Mercer University and its President S. Dowell

Spright Dowell 1928-1953 and Interim President 1959-1960

• 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."