Omer Clyde Aderhold, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetOmer Clyde Aderhold
President of the University of Georgia
Date of Birth: 07-Nov-1899
Place of Birth: Lavonia, Georgia, United States
Date of Death: 04-Jul-1969
Profession: associate professor
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio 
About Omer Clyde Aderhold
- Omer Clyde "O.C." Aderhold (November 7, 1899 – July 4, 1969) was President of the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens from 1950 until 1967.The son of a Lavonia, Georgia, farmer, he graduated from the University of Georgia with an agriculture degree in 1923.
- Following graduation, he became a high school principal at the age of twenty-four in Jefferson County, Georgia.
- Three years later, he was chosen as the county’s superintendent of public schools, a position he held until 1929, when he resigned to become associate professor of rural education at the University of Georgia.
- Here he devoted “a major portion of his time to the training of agricultural and rural teachers,” according to one newspaper report. In 1936-37, Aderhold took a leave of absence to work on his PhD degree in education at the Ohio State University, which he received in 1938.
- In 1946, he was named dean of the College of Education.
- He was named president of the university in 1950, a position he held for seventeen years until his retirement in 1967. At the time of his death in 1969, the Athens-Banner Herald noted that Dr.
- Aderhold had been associated with the university for 50 years as a “student, teacher, administrator and elder statesman.” During seventeen years as president, the university’s enrollment tripled, the research budget grew from $2 million a year to more than $13 million, and the value of the physical plant increased from $12 million to $100 million.
- “But Dr.
- Aderhold was much more than a super-successful administrator.
- He was an engaging, sympathetic man who took a personal interest in his students, his employees, and his many other friends,” the Herald-Banner editorialized.He successfully led the university through court-ordered integration in January 1961 after admission of its first black students, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, came with first days rallies and protests.
- Hunter, who became Charlayne Hunter-Gault after her marriage, graduated from the Henry W.
- Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at Georgia in 1963 and went on to become a successful journalist for PBS NewsHour (MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour), as well as The New York Times, National Public Radio, and CNN.
- After graduating from Georgia, Holmes became a medical doctor and was the first black student admitted to the Emory University School of Medicine.Aderhold played a controversial role in the scandal involving athletic director and ex-football coach Wally Butts, who was accused giving away the football team's play strategy to Alabama Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in a telephone conversation on August 15, 1962.
- Butts and Bryant filed libel suits against the Saturday Evening Post for its "Story of a College Football Fix" article in its March 23, 1963, issue.
- Aderhold testified against Butts in the trial, which was held in Atlanta from Aug.
- 5-18, 1963, testifying that Butts' character was "bad" and that he would not believe him under oath.Aderhold retired in 1967 and died in Athens on July 4, 1969.
- He is buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery in that city.
Read more at Wikipedia