President John Rutherford Everett Papers

John Rutherford Everett, known as Jack to friends, was born December 27, 1918, in Portland Oregon. He recieved his BA from Park College in 1942 and MA in economics from Columbia University in 1943. He also got his BD from Union Theological Seminary in 1944. He taught Philosophy at Columbia and Wesleyan from 1943 to 1945 and 1945 to 1948 respectively. He would then return to Columbia to serve as the chair of Philosophy in 1948 before he was elected as President of Hollins College - later university - in 1950 by the Board of Trustees. Everett was the youngest person to serve as a college president at 31 until being usurped by Leon Botstein in 1975 who was 23. While president, Roanoke College awarded Everett an honorary Doctor of Law degree. From 1957 to 1960, he served on the Advisory Council for the Virginia Economy.

During his tenure, student enrollment doubled, teaching faculty increased from 39 to 63, the Hollins abroad program in Paris was established, and a he fostered in a new curriculum. In addition, he oversaw the building of Faculty Row, Turner Hall, Randolph Hall, the Fishburn Library (now the Wetherill Visual Arts Center), and the Hill Building (now the library annex), and the duPont chapel. He also administered the first honoary degree to Jesse Ball duPont whom the chapel was named for. Everett oversaw the implementation of graduate programs in English and Psychology, the literary festival, and the first Parents' Day - rechristened family weekend.

Everett continued to teach Philosophy at Hollins until he resigned in 1960 to work with Encyclopedia Britannica. After Hollins, he was the first chancellor of the Municipal College System of the City of New York, and served as president of the New School For Social Reform. Jack would die on January 21, 1992 of pancreatic cancer.