Mercer University and its President R.K.Godsey

Raleigh Kirby Godsey 1979-2006

• 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"