Welcome

I'm pleased to welcome you to my blog on Mercer University, started in 1833 in a log cabin at Penfield and now a full-fledged university on campuses in Macon, Atlanta, and Savannah.. During its first 37 years Mercer was essentially owned and operated by Georgia Baptist Association.

William T. Johnson

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Mercer University and its President W.D. Underwood


William D. Underwood 2006-present

William D. Underwood
  • Educator, lawyer, author; Juris.D.; Married to Lesli
  • An accomplished educator and scholar, Underwood was designated a Master Teacher at Baylor in recognition of extraordinary classroom teaching and was named an Outstanding University Professor in 2005
  • Served at Baylor University as Interim President and held the Leon Jaworski Chair at the Baylor School of Law. He took a leave of absence from his faculty duties from 1997-98 to serve as Baylor's General Counsel.
  • Published extensively on a range of topics and has presented a number of papers on how faith relates to higher education
  • Elected a member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Foundation
  • Summa cum laude graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, which awarded him the Juris Doctor degree. He graduated as class salutatorian and was an editor of the University of Illinois Law Review. Clerked for the Honorable Sam D. Johnson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

Mercer University and its President R.K.Godsey


Raleigh Kirby Godsey 1979-2006

Raleigh Kirby Godsey
  • Educator, theologian, author (1936- ); B.A., B.D., M.A., Th.D., Ph.D., L.H.D. degrees; married to Joan Stockstill (1959)
  • Committed the university to academic integrity and Christian purpose and stated, "Unless a person dreams, he becomes a victim of the way things are....Unless our activity is punctuated with the vision of where we are going, we will begin very quickly to go nowhere."
  • Established schools of business, medicine, engineering, education, continuing education and professional studies, theology, and nursing, as well as a university press and an engineering research center; increased the endowment from $16.5 million in 1979 to $225 million in 2001; raised student enrollment from 3,800 to more than 7,300 during the same time period
  • Constructed a 230,000 square foot university center, a library, a music building, a religious life center, a dormitory, a learning center, the Greek Village, and apartments for students on the Macon campus
  • Constructed student apartments, academic buildings for business/education/nursing/theology, a gymnasium, and a pharmacy teaching and research center in Atlanta, as well as academic centers in Douglas and Henry counties
  • Restored the Administration building, the W. G. Lee Alumni House, Newton Chapel, the Woodruff House, the president's home, the law school, Groover Hall, Knight Hall, Penfield Hall, and the Tift Alumnae House
  • Created the University Commons, focusing on helping students recognize their life's calling in light of their faith, education, and abilities and strengthening the university's connections to its Baptist heritage by identifying and supporting a new generation of servant leaders
  • Led in outreach to the Mercer community and development of downtown Macon, aimed at neighborhood revitalization and university research on issues bearing on social, economic, and educational improvements in the community
  • Assumed responsibility for the Grand Opera House, broadening the community's access to the arts and reflecting the diverse interests of Middle Georgians by presenting a multitude of quality arts and cultural experiences
  • Believing that "plain talk about our faith is hard to come by," published When We Talk about God, Let's Be Honest, a controversial, thought-provoking book that Will Campbell said "tells us things our preachers should have told us when we were growing up but often didn't"

Mercer University and its President R. C.Harris


Rufus Carrollton Harris 1960-1979

Rufus Carrollton Harris
  • Educator (1897-1982); A.B., LL.B., Juris.D., LL.D., Litt.D., D.C.L., L.H.D. degrees; married to Mary Louise Walker (1918)
  • Served as dean of the university's law school from 1923-1927, prior to returning as president for nineteen years
  • Led Mercer to become one of the few private colleges in the South to admit qualified students without regard to race, before being required to do so by the 1964 Civil Rights Act
  • Gave firm positive leadership to the university on the decision of accepting federal grants
  • Constructed the Stetson Library and the Willet Science Center
  • Merged Atlanta Baptist College into the university in 1972
  • Laid the groundwork for the Mercer School of Medicine
  • Moved the School of Law in 1978 from the main campus to its new home, the former Insurance Company of North America building on Coleman Hill in downtown Macon
  • Provided leadership in national and international organizations and foundations, and published writings on numerous legal and educational topics in many professional journals

Letter from RCH to an alumnus who opposed the integration of the university, November 6, 1962:

"I think any institution that receives tax exemptions, a public charter to operate and other public support is public enough to bring it within the Constitutional prohibition against racial educational discrimination. Besides, as a Christian, there is a matter of conscience involved, I think, in the seemingly un-Christian act of drawing a color line in education."

Medals presented to RCH:

Medal of Excellence, Mercer University
Order of the British Empire, Queen Elizabeth the Second of the United Kingdom, August 18, 1969
French Legion of Honor, Republic of France, October 10, 1953

Mercer University and its President G. B. Connell


George Boyce Connell 1953-1959

George Boyce Connell
  • Educator (1905-1959); A.B., A.M., LL.D. degrees; married to Doris Collier (1929)
  • Served as vice-president under Spright Dowell from 1946-1953
  • Inaugurated as president in a joint ceremony with B. Joseph Martin of Wesleyan College
  • Provided leadership as the university was invited into membership on the Southern University Conference, one of the finest distinctions that could come to the university, and acquired membership in the American Association of University Women; elected the first president of the Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges
  • Built a student center, the humanities building, an annex to Porter dormitory, a physics/math building, and six faculty homes
  • Renovated the Christianity building, turning it into an economics building; added onto Shorter Hall, a men's dormitory; and converted the old co-op in Penfield Hall into a girls' gymnasium
  • Added one and a half million dollars to the endowment fund
  • Feared that Mercer "would be consigned to mediocrity" unless Baptists met the challenge and decided "to attempt the job of quality education"
  • Heard to say: "I don't know exactly what it is in Mercer that makes everyone who comes here love it, but I know it is so. They love this institution, and they can be called upon to promote the institution's welfare."

Joint Inauguration Program, 1954:

"The Inauguration of B. Joseph Martin as Eighteenth President of Wesleyan College and George Boyce Connell as Sixteenth President of Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, January 21, 22, 23, 1954"

Mercer University and its President S. Dowell


Spright Dowell 1928-1953 and Interim President 1959-1960

Spright Dowell
  • Educator (1878-1963); A.B., A.M., LL.D. degrees; married to Camille Early (1898)
  • Assumed the presidency just prior to the Great Depression when the university's survival was in considerable doubt, and served in this capacity for twenty-five years
  • Established sound fiscal practices, borne from his own personal frugality, doubling the university plant and replacing the deficit with a fund balance of more than $200,000
  • Modified the university structure from seven schools to a liberal arts college and a law school, an organization more compatible with the university's resources, and led in the accreditation of Mercer by the National Association of Colleges and Universities; during his interim, added the Southern School of Pharmacy located in Atlanta
  • Emphasized educational excellence pursued from a Christian perspective, and developed supportive relationships between the university and the Baptist constituency
  • Guided the university through a heresy trial in 1939, with charges brought by thirteen ministerial students, supported by some local Baptist pastors, against five faculty members who were accused of teachings inconsistent with the Bible and Baptist beliefs (the professors were exonerated)
  • Before financial aid for students was established, maintained a personal loan fund that enabled countless students to remain in college
  • Frequently referred to the university as the "Mercer family"
  • Dropped intercollegiate football in 1946, requiring a strict non-subsidized inter-collegiate athletic program
  • Described in this manner: "Though small of stature, Dowell tackled difficult problems with such resoluteness and fearlessness that he loomed large as a leader of indomitable will and strength. Strength and firmness, however, were balanced by human warmth."
  • Wrote the only published history of the university, covering the period from 1833-1953
  • Built Mary Erin Porter Hall, the first dormitory for female students, containing reception parlors, sorority chapter rooms, an infirmary, a dining room and kitchen, and bedrooms with cedar closets

Letter from H. A. Barge to Spright Dowell regarding publicity for football games, c1935:

"Here is my plan to get a 3 to 5 piece mandolin orchestra or group in 1 car & a group of Mercer students in another car. Let this crowd go out of Macon southward. In another group — a car of saxophone & whatever to go with that in another direction. Map your towns out, playing at each one 15 or 20 mins. Have a compact speech & tell the people of S. Ga. That Mercer is S. Ga's. college & and rest of the south has supported its teams better than this area. — Furthermore this will be the 1st. football game to be played under lights. (3rdly) that when this area shows that it can be counted on to support a college team regularly, better teams will be brought in....Don't let the 2 smashing defeats ruin your season."

Mercer University and its Acting President A.P.Montague


Andrew Philip Montague, Acting President 1927-1928

Andrew Philip Montague
  • Latin scholar, educator (1854-1928); A.M., Ph.D., LL.D. degrees; married to May Christian (1881) and Florence Wood (1907)
  • Became vice-president of Mercer in 1924, an office especially created for him, after teaching for several years
  • Known to possess "indomitable energy and enthusiasm and strong personal magnetism and his distinctive qualities of courtesy, patience, gentleness and loyalty, his cultivated mind, chivalrous nature, and high ideals left their mark upon all who came under his influence."
  • Joined in service to the university by his wife, "Mother Montague," who retired in 1956

Public speaking notes:

"If then, I fortify myself thoroughly with information and learn my subject so that it is my very own, and believe in it whole-heartedly, the chances are 9 to 1 that I shall feel but slight nervousness and it is almost certain that such nervousness will disappear within five minutes from the beginning of my speech."

Description of "Mother Montague" from student O. Norman Shands:

"There were no strict rules for residents of Sherwood Hall. The widow of the late Dr. Montague, a member of the faculty, had an apartment in the dormitory and was affectionately known as "Mother Montague." She didn't attempt to exercise any control, but her presence and the respect students had for her exercised a gentle restraint against excesses of behavior."

Mercer University and its President R. W. Weaver


Rufus Washington Weaver 1918-1927

Rufus Washington Weaver
  • Educator, clergyman, author (1870-1947); A.B., M.A., Th.M., Th.D., D.D., LL.D. degrees; married to Charlotte Lewis Mason Payne (1911)
  • Elected president in 1918 and chancellor of Mercer University system of colleges and secondary schools from 1920-1925
  • Doubled the assets of the university and increased the annual income and student attendance
  • Added four professional schools—theology, commerce, education, and journalism
  • Built a dining hall with seating for 600 students, a home for the president, an apartment house for faculty, housing for forty married ministerial students with their families, and a new dormitory for sixty-five students, Gambrell Hall
  • Known for his interests in reading and Backgammon, and for being a Democrat
  • Proposed "The Mercer University Ideal" to be published in the annual catalogue: "Large Enough to Meet Every Standard, Small Enough to Meet Every Student"

First women graduates:

Mrs. W. E. Jackson, first woman to receive a degree (and a law degree) from Mercer University and president of the 1919 Senior Law Class.
In 1922 Mrs. L. G. Whitehorn was the first woman to receive the M. A. degree from Mercer University.
Caroline Patterson was the first woman to receive the A.B. degree from the university in 1923.