Franze Edward Lund
From KCpedia
Fourteenth President of Kenyon College (1957-1968)
Contents |
Early Life
Franze Edward Lunds parents were Episcopal missionaries in China, and Lund received his early education at the Kuling American school and Shanghai American School. He graduated from the Deveaux Academy in Niagara Falls, New York in 1928, and completed his Bachelor's degree at Washington and Lee University. Lund received his Master's degree from the same institution in 1934.
After teaching first at Washington and Lee, Lund moved to Wisconsin State University in 1938, where he taught while working on his PhD, which he completed in 1944. Lund finished a one-year post-doctoral study at Yale University in 1945, and eventually became the department chairman of history and social science at Alabama State College in 1947. In 1952, Lund was elected President of Alabama College at Montevallo, where he succeeded in transforming the "insignificant" girl's college into a more promising, academically rigorous liberal arts school.
Kenyon Presidency and Co-Education
With the sudden death of Kenyon President Gordon Keith Chalmers, the presidential search committee was drawn to Lund as a figure with a liberal arts background and with specific experience in implementing co-education. Lund became President in August, 1957.
While Lund wrote that he did not intend to be a "bricks and mortar" college, the physical resources of the College required a great deal of renovation, and Lund eventually raised more than $6,000,000 for new construction, including Chalmers Memorial Library, Farr Hall, Dempsey Hall, Gund Hall, Bushnell Hall, and Manning Hall. This physical expansion mirrored Lund's plans for increased enrollment, and during his presidency, enrollment grew from 511 to 800, while faculty expanded by one-third.
Lund's most significant legacy within the College was his role in creating a ten-year, $18.5 million plan for expansion, which included the creation of the Coordinate College for Women and the separation of Bexley Seminary from Kenyon College. These changes would completely overhaul the institution, and create a College that closely resembles the school today.
Post-Presidency
Once plans for the school's major renovation were in place, Lund stepped aside to allow for new leadership, and resigned in April 1968. He returned to Virginia, where he taught as department chair of history and political science at the Virigina Commonwealth University. Lund died in Richmond, Virginia on May 29, 1973.
Resource in the Kenyon College Archives
- Barth, Christopher. The Kenyon Presidency: Profiles in Leadership.
- Franze Edward Lund -- collected materials
