Marion L. Brittain
| Marion L. Brittain | |
|---|---|
Brittain from The 1944 Blue Print
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| Born |
November 11, 1866 Wilkes County, Georgia |
| Died | July 13, 1953 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | University president |
Marion Luther Brittain, Sr. (November 11, 1866 – July 13, 1953) was an American academic administrator and president of the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1922 to 1944. Brittain was born in Georgia and, aside from a brief stint at the University of Chicago for graduate school, spent most of his life serving the educational community there. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory College in 1886, Brittain worked his way up the ranks from principal of an Atlanta high school to superintendent of education for the entire state of Georgia.
In 1922, Brittain accepted the position of president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, then called the Georgia School of Technology, an office he would hold until his retirement in 1944. During his 22-year tenure at Georgia Tech, Brittain was credited with doubling student enrollment, establishing what is now the second largest aerospace engineering faculty in the United States, and playing an influential role in securing Georgia Tech's position as a leading technical institute and research university. After his retirement, Brittain wrote The Story of Georgia Tech (1948), a history of the Institute published shortly before his death in 1953.
Marion L. Brittain was born in Wilkes County, Georgia in 1866 to Dr. J. M. Brittain, a Baptist minister, and Ida Callaway, granddaughter of Baptist minister Enoch Callaway. Brittain's childhood was spent in a variety of towns and cities throughout the state of Georgia due to his father's career as a minister. He attended Emory College for his undergraduate studies, graduating in 1886 with the commendation that he was the "best student in his department the college had had in ten years." Brittain then spent ten years as an administrator of several high schools in the Atlanta, Georgia area. In 1897, he gained local fame for his erudition after winning a contest held by the Atlanta Constitution in which he was able to identify the missing word from a passage taken from an obscure book on English literature. Brittain left his work as a high school administrator in 1898 to pursue graduate studies at the University of Chicago.
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