George William Bond (April 6, 1891 – May 14, 1974) was president of two public universities in Louisiana, Louisiana Tech in Ruston and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, in the first half of the 20th century.[citation needed]
Background, education, and early life
Bond was born in Summers in Washington County in Northwest Arkansas[1] to William Elijah Bond (1864-1953) and his wife, the former Martha Irene Simpson (1866-1940). He graduated from Cincinnati High School in Cincinnati in Washington County near Fayetteville, Arkansas.[citation needed]
Bond served in the United States Army during World War I.[citation needed] He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and University of Chicago, from which he obtained a master's degree in 1923.[citation needed] Bond married the former Mary Elizabeth Bost (1898-1997), also a native of Summers. She was a Latin teacher.[citation needed]
Academic career
Bond first taught in the towns of Springdale and Cane Hill, which are also in Washington County. He moved to Bauxite, where he was superintendent of the public schools in Saline County in central Arkansas.[2] He next served as a principal in Texarkana.[citation needed][3]
In 1924, he relocated to Ruston, Louisiana to become an education professor at Louisiana Tech.[2] He was selected as the university's eighth president, serving from 1928 to 1936. While president, he continued to work on his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He resigned from Louisiana Tech before completing his terminal degree.[2]
Two weeks before leaving Louisiana Tech, Bond broke ground for the new $421,000 administration building known first as Leche Hall, after Governor Richard Leche, and then renamed for John Ephraim Keeny, the sixth president of Louisiana Tech.[4]
The Minden Herald in Minden, Louisiana, reported in 1936 that Bond left Ruston to enroll in the doctoral program at Columbia University in New York City.[5]
From 1944 to 1945, Bond was the acting fourth president[6] at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.[7]
Later years
In later life, Bond and his wife Mary Elizabeth lived in Searcy and Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they engaged in gardening, travel, and entertaining.[citation needed] They were members of the Presbyterian Church.[citation needed] He also was a member of the Masonic lodge. Mary Elizabeth was widowed and survived her husband by 23 years, continuing to live in Fayetteville. Both are interred there at Fairview Memorial Gardens.[citation needed]
References
- ^ The Ruston, Louisiana, Daily Leader reports that Bond was born in Summers, Arkansas
- ^ a b c Ruston Daily Leader, June 17, 1936, pp. 1, 4
- ^ It is unknown if Bond was at Arkansas High School in Texarkana, Arkansas, or Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas. Both were operating at the time he was a principal.
- ^ Ruston Daily Leader, June 3, 1936, p. 1
- ^ "New Tech President Richardson", Minden Herald, August 21, 1936, p. 6
- ^ "A Brief History of Southeastern". selu.edu. Archived from the original on July 23, 2013. Retrieved August 5, 2013.
- ^ "Historical Sketch of the University" (PDF). selu.edu. Retrieved August 5, 2013.
External links
- George W. Bond, Find-a-Grave
- Mary Elizabeth Bost Bond, Find-a-Grave