RG 03. Presidents

Abstract Born in Stockbridge, MA, 29 November 1815, Edward Henry Fairchild grew up in Brownhelm, Ohio,where his parents, Grandison and Nancy Fairchild, had a farm. He and his brother James were half of the first entering class at Oberlin College; he graduated in 1838. At age 21, after lecturing against slavery in Ohio as one of the "Seventy" sent out by Theodore Weld, he was commissioned by the American Anti-slavery Society for a three-month tour of Pennsylvania. At 22 he began teaching a large...

Abstract Francis Stephenson Hutchins (b. 1902), a native of Northfield, Massachusetts, was educated at Oberlin College (A.B., 1923) and Yale University (M.A., 1933). Having worked in China as an undergraduate, Hutchins returned to China as an instructor in 1925 as part of the Yale-in-China Association's educational mission. Forced to leave China in 1939 during the Japanese invasion, Hutchins was appointed president of Berea College to succeed his father—William J. Hutchins.  Hutchins served as...

Abstract John Bell Stephenson (1937-1994) was born in Staunton, Virginia, to Louis Stephenson and Edna Moles Stephenson. Stephenson earned a B.A. in sociology in 1959 from the College of William and Mary and his M.A. in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1961. From 1961 until 1964 hetaught at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina, where he met and married his colleague Jane Ellen Baucom. During his time in Banner Elk, John Stephenson developed a passion to...

Abstract Larry Shinn (born January 16, 1942) served as president of Berea College from 1994 to 2012. Prior to this appointment he was Vice-President of Academic Affairs, Dean of Humanities and Head of the Religious Studies Department at Bucknell University.  Shinn also taught at Oberlin College for fourteen years prior to his work at Bucknell. He earned his B.A Degree from Baldwin-Wallace College, his Masters of Divinity from Drew Theological School, and his PhD in the History of Religions from...

Abstract

Dr. Lyle D. Roelofs is the ninth President of Berea College. He began his service as President of the College on July 1, 2012. The President’s Office is responsible for providing leadership, planning and oversight for all divisions and activities of the College through the Dean of the Faculty and five Vice Presidents (Academic, Alumni and College Relations, Operations and Sustainability, Finance, and Labor and Student Life).

Abstract Stewart, a native of Scotland, was educated there, in Canada, and in the United States. He was ordaineda Baptist minister in Toronto, Canada in 1859. During his career he served as president of three othereducational institutions and as a professor of classical languages. He was named president of BereaCollege in 1890 and his views reflected Fee's perspective in that Berea offered a Christian education.Stewart’s presidency occurred during a period in the College's history marked by adverse...

Abstract Frost, a native of LeRoy, New York, was an 1876 graduate of Oberlin College and taught Greek at him alma materfrom 1876 through 1892. Having refused the presidency of Berea College in 1889, Frost reconsidered theappointment after the resignation of William B. Stewart.  Frost was inaugurated in 1892 and served as presidentuntil 1920. Frost is credited with being chiefly responsible for the significant growth of Berea College during thisperiod. His term saw enrollment rise from 350 in 1912 to...

Abstract Hutchins, born in 1850 and native of Brooklyn, New York, attended Oberlin College, Yale University, and Oberlin Theological Seminary. In 1896 he graduated from Union Theological Seminary and was ordained a Presbyterian minister, receiving his first pastorate at Bedford Church in Brooklyn.  Later that same year,Hutchins married Anna Laura Murch of Cleveland (whom he had met at Oberlin). In 1907, Hutchins was appointed professor of homiletics in the Oberlin Graduate School of Theology. On...

Abstract Dr. Willis D. Weatherford, Jr. was the sixth president of Berea College, serving from 1967–1984.  Born in western North Carolina in 1916, Weatherford earned his B.A. at Vanderbilt in 1937 and his B.D. from Yale in 1940.  Weatherford went on to earn his M.A. (1943) and Ph.D. (1952) in Economics from Harvard and taught economics at Swarthmore from 1948 until 1964. Weatherford became a dean at Carleton College in 1965.  In addition to his scholarly work, Weatherford served in Europe and Africa...