Walter Vrooman

Walter Watkins Vrooman (1869 – 2 December 1909) was an American socialist educationalist who co-founded Ruskin College in Oxford with Charles A. Beard in 1899. He then returned to America, where he set up a second Ruskin College in Trenton, Missouri. Walter was the son of Judge Hiram Perkins Vrooman and Sarah Buffington. Carl Schurz Vrooman was his younger brother. The family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where another brother, Hiram Greeley Vrooman, joined the Associate Reformed Church and became a preacher. He also founded the Union for Public Good in conjunction with B. O. Flower. Amne Grafflin was attracted to the Union for Public Good and accepted the position of secretary. She was the heiress to George W. Grafflin, who was a dry goods and fertilizer merchant. Shortly after her father died, Amne married Walter in February 1897.