Walter Watkins Vrooman (January 8, 1869 - December 2, 1909) was an American socialist, educationalist, newspaper reporter, philanthropist, and activist. Born in Macon, Missouri, Vrooman was one of six sons born to Judge Hiram Perkins Vrooman and Sarah Buffington. At age thirteen Vrooman ran away from home and traveled extensively throughout the western United States and entered Harvard University in 1888. He married Baltimore heiress Anne Grafflin in 1895. The couple traveled to England in 1898 where Vrooman studied at Oxford and founded Ruskin Hall (now Ruskin College) in Oxford in 1899 with socialist Charles Beard. Vrooman and Anne returned to the United States in 1900 and founded Ruskin College in Trenton, Missouri.