Benjamin Blake Minor

Benjamin Blake Minor (October 21, 1818 – August 1, 1905) was an American writer, educator, legal scholar, and fourth President of the University of Missouri, from 1860 to 1862.

He became principal of the Virginia Female Institute, Staunton, from 1847 to 1848, and founded the Home School for Young Ladies, Richmond, 1848.

He originated the historical department of the Society of Alumni of the University of Virginia, in 1845; the same year, he was vice-president of the commercial convention at Memphis.

He resumed the practice of law in Richmond in 1848 and the same year was the mover and author of the memorial to the Virginia legislature that led to the erection of the Washington Monument on Capitol Square; was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Nineteenth Virginia militia; was a warden, register and diocesan delegate of St. James' Church, and one of the founders of the Richmond Male Orphan Asylum.

He became principal of a female seminary in St. Louis, 1865–69; life insurance state agent and superintendent, also public lecturer, 1869–89, and in the latter named year rejoined his family in Richmond, Virginia, and engaged in literary work; he edited a complete edition of "Reports of Chancellor George Wythe, with a Memoir of the Author;" a new edition of Hening & Munford's Virginia Reports, and contributed to law journals in New York City; he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the State University of Missouri in 1894, and in 1896 was made secretary of the Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.