Howard Ayers

Howard Ayers (May 21, 1861, in Olympia, Washington[1] – October 1933,[2] in Avondale, Ohio)[3] was an American biologist who served as president of the University of Cincinnati from 1899 to 1904.

[9] In November 1903, the university's board of trustees declared Ayers' position vacant, adding that he would remain in office until a replacement could be found.

[8] Later that month, William Howard Taft and Horace Lurton recommended that Ayers be chosen to replace Dabney as the president of the University of Tennessee, with Taft sending a letter to the board of trustees on behalf of "Dr. Ayers of Cincinnati".

The board's reply acknowledged that they had received Taft's recommendation of "Dr. Ayres", and they subsequently elected Brown Ayres;[11] however, University of Tennessee Knoxville Vice Chancellor Betsey Creekmoore has called the notion that the board meant to hire Ayers instead of Ayres a "myth", pointing out that Taft's recommendation of Ayers was in April, and the selection of Ayres was in August — and only came after the board first tried, and failed, to hire C. Alphonso Smith in June.

They had seven daughters, including performer Paula Lind Ayers, and one son, who falsified his age so that he could enlist in the US Army when he was 14, but died of pneumonia before he could be sent into combat in the First World War.