Battle of Backbone Mountain

Richmond Ames Montgomery (July 16, 1870 – July 16, 1950) was an American pastor and academic administrator. Ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1896 following his graduation from McCormick Theological Seminary, he held pastorates in Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa, and Missouri, before being elected president of Parsons College, a private liberal arts college in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1917. He spent five years at Parsons before resigning to accept the presidency of Centre College, similarly a private liberal arts school, in Danville, Kentucky. He came to Centre in the midst of major popularity surrounding the school's football team, who had defeated Harvard in a major upset some months prior; this attention caused concern from some that the school was placing undue priority on football at the expense of academics. Montgomery aimed to change this and introduced measures that would restore Centre's emphasis on academics, though these changes were unpopular with students, who signed a petition to remove him from office. He resigned in June 1926 and afterward was president of Lane Theological Seminary and held a faculty position at McCormick in his later career.

Early life and education

Richmond Ames Montgomery^[1] was born on July 16, 1870, to Caroline Wright and John Martin Montgomery.^[2] His brother was W. W. Montgomery, who also went on to become a pastor.^[3] He attended Miami University,^[4] where he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity,^[5] and graduated in 1893.^[6] He then pursued studies at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago,^[4] graduating in 1896.^[7] He was ordained a Presbyterian minister the same year.^[8] Miami awarded him a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1905.^[6]

Career

Montgomery's early career involved pastorates at Presbyterian churches in various places. He was pastor at Glen Avon Church in Duluth, Minnesota, until July 1904, when he left to take a similar position at the First Presbyterian Church in Xenia, Ohio.^[9][10] After, he led the First Presbyterian Church in Ottumwa, Iowa;^[11] in June 1909, while the pastor at Ottumwa, he was elected a trustee of Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa.^[11] Later, he became pastor of Tyler Place Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri,^[7] and also held a pastorate in Edgerton, Ohio, during his career.^[12] He was in St. Louis on June 5, 1917,^[13] when he was elected president of Parsons College, filling a vacancy that had existed for a year prior.^[7] He gave his farewell sermon at Tyler Place on August 12, 1917.^[14]

Early into his term, on October 25, 1917, he was selected to give an address at the Founders Day celebrations of Iowa Wesleyan College.^[15] This came just weeks after Parsons received a large gift of $10,000 (equivalent to $238,000 in 2023) from the Fairfield Retail Merchants Association.^[16] On July 7, 1922, Montgomery, while on vacation in Montana, submitted his resignation to the Parsons board of trustees by telegram^[17] in order to accept the presidency of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.^[4] Howard McDonald, dean of the college during Montgomery's presidency, was chosen to succeed him.^[18] In Montgomery's time at Parsons, the student enrollment had expanded from 348 in his first year to 563 in his last; his term was described by a historian of the college as one of "expansion".^[19]

Montgomery took office at Centre in June 1922, and soon after, the college's endowment surpassed $600,000 (equivalent to $10.92 million in 2023).^[20] He was formally inaugurated in a ceremony on June 11, 1923.^[21] During his term, he had plans to construct new fraternity houses to increase the number of students living on campus and secured 20% raises for faculty members. At the start of his first academic year, the school added 170 new students, a record at the time.^[22] His presidency took place a time when athletics were gaining more attention and priority at Centre; less than a year before he took office, Centre's football team defeated Harvard in a 6–0 upset, earning them significant nationwide attention.^[23] A new playing facility on campus, Farris Stadium, was constructed in 1923,^[24] though the news was not all good; around the same time, the school was criticized by the Southern Association of Colleges for purportedly overpaying their head coach, Charley Moran,^[25] and accused of paying professionals to play in place of Centre students.^[26] Despite the fact that Moran had been paid far less than head coaches at other southern colleges, he still received far more than members of the faculty.^[27] Montgomery prevented the school from being dropped by the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States, though the accusations were severe enough that Moran resigned the following year and star quarterback Bo McMillin, a popular choice to succeed Moran, declined for financial reasons.^[28]

These events all culminated in a decision by Montgomery to begin de-emphasizing football in favor of Centre's academic standards.^[29][27] The faculty supported this change and college teaching practices began shifting to follow trends that were more popular nationwide, including a shift in the upperclassmen's classes from recitations to lectures.^[30] Alumni and students, however, were more displeased with the changes.^[31] Tensions grew, in particular, between Montgomery and the student body, a large majority of which signed a petition to the board of trustees requesting his removal from office.^[31][32] Ultimately, the students succeeded; he resigned March 9, 1926, effective at the school's commencement exercises in June 1926.^[33] He was succeeded by Charles J. Turck, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law, who took office nearly a year later.^[34]

After leaving Centre, Montgomery became president of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati and also spent eight years on the faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary.^[8][35]

Personal life and death

Montgomery married Mary Francis Allhands in 1897;^[36] they were married for forty-three years until Mary's death on July 20, 1940.^[37] He died on July 16, 1950—his eightieth birthday—at his home in Jonesville, Michigan,^[38] and was buried in Cincinnati's Spring Grove Cemetery.^[39]

References

Bibliography

• Adams, John A. (August 24, 2022). Standing Ready: The Golden Era of Texas Aggie Football and the Beginning of the 12th Man Tradition. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-6484-3051-0. OCLC 1365074963.
• Doyle, Andrew (2017). "Defeated by the Accreditors: The Rise and Fall of Big-Time Football at Centre College, 1915–1926". Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 115 (4): 471–524. doi:10.1353/khs.2017.0077. JSTOR 44981258. OCLC 8151318908.
• Parsons, Willis Edwards (1925). Fifty Years of Parsons College, 1875–1925. Fairfield, Iowa: Parsons College. OCLC 7936524.
• Watterson, John Sayle (2000). College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. OCLC 43397072.
• Weston, William J. (2019). Centre College: a Bicentennial History. Danville, Kentucky: Centre College. ISBN 978-1-6943-5863-9. OCLC 1142930784.