W.G. Tight (1865-1910)
William George Tight was born and raised in Granville (living in the current Marsh house on the road to Alexandria), and he graduated from Denison in 1886. He spent profitable time at Harvard, working with Henry Southgate Shaler, but earned his Ph.D. (1901) from, where else, the University of Chicago. Tight made major contributions to our understanding of pre-glacial drainage in the Midwest. Tight Lake is named for him. During the 1890s, Tight taught at Denison, where he was a faculty colleague of C. L. Herrick. When Herrick's failing health caused the University of New Mexico to look for a new President, W. G. Tight was summoned. He had many successes as President, including the move to a Southwestern style of architecture, but health problems and on-campus political difficulties complicated his last years. He died at age 45 of blood poisoning.