In its 129 year history, Agnes Scott College has fostered an environment that empowers students to hold high standards academically and, more recently, standards that create a more inclusive environment for everyone. In light of the upcoming parting of our current president, Elizabeth Kiss, I thought it would be interesting to find more information about the college’s past presidents and the influence they left on our campus.
Frank H. Gaines (1896-1923)
(Image via WABE)
Born in Tellico Plains, Tennessee, Frank H. Gaines moved to Georgia in 1888 and became a minister at Decatur Presbyterian Church. With assistance from the church, he founded the Decatur Female Seminary a year later. There were originally four teachers and 63 students at the grammar school. The enrollment doubled the next year. In honor of the generous donations from one of its trustee members, Col. George Washington Scott, the institution was renamed as Agnes Scott Institute in honor of Scott’s late mother. When Gaines became the president of the Institution in 1896, his goal was to change the focus of the school into a college preparatory institution. This was the start of Agnes Scott’s essential goal “to create a special learning environment for young women that fosters liberal arts and high scholarship standards.” Gaines even published a book about the college, The Story of Agnes Scott College. Although you cannot check it out, it is available to use in the library.
James Ross McCain (1923 – 1951)
(Image via The Darlington School)
Dr. James Ross McCain originally served as a headmaster for ten years at the Darlington School, a private, coeducational, college-preparatory school in Rome, Georgia. When he first came to the Darlington School, he was the only teacher. There was no cafeteria, no recreation center, no time to stop for lunch–there wasn’t even a blackboard to write on! He taught eight classes a day from eight o’clock in the morning to four o’clock in the evening. He was only 24r-years-old at the time. He left Darlington in 1915 and moved to Decatur to serve Agnes Scott. He lived on the first floor of the dormitories. He was still very active with Darlington, serving on the board of trustees for the school for the next 42 years. However, he was also still a beloved figure on the Agnes Scott campus, enough to have the college’s library named after him.
Wallace McPherson Alston (1951-1973)
(Image via: Amazon)
Wallace M. McPherson was a graduate of Emory University’s Columbia Theological Seminary where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He spent most of his career in the church from 1963 to 1996. He gained ordained ministry to the Presbyterian Church in 1961. His grandson is the creator of the 1997 Sundance Freedom of Expression Award-winning film, Family Names.
Marvin Banks Perry, Jr. (1973-1982)
(Image via Goucher College Digital Library)
A member of the fraternities of Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa, Marvin Banks Perry served as Agnes Scott’s fourth president for nine years, the shortest term of any president so far. He served in the military during World War II, where he left his position of Commander in 1969. Before becoming the president of Agnes Scott, he served as the president of Goucher College in Maryland, Virginia. His daughter, Elizabeth Gray Perry, was married on the campus in 1979 (maybe she is the one who started the trend of weddings here on campus)! Perry taught English at Washington and Lee for many years before he became the president of Goucher and then Agnes Scott College.
Ruth A. Schmidt (1982-1994)
(Image via Christian Feminism Today)
The trailblazer: Agnes Scott’s first female President, Ruth A. Schmidt of Atlanta, was described as “in that generation of ‘first’ women–the first this or that–and she brought a new perspective to the college,” said Dr. Sarah Blanshei, one of the college’s former deans, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in English from Augsburg College, then she received an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Missouri, and later received a PhD in the same subject from the University of Illinois. She served as provost and professor of Spanish at Wheaton College in Massachusetts from 1978 to 1982. After her years at Agnes Scott, she traveled the world for aid affects in developing countries. She was a member of the Georgia chapter of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND), where the work is centered around the reduction of militarism and violence. Advocacy for campus diversity and international study was what she was best known for on the campus. She created Agnes Scott’s Global Awareness Program, which initially sent students to countries such as India and Japan. In May of 2010, she passed away at Piedmont Hospital due to natural causes at the age of 79.
Mary Brown Bullock (1995-2006)
(Image via Agnes Scott College)
As the only president to have attended Agnes Scott, Mary Brown Bullock made significant impacts while serving as president of the college. One of those impacts was to increase the student enrollment size to 1,000 students. By the end of her term, she had reached her goal–1,032 students from a start of 608 in 1995. Bullock implemented a $125 million building program that improved buildings such as Evans Dining Hall, McCain Library, the Bradley Observatory, and the creation of a new science center, which was later named in her honor as the Mary Brown Bullock Science Center. She is an expert in Chinese History, having earned a degree in the subject from Stanford University. She is also a member of the board of trustees for the Asia Foundation and the Council on Foreign Relations, chair of the China Medical Board of New York and a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Recently, she retired in 2015 from Duke Kunshan University where she served as the founding executive vice chancellor.
Elizabeth Kiss (2006 – present)
(Image via Twitter)
And last, but certainly not least, the eighth president of Agnes Scott College: Elizabeth Kiss. Kiss has done tremendous work for the college during her term. A graduate of Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, and a Rhodes Scholar of Oxford University, President Kiss has been named one of the eight most influential people in U.S. higher education by the Chronicle of Higher Education (2017). Some of her most notable accomplishments include the development and launch of SUMMIT, a program focused on global awareness and leadership which gives every first-year student the opportunity to travel abroad; the completion of The Greatness Before Us Campaign, the largest comprehensive college fundraising campaign in history which exceeded its $100 million dollar goal to $115.9 million; and the establishment of the Gay Johnson McDougall Center for Diversity and Inclusion in honor of the first African American student that integrated Agnes Scott in 1965. On January 17, 2018, President Kiss announced that she would be continuing her journey post-Agnes as the first female Warden and CEO of Rhodes House at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
At the end of June, the Agnes Scott community will be welcoming a new president to the campus, Leocadia “Lee” I. Zak. The campus has already coined her the name “P-Zak” the day of her introduction on January 9th. We hope to see great things to come from our new leadership!