Past Presidents
2016 – 2024
On March 21, 2016, King’s board of trustees named Alexander W. Whitaker IV, J.D., as King’s 23rd president.
A retired Navy captain with a 25-year career in the Judge Advocate General Corps, President Whitaker and his wife Maria came to King from Berry College in Georgia, where for nearly a decade he served as chief of staff, board secretary, and led major gifts endeavors.
A member of the Georgia and Virginia state bars, he earned his juris doctor from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a Master of Laws in international and comparative law from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He has a Master of Arts in religion from Trinity Episcopal School for ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, and completed further study at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina.
Whitaker assumed his duties at King on August 1, 2016, and immediately outlined his vision for King’s next several years. Addressing faculty and staff at the school’s opening convocation, he identified his three most immediate priorities: strengthening academic programs, improving the main campus, and reemphasizing King’s Christian character.
Accordingly, Whitaker’s many accomplishments included successful reaffirmation of King’s accreditation, a complete revamping of the school’s nursing program, and a complete renovation of the nursing lab. Campus improvements under his watch included renovations and refurbishment of the dining hall, admissions center, and Memorial Chapel, continued restoration of King’s historic brick walkways, improvements to residence halls, and renewed attention to the grounds. A state-of-the-art track and field complex on King’s west campus was completed during summer 2024.
Under his guidance, the University also increased the percentage of professors with terminal degrees and fostered the development of new programs, including exercise science and graduate-level nursing and social work degrees.
In addition, Whitaker championed a robust free speech policy for the University, which was unanimously approved by the board and faculty, making King one of the few Christian colleges to embrace free expression as consistent with basic assumptions of the Christian faith.
His eight-year tenure saw many noteworthy gifts to the school, including the largest-ever individual alumni gift, as well as the largest unrestricted financial gift in the school’s history. The school also celebrated the gift of Steinway & Sons pianos from the Trayer Charitable Trust, which helped transform the college’s music department.
As president, he served on the boards of numerous higher education organizations, including those of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), Tennessee Independent College and University Association (TICUA), and Appalachian College Association (ACA). He served his final year as president of NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas in 2024.
At the completion of his tenure, the board of trustees named Whitaker President Emeritus. For her many contributions to the campus community, Maria was named an honorary alumna.
“What an extraordinary privilege it has been to lead such a school, working in challenging times alongside a dedicated group of faculty and staff, and with a supportive governing board that would be the envy of any college president,” Whitaker said. “Maria and I will always be full of gratitude for the warm embrace extended to us by the King and Bristol communities.”
2014 – 2016
Richard A. Ray, Ph.D. (1936-2024) was named interim president in February 2014. A resident of Montreat, North Carolina, he left retirement and returned to Bristol along with his wife, Lila, to shepherd King through a time of transition.
A joyful and lifelong scholar, Ray received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a master’s degree from Union Theological Seminary. He held a Rockefeller Brothers Theological Fellowship at Princeton Theological Seminary and received his doctorate in Theology from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Ray’s contributions to King are innumerable. A deeply respected member of the King community, he served as a guiding voice on the Board of Trustees for nearly four decades and as a King faculty member for 14 years. In 2016, in honor of his exceptional contributions to King, the University presented him with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree, and also recognized the Rays with a proclamation affirming the “immeasurable gratitude and deep love” of the community.
Under Ray’s guidance, King’s campus benefited from new paving along streets and parking lots, a library renovation that included a new computer center, and better handicap accessibility. Most notable and visible was his repair of King’s iconic brick walkways including the Oval, the centerpiece of campus.
In addition to his higher education work, Ray served the Presbyterian Church as a minister, leading churches in Arkansas, Virginia and Missouri, and locally at Bristol’s First Presbyterian Church. He was also the former managing director at John Knox Press for nearly a decade, and taught as the Robert Meneilly Professor of Leadership and Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He also served as general editor for Kerygma Bible Studies.
He was instrumental in the formation of Healing Hands Health Center in Bristol, Tennessee, and served on the board of Wellmont Health System (now Ballad Health). He served on the boards of the Buechner Institute for Faith & Culture at King, the Missionary Emergency Fund, and the Presbyterian Foundation. He was also director of the Children’s Trust Society at the Grandfather Home for Children, chairman of the Board of the Presbyterian Heritage Center at Montreat, and former president of The Presbyterian Outlook.
“I am very thankful to be part of this journey, King’s journey,” Ray said at the completion of his appointment. “Lila and I have been fortunate to meet new students and watch others graduate, seeing how King has enriched their lives. With all of the wonderful families, friends and the enthusiastic members of this community, we are confident in King’s splendid days that lie ahead.”
Gregory Doty Jordan, Ph.D. served as interim president of King from 1996-1998 and as president from 1998-2014.
Jordan joined King’s Bible and religion faculty in 1980 and served as chairman of both that department and the humanities division. He was named vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty in 1990 and served for more than a year as interim dean of admissions.
Jordan received a bachelor’s degree from Belhaven College and master’s degrees in Old Testament and divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He earned his doctorate in Hebraic and cognate studies from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He was an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a member of Holston Presbytery. Active in the community, he was a member of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Bristol Noon Rotary Club, and the United Way Board of Directors.
Jordan was named King’s 21st president on October 9, 1997, and inaugurated on February 20, 1998.
Charged with the mission of transforming King’s facilities, programs, and campus into “a comprehensive college designed to meet students’ needs for the next century and beyond,” Jordan helped launch a $50 million campaign. The campaign helped establish the School of Business and Economics, the School of Christian Mission, and the School of Education. It also enhanced the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Nursing and helped expand campus with construction of new roadways, athletic fields, tennis courts, walkways, and parking lots.
In addition, expanded academic programs included King’s Graduate and Professional Studies programs (GPS), which included the Bachelor of Science in Nursing for Registered Nurses, Bachelor of Business Administration, Post-baccalaureate Teacher Licensure, and King’s first graduate level program, the Master of Business Administration.
Under Jordan’s guidance, King became a Division II member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in June 2010. King joined NCAA Conference Carolinas in 2011, becoming the only member outside North and South Carolina.
In 2013, King expanded to seven schools including the College of Arts and Sciences and Schools of Business and Economics, Education, Nursing, Applied Science and Technology, Behavioral and Health Sciences, and the Peeke School of Christian Mission. The college offered more than 90 majors and minors, three master’s degrees, in business, education, and nursing, and a doctorate in Nursing. Accordingly, King achieved university status (as defined by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education) and accredited as a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) Level Five regional university.
Having served King for more than three decades, Jordan resigned in February 2014.
1992 – 1996
On May 26, 1992, Richard John Stanislaw was named president of King. He came to King from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, where he had been vice president for academic affairs. A 1962 graduate of Philadelphia College of Bible, Stanislaw held a Bachelor of Music Education in Voice, a Master of Music in Composition from Temple University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois. He had written articles and books on music, hymnology, and educational philosophy.
Stanislaw was highly instrumental in the growth of enrollment and increased academic standards. He also said that he fully intended to maintain King’s Christian emphasis. ”Not only am I a convinced Christian, but I think it’s what the nation needs,” he said.
During his tenure, the E.W. King Library received a Title III grant of more than $600,000 to help modernize the collection. Enrollment continued to climb, as did SAT scores.
Stanislaw resigned in December 1996.
1989 – 1992
Charles E. Cauthen, Ph.D. (1931-2024) became president of King in May 1989.
A South Carolina native, Cauthen received his bachelor’s degree in 1952 from Wofford College. He also earned a master’s degree at Columbia University and completed his doctorate at the University of North Carolina.
Prior to joining King, Cauthen served as president of Acme Markets in Bluefield, Virginia, for 17 years. Upon retiring from the supermarket franchise in 1982, he volunteered to serve as provost of King under Rev. Donald Rutherford Mitchell’s administration. Named president following Mitchell’s retirement in 1989, Cauthen was tasked with bringing financial stability to King, and was the first King president with a business background. Cauthen, who was unwilling to add to King’s debt, became an expert at gathering funds to pay for needs as they arose. He also freely gave of his own financial resources to help lessen King’s occasional shortfalls during that time.
Cauthen’s most notable contribution to King was the development of its first campus-wide computer network, KingNET. In 1991, he secured funding for the project, renovated portions of Sells Hall, built a computer lab in the lower level, and had fiber optic cable installed throughout the campus. Cauthen also spearheaded additional infrastructure improvements without incurring any debt, raising more than $2 million in designated gifts to support the project, and eliminating King’s long-term debt of nearly $1 million.
Cauthen retired in May 1992 after a decade of service to King in his various roles. He served on the boards of several financial institutions, and was a former elder, deacon, and trustee of Westminster Church in Bluefield, Virginia.
1979 – 1989
A native New Zealander and ordained minister holding degrees from Otago University, Rutgers University, and Princeton Theological Seminary, the Reverend Donald Mitchell served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Wheaton College before coming to King.
Mitchell worked to bring stability and reassurance during a challenging era for King that included shifting support from longtime advocates, including regional synods, as a result of the transfer of ownership. Thanks to his efforts (alongside many faculty and staff), covenant relationships with area presbyteries were refreshed and reaffirmed.
An enrollment surge during the 1981 – 1982 school year suddenly had dormitories and the dining hall bursting at the seams, and improvements were needed to handle the increase.
In April 1981, the board approved a campaign for $2.75 million to build a new student center and finish the lower floor of Liston Hall. “We never expected such rapid growth in enrollment, nor launching a capital fund campaign in just two years,” said Hugh O. Maclellan Jr., King’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the time. “We’re encouraged and excited by what the demands for these facilities mean for the future of King College.”
A new campus center, known as Maclellan Hall, was dedicated on February 26, 1983. Among its features were a 500-seat dining hall, student and faculty lounges, a game room, the college post office, the bookstore, a snack bar, a student publications office, and offices for student services.
In 1983-1984, King added more dormitory space, this time a 95-student, townhouse-type building that could house regular students, married students or faculty. A new balcony increased seating in Memorial Chapel and the music department’s practice and classroom space in the basement of the chapel was remodeled.
Overall, during Mitchell’s 10 years at King, enrollment nearly tripled. The endowment also tripled, and King’s board of trustees grew from an original five trustees in 1979 to more than 30 members, representing King alumni, four presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (USA), two presbyteries in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and several congregations in the Presbyterian Church in America. Mitchell said proudly, “There are few entities today where members of differing Presbyterian bodies work together so harmoniously in the cause of Christian higher education.”
1977 – 1979
On April 29, 1977, the trustees elected the Reverend Roy K. Patteson (1928-2012) as King’s 17th president. Patteson came to King from Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, where he had been vice president of development. He held degrees from the University of Richmond, Union Theological Seminary, and Duke University, and was an ordained Presbyterian minister.
Patteson took the helm during one of the most difficult times in King’s history. Despite concerted efforts in fundraising and recruitment, King had exhausted its financial resources and was facing an enormous shortfall for the 1978-1979 academic year. There seemed to be no way to keep the college open.
At this point, Patteson and chairman of the board Frank W. DeFriece Jr. began considering a merger with East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Patteson and the president of ETSU, Dr. Arthur H. DeRosier, had been working out arrangements for ETSU to hold evening classes on King’s campus, and they had a cordial relationship. With the trustees’ approval, Patteson began negotiations to effect a merger in which King would retain its name and essential identity and continue to exist as an honors college of liberal arts.
As news of the proposed merger spread, opposition grew from students, faculty, and other private colleges. When ETSU’s formal feasibility proposal was published in February 1979, the King community learned for the first time that only a minority of King’s faculty would be retained. This was completely unacceptable to the college, and Patteson announced King’s withdrawal from merger talks.
For a brief time, there was some discussion of a merger with Montreat-Anderson College or Wheaton College, but these talks were dropped in mid-March.
Patteson remarked that “This trying situation has brought great uncertainty and strain to everyone at the College. In spite of that, our students have remained with the College and have sought to make it one of our best academic years, and our faculty and staff have been loyal in their responsibilities and devotion. Everyone has endured with dignity and with a sense of steadfast purpose the difficulties of these recent months. I wish, more than anything, that I could report that my personal goals for King College were being realized. I had hoped for a ‘safe passage’ for the College through this time of trouble.”
Behind the scenes, Dr. R.T.L. Liston, who retired as president in 1968, was working to bring together a group of interested Presbyterians with enough money and influence to save his beloved school. These men were passionate about preserving and perpetuating King as a Christ-centered liberal arts college. From mid-March into early summer, these men and the board of trustees worked together to devise a plan that would save King.
Under the most important of their proposals, King would operate as a new corporate entity with a new charter and a new board of trustees. The charter of the new King College inc. would be modified to eliminate any representation of the Synod of the Mid-South. With court approval, the board of trustees would transfer all liabilities and all assets, including the endowment, to the new board and would then dissolve. Patteson would terminate his position as president at that time. The new corporation would guarantee funding of $300,000 a year for the next three years to keep the college open.
On June 25, formal hearings opened in Bristol Chancery Court, with Judge Hyder was openly in favor of letting the group of interested Presbyterians take control. He knew if he rejected the plan, King would certainly close. Realizing that Hyder would rule against them, and not wishing to continue a court fight, the synod agreed to the proposal, and severed ties.
On the afternoon of July 2, 1979, Judge Hyder said, “King College will open this fall, and, hopefully, will operate for another 112 years.” Frank W. DeFriece Jr., Chairman of the dissolving board, said, “We are overjoyed in the development of this avenue whereby King’s assets can continue serving the cause of Christian higher liberal arts education.”
Five days later, on July 7, Patteson wrote to the alumni to announce that King would remain open under new leadership and a new president, Reverend Donald R. Mitchell.
1970 – 1977
Powell A. Fraser (1918-2005) became president of King College in June 1969. He came to King from his work as director of development at his alma mater, Presbyterian College. Before that, he had served 23 years in the United States Army, retiring with the rank of colonel.
Fraser held degrees from George Washington University and the United States Army War College, and he had done additional work at Columbia University. For his service during World War II, in China, and at the Pentagon, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for heroism and the Legion of Merit. He was a Presbyterian elder, had served as moderator of the Presbytery of South Carolina, and was currently serving in the general Assembly as a member of the board of Christian education.
At Fraser’s first meeting with King’s board of trustees, he outlined his ideas to increase enrollment to 500 students, and to 1,000 in a decade. He thought King’s small size would make it easy to experiment with creative programs and the college calendar. He wanted to cooperate with other colleges to allow course credits to transfer and to offer continuing education and off-campus instruction.
In 1973, the Presbyterian Church reorganized its synods, and the Synod of Appalachia disappeared. King College was now located in the far northeast corner of the new Synod of the Mid-South, which was composed of the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama. Except for Holston and Knoxville Presbyteries, King was unknown to the new synod, whose membership had little or no commitment to King College.
In March 1973, trustees authorized plans for a new science building. Groundbreaking for the new hall, to be named after James C. White, former chairman of the board, was held in June 1974, and White Hall was dedicated in October 1976.
Fraser struggled heroically with King’s budgetary issues. He broadened curricular offerings and added new majors. The trustees, led by Frank W. DeFriece Jr., worked to increase revenues and control expenses. Yet enrollment remained stagnant and expenses continued to exceed revenue. By the fall of 1974 there was an operating shortfall of nearly $1 million, and the trustees declared financial exigency.
In February 1975, the executive committee of the board issued a $1.4 million bond, from which the college would immediately receive $900,000 to pay its debts. The bond issue required a mortgage on Liston Hall, and the first payments would come due in 1977. Fraser met with leaders of the Synod of the Mid-South in September 1976 to beg them to increase their budgeted giving. In March 1977, the synod approved a King College campaign for $3 million, as long as it took place in 1977. With no time to waste, the college began planning the Campaign for Christian Higher Education.
In June 1976, Fraser resigned, effective in May 1977.
1968 – 1970 (Interim)
Thomas McCallie Divine (1928-2019) was named acting president of King College in My 1968. A native of Chattanooga, Divine had been assistant vice president in charge of public relations at Tennessee Eastman Company until his retirement.
Divine was not just a placeholder. A friendly, open man, he enjoyed talking with students and was soon beloved by them. He challenged them to become an active voice on campus through a new joint administrative council composed of students and faculty. He established a job placement service for seniors, and he replaced the traditional chapel system with a weekly convocation hour. While he was president, Liston Hall was paid for, and the faculty wrote a handbook of resolutions concerning academic freedom, tenure retirement, and other policies.
Divine led discussions with the trustees about building a new president’s home and refurbishing the lower floor of Anderson Hall to house 24 additional women students.
1943 – 1968
If God ever prepared a man to be the president of King College, it was Robert Todd Lapsley Liston, Ph.D. (1898-1987). Liston was the son of a Presbyterian minister who earned four degrees from three elite Presbyterian schools: a Bachelor of Arts from Davidson, a Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He served as minister of several Southern Presbyterian churches, building the Richlands, Virginia, congregation from scratch between 1928 and 1937. He taught Hebrew at Union Seminary and philosophy and Bible at Southwestern in Memphis. For three years, he was president of Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia.
When he came to King College in March 1943, R.T.L. Liston had spent 25 years as a student, teacher, preacher, and an administrator in Presbyterian churches and colleges. He knew the people of Appalachia and their challenges. He knew their strength and their pride. He was determined to give them a college that would change their lives.
At his first meeting with the board of trustees on July 30, 1943, Liston laid out his “program of progress.” His plan for King was to build a solid academic base to support the further development of the college. He told the trustees it was a great mistake to emphasize the poverty of students because “less is expected of them both intellectually and socially than would be wise for their future happiness and success. This is probably a good way of raising money, but we think it is a very poor way of rearing young people.”
Instead, Liston insisted that King become “a place of the mind” that would challenge students both intellectually and socially, “laying on them the fiercest sort of demands academically, and seeking in every possible way to force upon them the belief that they may and should expect to occupy places of significant influence and power in the life of the world.”
The trustees were a mixture of businessmen and ordained clergy selected by the member presbyteries of the Synod of Appalachia. Liston’s vision appealed to their practicality and their idealism. They agreed not only to ask the synod to double its support, but also to launch a campaign to increase the endowment. Their ultimate aim was to meet the standards for accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
The synod agreed to the increase, and, in October 1943, King College paid off the remaining debt from the 1929 bond issue. Led by Dr. W.W. Arrowood of Pulaski, Virginia board members went back to their presbyteries to ask for additional support for King. Such was their enthusiasm that they succeeded in raising nearly double the original campaign amount for their little college.
At the same time, Liston began to update both the library and the faculty, He hired a librarian, Elizabeth England, to weed out thousands of old, irrelevant books. England ruthlessly cut the collection to 4,000 books, then began to build a new and appropriate collection around this nucleus. For the first time in its history, King College had a regular budget for library books and periodicals.
Because King could not pay salaries high enough to attract faculty with doctorates, Liston hired students with master’s degrees from leading graduate schools and helped them find funding to complete their doctoral degrees. Some of King’s most beloved faculty members took part in this plan. Among them were Drs. Roy Bailey, Marion Clark, Percy Guyton. Doug Hix, Herman O’Dell, Bill Rolland, Horace Stoessel, and Bill Wade. The success of Liston’s 1944 campaign enabled King to establish the J. Fred Johnson Chair of Chemistry. Liston hired an outstanding chemist, Dr. G.H. Cartledge, to head the chemistry department, In 1948, the college initiated a second campaign. The 1948 campaign raised $125,000 for endowment and another $100,000 to add a chemistry wing to Sells Science Hall.
On December 4, 1947, The Bristol Herald Courier reported: “After 52 years of trying, King College yesterday was admitted to the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools at the annual association meeting in Louisville, Ky. The college was the first named on the list yesterday.”
James C. White, the president of Tennessee Eastman Company in Kingsport, was a member of King’s board of trustees. He and Liston agreed that a strong science department at King could supply Eastman and similar companies with young talent. With Dr. Cartledge already leading the chemistry department, Liston hired Dr. B.A. Barrington to chair biology and Cloyd Goodrum to chair mathematics. In 1949, Liston hired Edward W. Burke Jr., who was just finishing his master’s degree in physics at the University of Wisconsin. King was now ready to offer an outstanding science program.
Liston was always on the lookout for bright high school students, and he paid many a visit to homes throughout the synod to persuade these young people to come to King. Over the years, King gained a reputation for being a “highly selective” college with rigorous academic standards; and leading seminaries and graduate and professional schools welcomed King’s graduates.
By 1954, Liston had not only achieved Southern Association accreditation, he had doubled the value of the college plant, doubled the number of library books, doubled the number of doctorate-holding faculty members, tripled the faculty salary scale, quadrupled the educational budget and increased the endowment fund six-fold. From every 100 graduates, King gave the world 31 ministers, 21 teachers, 16 businessmen, nine doctors, seven college professors, and 16 in various other occupations.
At last, Liston was ready to address the need for dormitory, library, and administration space. Liston was adamant that a good college was more than buildings. The outstanding academic program that was the heart of King required a large operating budget for faculty salaries and other expenses of running the college. “At present, fees from students and the annual giving from the churches of the synod and other sources barely take care of the minimum operating needs; half the time, deficits are incurred,” Liston told the board. “King must increase its annual operating income.”
With campaign funds in hand, and a new site plan that gathered buildings around a center oval, Liston went to work. In the fall of 1960, earthmovers began leveling the campus and unintentionally creating a obstacle course for students and faculty alike to navigate in the dark and the mud. Hand-painted signs marked Lake Liston and Bingham Memorial Bridge; and a freshman, Herman Rudd, was reportedly lost in the mud.
But when students returned to campus in the fall of 1961, there was a modern four-story dormitory for the women to move into and the library was nearly finished. A beautiful new campus had risen like a phoenix from the mud.
In 1963, F.B. Kline, a Coca-Cola distributor from Norton, Virginia, gave King College $500,000 to build a new gymnasium, and Kline Gymnasium opened in 1965. A separate campaign was launched in 1967 to build a much-needed 250-room dormitory for men, and Liston Hall was soon underway.
In July 1967, Liston submitted his plan to retire. When Liston assumed the presidency in 1943, the college property was valued at $343,000; the endowment was $40,000; the library had 4,400 volumes; and the college had graduated 663 students. When Liston retired after 25 years of service the Oval had been created, college property was valued at $2.8 million; the endowment was $1.3 million; the library had 48,000 volumes; and 1,580 graduates had gone forth to make their mark in the world.
1935 – 1942
In August 1935, Dr. Thomas Pinckney Johnston (1893-1967), pastor of First Presbyterian church in Kingsport, Tennessee, volunteered to come to King as president. He had been a board member when the trustees consolidated King’s debts. When the bonds began to mature in 1931, King had no money to redeem them and fell deeper into debt.
At his first meeting with the board as King’s president, Johnston proposed a five-year plan for the reduction of the debt throughout the synod and convinced them of the urgency of paying down the debt. By the beginning of 1939, the outstanding amount had been reduced to $75,000; two years later, the principle fell to $46,000; and at the end of 1941, the outstanding notes totaled only $34,000. The sale of Tenneva Field in July 1942 almost erased the remaining debt. Amazingly, Johnston had accomplished this task during the Depression. In September 1942, he returned to his pastorate in Kingsport, when he remained for another eight years.
1934 – 1935 (Interim)
The Reverend Robert Yost, a popular professor of Bible at King, became interim president in 1934. Yost began a new system of dormitory self-government, gave students more liberal personal privileges, and broadened the curriculum. King now had departments of Bible and Christian education, business administration, education, English language and literature, Greek, history, Latin, mathematics, modern foreign languages (including French, German, and Spanish), natural sciences (chemistry, biology, and physics), political science, psychology, and schools of music and art.
Students could apply for financial aid through scholarship funds and a student self-help program. The work offered included grounds keeping, duties in the dining room and kitchen, custodial work, laboratory assistantships, and library and office work.
1931 – 1934
When Tilden Scherer resigned, the trustees appointed Charles William Henry, formerly vice president of Sullins College, as the new president. Henry hired faculty members with more graduate training, including several with doctorates. He also agreed to finance the construction of the chapel as a memorial to his parents, with the understanding that his salary would be credited as a gift for that purpose.
1912 – 1931
Class of 1902
The Reverend Dr. Tilden Scherer (1876-1958) became acting president of King College in January of 1912, and in April, the board made him president.
Knowing that the campus was too small to support an increase in enrollment, Scherer focused on a capital campaign to expand. The newly formed Synod of Appalachia agreed to support King, and the Reverend Isaac Anderson (Class of 1875), grandson of founder James King, gave the college 40 acres on the east edge of Bristol for a new campus. Scherer immediately launched a campaign to move the college to its new quarters by fall 1917.
Again, the citizens of Bristol rallied to help construct the first building on King’s new campus, a combination of classroom and dormitory space that was named Bristol Hall in their honor. The Women’s Auxiliary Building opened in 1918 with a kitchen and dining hall designed to serve about 300 students. The upper floor held the matron’s apartment and several rooms set aside as an infirmary. Eight buildings were planned in all, but when the United States joined World War I, the consequent soaring inflation forced abandonment of the plan.
In July 1918 King College Bulletin announced the organization of the King College Reserves for the session beginning September 19, 1918. Membership in the reserves was compulsory for all regular King College students (who where, at the time, all male).
The postwar increase in enrollment required the college to resume its building program, and Anderson Hall and the president’s house were completed in 1921. Designed as a dormitory much like Bristol Hall, Anderson Hall was first used for classrooms and the two literary society halls. The gymnasium opened in 1922. The Maragret M. Sells Science Hall opened in 1927.
Post-war inflation increased construction costs beyond expectations and in 1929, the board of trustees decided to consolidate King’s debt into one large bond issue of $100,000, to be redeemed in installments beginning in 1931. Then came the stock market crash and the Great Depression.
Meanwhile, Stonewall Jackson, the synod’s junior college for women, had been struggling to stay open. Even before the Depression, there had been talk of consolidating the two schools. In 1931, Stonewall Jackson closed its doors, and King College became coeducational.
Scherer resigned in 1931 after nearly 20 years of service.
1908 – 1911
Burt Reid Smith (1881-1911) was a dedicated Christian layman who set about reorganizing King College. He published an extensive catalogue for the session beginning September 1908, hired four teachers besides himself and enrolled a record 77 students. At the time, King offered four degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Literature, and Master of Arts. Departments included Latin, Greek, mathematics, metaphysics, physical science, English, French, and German, with electives in each.
Smith and the board of curators planned a capital campaign, and Smith was able to pay for the construction of Caldwell-Tadlock Hall, a new dormitory that opened in 1909.
Following an illness, Smith died on December 30, 1911 at the age of 30.
1904-1907 Franklin P. Ramsey, Ph.D.
1903-1904 Reverend George D. Booth
1902-1903 George J. Ramsey, Ph.D.
1899-1902 Reverend Albert C. Buckner
In the eight years between 1899 and 1907 King had four separate presidents. This was because of an arrangement adopted by the board of curators that gave the president the use of the college buildings and equipment, income from the endowment, tuition revenues, and a tentative promise of additional gift support from the presbytery. In exchange, the president was responsible for operating the school, hiring the faculty, and paying all expenses.
Should the college operate within its income, any surplus would serve as the president’s salary. Should the college operate at a deficit, the loss was his personally and would come from his pocket.
Tuition and fees failed to cover expenses, creating personal financial straits for the school as well as its presidents. With little endowment and negligible support from the presbytery, the college fell into such a desperate financial situation that in 1907 the board of curators decided it was impossible to continue, and King College briefly closed its doors.
1888 – 1889
Henry W. Naff, Ph.D., a distinguished Southern educator who taught language classes at King for many years, served as acting president of King during Wallace’s yearlong leave of absence.
1885 – 1888
Jesse Albert Wallace, Class of 1871 (abt. 1846-1912), was King’s second president.
In 1879 James Doak Tadlock invited Wallace to come to King to teach metaphysics and to act as assistant to the president. In addition to his duties at the college, Wallace continued as pastor of Cold Spring Church and also supplied other local pulpits from time to time. When Tadlock left King in 1885, the board of curators appointed Wallace as president of the college.
In Wallace’s first term, King had four teachers and 55 students. Wallace was professor of metaphysics.
From the first, Wallace was plagued by the same financial difficulties that had hounded Tadlock, and he took a year’s leave of absence in 1888.
He returned to the presidency in 1889. Poor though the college was, it still offered its students an outstanding education and Wallace noted that the faculty manages to “sustain a good curriculum by doing double work.”
Wallace continued to struggle with financial problems until 1899, when he resigned the presidency. He remained on the faculty, teaching Bible and philosophy courses until his death in 1912.
1867 – 1885
In the winter of 1866, James Doak Tadlock (1825-1899) asked Holston Presbyterian to establish a college for young men. With his own boys’ school in Jonesboro up and running, Tadlock did not go empty-handed to the presbytery. He was accompanied by two other Presbyterian ministers, James King and George A. Caldwell.
On April 9, 1866, the presbytery agreed to their proposal, noting that the primary purpose of the school was to prepare young men for ministry. In February 1867, the presbytery offered James Tadlock $1,200 a year for two years to take charge of the school as principal.
On January 11, 1869, the state of Tennessee granted King College, named in honor of James King, a charter under the general sponsorship of the Synod of Nashville. The first class of seven men graduated in 1871, each of them awarded the Bachelor of Arts degree.
By 1874, King’s enrollment had grown to 74 students and five instructors. Courses were divided into two departments, preparatory and collegiate. Preparatory courses included orthography (spelling), reading, English grammar, practical arithmetic, algebra, history, and Latin and Greek grammar. The collegiate curriculum was uniform for all students. Among the required courses were geometry, trigonometry, conic sections, calculus, surveying, astronomy, geology, chemistry, and natural history. In addition to composition and rhetoric, every student read the works of such classical Greek and Roman writers s Virgil, Livy, Horace, Homer, Cicero, Plato, and Euripides. Students also studied ‘moral science’ or Christian morality.
In 1885, after 18 years of service to King, Tadlock accepted a professorship at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. His King students praised him highly for his character and his passion.
When Tadlock left King in 1885, he had graduated a total of 67 students.