Dr.  Henry King Stanford Biography

The Board of Regents elected Dr. Henry King Stanford as President of Georgia State College for Women in 1953. Dr. Stanford received his MA from Emory, an MA from the University of Denver, and a PhD from New York University. From 1948 to 1950 he was President of Georgia Southern College and from 1950 to 1952 he was Director of the University Center in Georgia. Before coming to GSCW, Stanford had worked for a year as the Assistant Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. Newspaper reports state that he was sent to GSCW by the Board of Regents to deal with GSCW's difficult problems such as the declining enrollment and the movement to make GSCW a coeducational institution.

During his short tenure of three years, Dr. Stanford managed to raise morale and stop declining enrollment. Herty Hall was also completed during Stanford's tenure. Many of the other buildings on campus, however, continued to suffer. Stanford suggested during his presidency that Chappell Hall be torn down. At the same time, much of Atkinson Hall was abandoned due to the building's poor condition. Despite Stanford's requests for funding, much of the campus remained in disrepair until the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1956 the Board of Regents granted Stanford a leave of absence so that he could serve as Chief of the New York University Mission in Turkey. His original plan was to return to the college in June of 1957. Before he left for Turkey, however, he took a position as President of Birmingham Southern College and resigned as president of Georgia State College for Women in the spring of 1956.