George S. Benson

George Stuart Benson (September 26, 1898, Dewey County, Oklahoma – December 15, 1991, Searcy, Arkansas) was a missionary to China, 1925–36; founder and principal, Canton Bible School, 1933–1936; president, Harding College, 1936–1965; chancellor, Oklahoma Christian University, 1956-1967.

Graduated in first class of Harper College, 1923; B.A., Harding College, 1925; B.S., Oklahoma A&M University, 1925; M.A., University of Chicago, 1931. He received several honorary doctorates including those from Harding University, 1932; Knox College (Illinois), 1948; and Oklahoma Christian University, 1968.

George S. Benson started his career of religious and political education as a missionary to what is now Guangzhou, China for eleven years, 1925-1936. The Communists forced him out of China in 1936, an experience which led him to adopt as his life's mission opposition to socialism and communism. Early in his career as president of Harding College, he established on campus the National Education Program (NEP) to pursue these ends, working closely with Harding professor James D. Bales. Conducting a broad range of activities, including a film series, and both a nationally syndicated newspaper column and radio show by Benson, its activities reached many millions of Americans. As a result of these activities, Harding and the NEP were widely known for an association with patriotism and free-enterprise information in America. This represented a dramatic turn from the anti-political and pacifist values of founding influences James A. Harding and David Lipscomb. Naturally, this nationalism resonated both with its proponents and its opponents. "Benson initially resisted overtures by students and faculty to begin the process of desegregating Harding, but in the fall of 1963 he announced that the school would be admitting its first black students." About this time, Harding College also received its first substantial national opposition and criticism in the news media, much of it in association with criticism of the movement supporting the Barry Goldwater campaign.

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