Edwin A. Alderman
| Edwin Anderson Alderman | |
|---|---|
1912 photo of Edwin Alderman by Rufus Holsinger
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| Born |
May 15, 1861 Wilmington, North Carolina |
| Died | April 30, 1931 (aged 69) Connellsville, Pennsylvania |
| Resting place | University of Virginia Cemetery |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
University of North Carolina United States Naval Academy Cornell University |
| Occupation | Educator |
| Known for | First President of the University of Virginia; President of University of North Carolina and Tulane University |
| Term | 1896-1900 |
| Predecessor | George Tayloe Winston |
| Successor | Francis Preston Venable |
Edwin Anderson Alderman (May 15, 1861 – April 30, 1931) served as the President of three universities. The University of Virginia's Alderman Library is named after him, as is Edwin A. Alderman Elementary School in Wilmington and Alderman dorm at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Alderman was the key leader in higher education in Virginia during the Progressive Era as president of the University of Virginia, 1904-31. His goal was the transformation of the Southern university into a force for state service and intellectual leadership and educational utility. Alderman successfully professionalized and modernized Virginia's system of higher education. He promoted international standards of scholarship, and a statewide network of extension services. Joined by other college presidents, he promoted the Virginia Education Commission, created in 1910. Alderman's crusade encountered some resistance from traditionalists and never challenged the Jim Crow system of segregated schooling.
Alderman graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1882, where he was a member of the Dialectic Society. He became a schoolteacher in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and then superintendent of the school district there.
In 1891, Alderman and Charles Duncan McIver successfully pressed the North Carolina Legislature to establish the Normal and Industrial School for Women, now known as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Alderman taught there until 1893, when he became a professor at the University of North Carolina; he was named president of that institution in 1896. He moved on to take the same position at Tulane University in 1900, before moving again to the University of Virginia in 1904. There he stayed for 27 years, until his death in 1931 from a stroke in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, while en route to deliver a speech in Illinois. He is buried at the University of Virginia Cemetery.
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