He was the son of Elisha Ruggles and Mary Clap who also parented six other children: Nathaniel, Micah, Henry, Charles, James, and Lucy.
On February 9, 1821 Congress chartered Columbian College, a nonsectarian school but with Baptist sponsorship that would not become the George Washington University until January 23, 1904.
[1][2] Ruggles was a man of many admirable characteristics including loyalty, conscientiousness, and morality, which are shown not only through the words of those who describe him but through his actions as well.
Ruggles was described by President Welling, the second president of the George Washington University: When the Board was tardy in paying salaries or when it embarked on some policy he opposed, his resignation was always forthcoming .... A member of no religious denomination, but dealing almost exclusively with Baptists, he observed on the basis of attitudes, that he was perhaps the better Christian .... [he was] a man of great conscientiousness, high intelligence and blameless character.
His excellent portrait in the University collection suggests a very wise man who perhaps was not always loved but who was respected.The Board of Trustees, in adopting resolutions in appreciation of his services, declared Ruggles in similar words to Welling, saying, "We hereby testify and record our exulted sense of the virtues which adorned his private character, the unselfish zeal he brought to the performance of all his duties and the inestimable value of the manifold and multiform services which he rendered to the College during the long period of his connection with its history."
On November 24, 1837, Ruggles wrote a letter to Joel R. Poinsett about the character of a young man named John D. Kuntz, who was expecting to make appointment as a cadet at West Point Military Academy.
In a letter preserved to a different Reverend, Ruggles states that, "Oh, whatever else is taken from me, may I have a share in the great inheritance purchased by Jesus Christ for those who love him and are regenerated by the Holy Spirit!
"Although William Ruggles died 1877, a reprint of his obituary appeared in the Faculty Newsletter volume 2, number 1, Spring 1965 as part of a series of called GW Footnotes.