposed that the Municipal Council set up a school exclusively for Chinese pupils. The ratepayers approved. The first one, built by the Council on land provided by Chinese donors, who also gave 37,000 taels, opened in 1904. He also served on the Council’s Education Committee and advised on its survey of Council schools.
He left China in 1941, came back in October 1946 and died in Shanghai in March 1947. He wrote several books, including a short history of Shanghai.
Timeline
- 1886Arrives in Shanghai to teach English at St John's College1
- 1888Becomes head of the college1
- 1899Co-proposes the Municipal Council's Chinese public school1
- 1904First Council-built Chinese public school opens1
- 1905College becomes St John's University1
- 1941Returns to the United States1
- 1947Dies in Shanghai in March1
Connections
John Calvin Ferguson福开森Co-proposed the Council's school for Chinese pupils, 1899