John Washington Gilmore (May 9, 1872 – Jun 25, 1942 )[1] was an American agronomist, educator and academic administrator who served as the first president of the University of Hawaii from 1908 to 1913.

[2] He was born May 9, 1872, in White County, Arkansas, to Thomas Griffin and Emily Landrum Gilmore.

He received his elementary and secondary education in Fort Worth, Texas.

Upon his graduation from Cornell, he was the assistant director of the Provincial Agricultural College at Wuchang, China from 1898 to 1900, an instructor in charge of agriculture and nature study in the Honolulu Normal and Training School in 1901.

He served as a fiber expert for the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture in 1902.