Mercer University and its President G. B. Connell

George Boyce Connell 1953-1959

• 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"