Milton C. Moreland

Last updated

Dina Pritchett
(m. 1986)
Milton C. Moreland
Milton C. Moreland, January 2024.jpg
Moreland speaking in 2024
21st President of Centre College
Assumed office
July 1, 2020
Education
Signature Milton C. Moreland signature.jpg

Milton Carl Moreland (born February 5, 1966) is an American academic administrator and archaeologist who is the 21st and current president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Memphis, Moreland taught for eight years at Huntingdon College and was a member of the faculty and administration for thirteen years at Rhodes College, serving for some time as the dean of faculty, vice president for academic affairs, and provost. In February 2020, he was announced as president of Centre College; he assumed office on July 1, 2020, succeeding John A. Roush, and was formally inaugurated in October 2021.

Contents

Early life and education

Milton Carl Moreland [1] was born on February 5, 1966, [2] in Boise, Idaho. [3] He earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Memphis, where he graduated with honors. [4] This was followed by a Master of Arts and PhD, both in religious studies, [4] from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Moreland wrote his honors thesis on the Nag Hammadi library. [3]

Career

Moreland delivering his inaugural address on October 14, 2021 Milton Moreland inaugural address, October 2021.jpg
Moreland delivering his inaugural address on October 14, 2021

Moreland began his teaching career in 1995. He taught at Huntingdon College as an assistant professor until 2003, [4] when he joined the faculty of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, as an assistant professor of religious studies. He was eventually promoted to associate professor and full professor. [3] He also served as the director of the Rhodes Institute of Regional Studies and chaired the archaeology program [5] in addition to teaching archaeology. [6] In December 2015, Rhodes announced that Moreland had been selected from a national search to be the college's vice president for academic affairs and the dean of faculty; he had been serving as dean on an interim basis for the previous 18 months. [5] Moreland additionally served as the provost at Rhodes. [7] He was presented with Rhodes's Jameson M. Jones Award for Outstanding Faculty Service on August 17, 2012. [8]

He also served on the senior staff of Sepphoris Regional Archaeological Project, located in Galilee, for upwards of two decades. Moreland's scholarship focuses on the New Testament and history of Christianity. [9] [3] Upon his departure from Rhodes, Dr. Katherine Clay Bassard was named his successor as provost and VP for academic affairs, effective July 1, 2020. [10]

On February 5, 2020, Moreland was announced as the 21st president of Centre College, succeeding John A. Roush, [7] following a unanimous vote of the presidential search committee. [3] He assumed office on July 1, 2020, and much of the beginning of his term took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. [11] He was officially inaugurated in a ceremony held at the Norton Center for the Arts on October 14, 2021. [12] Among those that spoke at the ceremony were Crit Luallen and Jacqueline Coleman, the former and incumbent lieutenant governors of Kentucky and graduates of Centre in 1974 and 2004, respectively. [12]

The first incoming class of Moreland's administration totaled 359 new students, bringing Centre's total enrollment for the 2020–21 academic year to 1,333 students. [13] The renovation of Franklin W. Olin Hall, which began in summer 2019, was completed in time and opened to students at the beginning of the 2021 spring term, including the installation of a Foucault pendulum in the building's north stairwell. [14] Moreland and the college announced a $50 million project to build a new athletics center, including replacements for Boles Natatorium and Farris Stadium, [15] in April 2021. [16] Andy Frye Stadium, the school's new football facility, opened in 2022. [17] In addition, the school added a business major in fall 2021. [18]

Personal life

Moreland's wife, Dina ( née  Pritchett), [19] is a former professional and national team racquetball player and pharmaceutical salesperson. She attended the University of Memphis, like Milton, and has been an elementary school teacher since 2003. [3] The couple married in December 1986 [19] and they have two children. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Manitoba</span> Public university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

The University of Manitoba is a public research university in Winnipeg City, Manitoba Province, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of Manitoba is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. Its main campus is located in the Fort Garry neighbourhood of Winnipeg, with other campuses throughout the city: the Bannatyne Campus, the James W. Burns Executive Education Centre, the William Norrie Centre, and the French-language affiliate, Université de Saint-Boniface in the Saint Boniface ward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Chicago</span> Private university in Illinois, U.S.

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. The university has its main campus in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.

University College London, which operates as UCL, is a public research university in London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London, and is the second-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment and the largest by postgraduate enrolment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danville, Kentucky</span> City in Kentucky, United States

Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of the Boyle and Lincoln counties. In 2001, Danville received a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2011, Money magazine placed Danville as the fourth-best place to retire in the United States. Centre College in Danville was selected to host U.S. vice-presidential debates in 2000 and 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhodes College</span> Private liberal arts college in Memphis, Tennessee, US

Rhodes College is a private liberal arts college in Memphis, Tennessee. Historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), it is a member of the Associated Colleges of the South and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Rhodes enrolls about 2,000 students, and its Collegiate Gothic campus sits on a 123-acre wooded site in Memphis' historic Midtown neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre College</span> Private liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky, U.S.

Centre College is a private liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky. It is an undergraduate college with an enrollment of approximately 1,400 students. Centre was officially chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1819. The college is a member of the Associated Colleges of the South and the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities.

A provost is a senior academic administrator. At many institutions of higher education, the provost is the chief academic officer, a role that may be combined with being deputy to the chief executive officer. They may also be the chief executive officer of a university, of a branch campus of a university, or of a college within a university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John A. Roush</span> American former academic administrator (born 1950)

John Allen Roush is an American former academic administrator who was the 20th president of Centre College from 1998 to 2020. A graduate of Ohio University, Roush earned graduate degrees, and began his career, at Miami University, where he became executive assistant to the president in 1976. He departed to the University of Richmond in 1982, where he spent six years in administration before being elected to Centre's presidency. During his 22-year term, Centre established four student scholarship programs, nearly doubled the size of its faculty, led several successful fundraising campaigns, and renovated numerous academic, athletic, and residential buildings on campus. He announced his resignation in May 2019, effective June 2020, and was succeeded by Milton C. Moreland upon leaving office. Since that time, he has maintained his position on the University of Richmond board of trustees, received two honorary degrees, and spoken at Wofford College during its opening convocation in September 2021. In May 2021, Centre's Campus Center was renamed the Roush Campus Center, in honor of Roush and his wife, Susie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas A. Spragens</span> American academic administrator (1917–2006)

Thomas Arthur Spragens was an American administrator who was the 17th president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Spragens worked for the state and federal government early in his career, before joining the staff at Stanford University as a presidential advisor. He was the president of Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, for a five-year term, and left Stephens to go to Centre in 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis W. Green</span> American minister and university president (1806–1863)

Lewis Warner Green was an American Presbyterian minister, educator, and academic administrator who was the president of Hampden–Sydney College, Transylvania University, and Centre College for various periods from 1849 to 1863. Born in Danville, Kentucky, baptized in Versailles, and educated in Woodford County, Green enrolled at Transylvania University but transferred to Centre College to complete his education. He graduated in 1824 and in doing so became one of two members of the school's first graduating class. After short periods studying medicine and law, he enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1831 but returned to Kentucky in 1832 before graduating. The occasion of his return was his election as professor of political economy and belles-lettres; he taught for two years, and became licensed as a preacher during that span, before taking a two-year leave of absence to travel to Europe. Some time after returning, he was elected by the Synod of Kentucky to be professor of oriental and biblical literature at Hanover College, though he stayed there for only one academic year before returning to Centre in 1839 to resume his prior teaching positions and take the office of vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John C. Young (pastor)</span> American educator and pastor (1803–1857)

John Clarke Young was an American educator and pastor who was the fourth president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. A graduate of Dickinson College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he entered the ministry in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1828. He accepted the presidency of Centre College in 1830, holding the position until his death in 1857, making him the longest-serving president in the college's history. He is regarded as one of the college's best presidents, as he increased the endowment of the college more than five-fold during his term and increased the graduating class size from two students in his first year to forty-seven in his final year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ormond Beatty</span> American educator and academic administrator (1815–1890)

Ormond Beatty was an American educator and academic administrator. He was the seventh president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. An 1835 graduate of Centre, Beatty became a professor the following year and taught chemistry, natural philosophy, mathematics, metaphysics, biblical history, and church history over the course of his career. He was selected to fill the position of president pro tempore following the resignation of William L. Breckinridge in 1868 and was unanimously elected president by the board of trustees in 1870. He was Centre's first president who was not a Christian minister, and he led the school until his resignation in 1888, at which point he taught for two additional years before his death in 1890. Beatty also involved himself in religious affairs, serving as a ruling elder in the First and Second Presbyterian Churches in Danville, as a commissioner to three Presbyterian Church General Assemblies, and as a trustee of the Danville Theological Seminary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bellevue Cemetery (Danville, Kentucky)</span> Historic cemetery

Bellevue Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Danville, Kentucky. It was established in the 1840s and was originally named Danville City Cemetery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William C. Young</span> American minister, educator, and academic administrator

William Clarke Young was an American minister, educator, and academic administrator who was the eighth president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, from 1888 until his death in 1896. The son of Centre's fourth president, John C. Young, William attended Centre and the Danville Theological Seminary, graduating in 1859 and 1865, respectively. He had a 23-year career in the ministry, serving congregations in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, before returning to Centre to accept the presidency following the resignation of Ormond Beatty. During Young's eight-year presidency, the college established a law school, constructed numerous buildings, and retroactively conferred degrees upon some of its first female graduates. Young was also the moderator of the Presbyterian Church General Assembly in 1892, as his father had done some thirty-nine years earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter A. Groves</span> American missionary, minister, educator, and academic administrator

Walter Alexander Groves was an American missionary, minister, educator, and academic administrator who was the 16th president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School before enrolling at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He spent three years there before leaving to enlist in the army during World War I. After the war's conclusion, he returned to Lafayette and graduated in July 1919. He spent the following three years studying at Princeton Theological Seminary but came one class shy of meeting the requirements for his degree. He returned to Lafayette to teach in 1922 and was ordained as a minister the following year; in 1925, he left the United States for missionary work in Tehran and spent the majority of the next fifteen years there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles J. Turck</span> American educator, lawyer, and academic administrator

Charles Joseph Turck was an American lawyer, educator, and academic administrator who was the president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A native of New Orleans, Turck attended Tulane University before graduating from Columbia University with a law degree in 1913. After practicing law in New York City for three years, he taught law at Tulane and Vanderbilt University. He took his first administrative position when he was named dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1924, a job he held for three years until his election to Centre's presidency. He spent nine years leading the school, from June 1927 to July 1936, during which time he continued plans to emphasize academics over athletics and gained it admission to the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He left Centre for a position in the state tax commission under Governor Happy Chandler and also took an administrative role in the social education department of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America later that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert L. McLeod</span> American pastor and academic administrator

Robert Lee McLeod Jr. was an American pastor and academic administrator. Following his graduation from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, McLeod took preaching positions in Mississippi and Florida before spending two years working at the Presbyterian Church headquarters in New York. He was elected president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, in 1938 and took office in October of that year. After four years in the position, he was granted a leave of absence from Centre to serve in the United States Navy as a chaplain; in this job he spent two years as the theological director of the V-12 Program and one year aboard the USS Antietam, all while maintaining his title of president. During his absence, Centre hired Robert J. McMullen to be "co-president" alongside McLeod, living on campus and holding the full responsibilities of the position. McLeod resigned following the war's end and spent time preaching in Missouri, Florida, Tennessee, and Louisiana, before retiring in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. McMullen</span> American pastor and academic administrator

Robert Johnston McMullen was an American pastor, missionary, and academic administrator. A graduate of Centre College and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, he was licensed to preach in April 1909 and soon after left the country to begin a period of more than thirty years in Hangzhou, China. He worked as a Presbyterian missionary from 1911 to 1932 before joining the faculty of Hangchow Christian College and eventually becoming the school's president for a four-year term. After a seven-month detainment in a Japanese prison camp, McMullen returned to the United States in 1943 and was elected president of his alma mater the next year. He began in the role in September 1944 as "co-president" alongside Robert L. McLeod, who had been away since December 1942 as a chaplain in the United States Navy. The war having concluded, both McLeod and McMullen resigned in November 1945, though McMullen stayed at Centre as its lone president until the following October. After leaving Danville, he worked for the United Board for Christian Colleges in China before his 1953 retirement.

References

  1. "Milton Carl Moreland in the U.S., Index to Public Records, 19942019" . Ancestry.com . U.S., Index to Public Records. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  2. "Milton C Moreland in the U.S., Public Records Index, 19501993, Volume 1" . Ancestry.com . U.S., Public Records Index. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Strysick, Michael (February 5, 2020). "Centre College names Milton C. Moreland as its new president". Centre College . Archived from the original on June 3, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 "About the Staff". The Archaeological Expedition to Ames Plantation. Rhodes College. April 28, 2007. Archived from the original on September 7, 2022. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
  5. 1 2 Woodmansee, Ken (December 29, 2015). "Moreland moving on up at Rhodes". The Commercial Appeal . p. Midtown Weekly 3. Archived from the original on September 6, 2022. Retrieved September 5, 2022 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  6. Underwood, Carla (June 9, 2008). "Unearthing the past: Rhodes students search for remnants of culture on plantation". The Commercial Appeal . p. DSA7. Archived from the original on September 6, 2022. Retrieved September 5, 2022 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  7. 1 2 "Centre College names Milton Moreland as new president". AP News . February 5, 2020. Archived from the original on February 6, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  8. Woodmansee, Ken (August 29, 2012). "Moreland earns service award". The Commercial Appeal . p. 4E. Archived from the original on September 6, 2022. Retrieved September 5, 2022 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  9. "Rhodes College Provost Milton Moreland Named Centre College President". Rhodes College . Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  10. "Rhodes College names Dr. Katherine Clay Bassard provost and vice president for academic affairs". Rhodes College . December 3, 2019. Archived from the original on September 6, 2022. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  11. Fairchild, David (September 25, 2020). "Rotarians gathered on the anniversary of 9-11". The Advocate-Messenger . p. A12. Archived from the original on September 6, 2022. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  12. 1 2 "Centre College inaugurates Milton C. Moreland as 21st president". The Advocate-Messenger . October 15, 2021. Archived from the original on October 18, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  13. "Welcome, pandemic first-years". Centrepiece: The Alumni Magazine of Centre College. Vol. 61, no. 3. Danville, Kentucky: Centre College. 2020. p. 4.
  14. "Olin Hall expansion". Centrepiece: The Alumni Magazine of Centre College. Vol. 61, no. 3. Danville, Kentucky: Centre College. 2020. p. 5.
  15. "Centre College Awards $50M Wellness and Athletic Center". HGC Construction. May 7, 2021. Archived from the original on September 13, 2022. Retrieved September 13, 2022.
  16. "Centre College announces new $50 million initiative devoted to wellness and athletic excellence". Centre College . April 12, 2021. Archived from the original on September 13, 2022. Retrieved September 13, 2022.
  17. "Joe McDaniel Field at Andy Frye Stadium". Centre Colonels Athletics . Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  18. Johnson, Diane Fisher (2020). "Centre adds business major". Centrepiece: The Alumni Magazine of Centre College. Vol. 61, no. 3. Danville, Kentucky: Centre College. p. 3.
  19. 1 2 "Marriage licenses: Milton C. Moreland, Dina J. Pritchett". The Commercial Appeal . Memphis, Tennessee. December 30, 1986. p. 10. Retrieved November 19, 2023 via Newspapers.com.