Introduction

Biography

Jay was the son of Will­iam Glov­er and Au­gus­ta M. Eld­ridge, and hus­band of Mary Wal­ker.

He spent his child­hood in Mis­sou­ri, Kan­sas, and Pen­field, New York.

He stu­died mo­dern lang­uag­es at Yale Uni­ver­si­ty, and taught Ger­man there. In 1896, he gra­du­at­ed Phi Be­ta Kap­pa from Yale. He then spent a year in Ger­ma­ny before ac­cept­ing a po­si­tion in 1901 as Pro­fess­or of Mo­dern Lang­uag­es at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Id­a­ho. Two years lat­er, he was ap­point­ed Dean of the Fa­cul­ty, the first Dean cre­at­ed there.

In World War I, Eld­ridge served in France with the Young Men’s Chris­tian As­so­cia­tion (YMCA).

He re­turned to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Id­a­ho af­ter the war, where he helped found a Phi Be­ta Kap­pa chap­ter in 1923. He lat­er served as chap­ter pre­si­dent.

He was al­so pre­si­dent of the Mos­cow Cho­ral So­ci­ety (1930–31), a lead­er in the re­gion­al Pres­by­te­ri­an Church or­gan­i­za­tion, and Grand Mas­ter of the Ma­son­ic Lodge in Id­a­ho. He served va­ri­ous roles in the Ma­sons un­til poor health cur­tailed his ac­ti­vi­ties in 1955.