Steadman V. Sanford
1932-35 (As President)

Biography: Born August 24, 1871, Covington, GA; d. 9/15/1945, Atlanta, GA. A.B. Mercer University (1890); Hon. Litt.D. University of Georgia (1914); Hon. LL.D. Mercer University (1932).
Sanford taught in Marietta from 1890 to 1903 when he came to the University as an Adjunct Professor of English. In 1921, he founded the School of Journalism, and served as the first Dean until 1927 when he became president of Franklin College and dean of the University, a position he left to assume the Presidency of the University in 1932. As Chancellor of the University System starting in 1935, Sanford oversaw a tremendous period of growth in construction at schools all over Georgia. He was also active in the conflicts with Eugene Talmadge over control of the authority to set policy at UGA and elsewhere in the state college system.

Accomplishments: Sanford will chiefly be remembered as the man charged with devising and implementing the changes that reshaped the University System in Georgia in 1931-32. In the course of this reorganization, he endured conflict with Andrew Soule over the role of the State College of agriculture in the new organizational scheme. Sanford's point of view that the agricultural education of Georgians should proceed under the broader aegis of the University of Georgia, was upheld by the new Board of Regents. He would also stand as the foremost champion of intercollegiate athletics during his years at the University, a point brought sharply home by the naming of the new football stadium in his honor in 1929.

Buildings: Dawson Hall (1932); Joseph E. Brown Hall (1932).

Last Update: March 13, 2001 Comments to: hargrett@arches.uga.edu Copyright © University of Georgia. All rights reserved URL=http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/pexhibit/presiden/sanford.html