MACLAURIN, RICHARD COCKBURN (1870-1920) was born in Selkirk, Scotland, a member of a family distinguished in science and law, and a descendant of Professor Colin Maclaurin (1698-1746).

Coming to New Zealand by the Ada in 1874, he attended the Auckland Grammar School and Auckland University College with a junior university scholarship (1887), graduating B.A. (1890) and M.A. (1891) with first-class honours in mathematics. In 1891, elected to a foundation scholarship, he entered St John's College, Cambridge. He was bracketed with the senior wrangler in the first division of the first class, part ii of the mathematical tripos, and won Smith's prize for the same subject. Taking up the study of law, he entered Lincoln's Inn, was awarded the McMahon law studentship, and a prize for the best dissertation on a legal subject. In 1897 he was elected a fellow of St John's College, and won the Yorke Prize in 1898. After studying philosophy at Strasburg University, he was appointed professor of mathematics at Victoria University College, Wellington (1899); serving in this capacity till 1907, he became in that year professor of law and was dean of the faculty of law in the college, until he left New Zealand. He became a fellow of the University of New Zealand in 1901, and in 1904 Cambridge University conferred on him the degree of LL.D. Of extraordinary brilliance and versatility, of great wisdom, humanity, and practical shrewdness, Maclaurin's mind was one of the most remarkable ever to serve learning in this country. It was not such as New Zealand could hope indefinitely to retain. For a year (1908) he was professor of mathematical physics at Columbia University, New York, and in 1909 he became president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which before he died (on 5 Jun 1920) he built into a great and wealthy college. Its activities when he took charge were scattered in various buildings in Boston, and with endowments inadequate for proper laboratories and salaries, the authorities were contemplating effacement by merging with Harvard University. Maclaurin's dynamic force and magnetic personality resulted in 11 years in the housing of the Institute in a magnificent block of buildings on the Cambridge bank of the Charles river, with endowments placing it beyond the fear of absorption by the wealthier University. He was affectionately known as 'Maclaurin of Tech.' His wife was Alice, daughter of William Young, of Auckland. His publications include Title to Realty (1901), a treatise on the Theory of Light (1908), and various scientific memoirs.

Maclaurin was a brother of JAMES SCOTT MACLAURIN (1864-1939), D.Sc. Government analyst in New Zealand.

Who's Who N.Z., 1908; H. G. Pearson, Richard Cockburn Maclaurin (1937) (p); N.Z. Times, 25 Sep 1920; Evening Post, 7 Oct 1937.

Reference: Volume 2, page 19

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