Louis A. Higley

Louis Allen Higley (1871-1955) was hired in 1924 to serve as chair of the Department of Chemistry. He was the first professor at Wheaton to have an earned doctorate. Prior to Wheaton, Higley had served as the State Mineralogist of New Mexico. Hired under Charles Blanchard, Higley eventually came at odds with J. Oliver Buswell. Higley held to a gap view of creation that articulated the creation days were solar days and not geological ages. He also believed that there was catastrophic flood prior to creation that harmonized Genesis with the geologic record. Genesis 1:2, Higley believed, was better translated "And the earth became waste and void."