Alonzo Church (April 9, 1793 – May 18, 1862) was the sixth president of the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

(UGA). He served in that capacity from 1829 until his resignation in 1859. Church was born on April 9, 1793, in

Brattleboro Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, which is the Connecticut River, Brattleboro is located about no ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. He was an 1816 graduate of Middlebury College. He initially joined the UGA faculty as a Professor of Mathematics and served in that capacity for ten years before assuming the presidency. Although Church served longer than any president of the University, there were numerous clashes with student and faculty during his tenure which resulted in declines in enrollment and faculty upheaval. During Church's tenure, the following campus buildings were erected: Classroom/Library (Southern half of current Academic Building, 1831), the Chapel (1832), Phi Kappa Hall (1836), Lumpkin House (Rock House, 1844), Lustrat House (1847), Garden Club House (1857) and The Arch (1858) (funded through sale of the University Botanical Garden for $1,000). President Church's son, Alonzo Webster Church, was Librarian of the United States Senate. President Church's great-grandson,

Alonzo Church Alonzo Church (June 14, 1903 – August 11, 1995) was an American mathematician, computer scientist, logician, philosopher, professor and editor who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer scien ...

, was a renowned Professor of Mathematics; he taught at both

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

(his alma mater) and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. President Church's daughter, Julia, married

George Alexander Croom George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...

, owner of Casa de Laga Plantation in Tallahassee, Florida, Father of

Alonzo Church Croom Alonzo Church Croom (December 1, 1845 – February 7, 1912) was an American politician who served as Comptroller of Florida from 1901 until 1912. His father, George Alexander Croom, owned the Casa de Laga Plantation in Tallahassee, and his moth ...

Comptroller of the State of Florida The Florida Comptroller was the state comptroller of Florida from 1845 to 2003 (when the position was merged with the position of Florida State Treasurer/Insurance Commissioner/Fire Marshal to create the post of Chief Financial Officer of Florida fo ...

from 1900 until his death on December 7, 1912, and brother of Hardy Bryan Croom, a planter and recognized naturalist, who discovered the rare Torreya tree and established

Goodwood Plantation In 1824, in appreciation of the enormous service rendered to this country by the Marquis de Lafayette during the Revolutionary War, Congress voted to grant him a full township in the Florida Territory. This tract was called the Lafayette Land Gr ...

Death and legacy

Church Street in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

, is named in Church's honor.

References

''History of the University of Georgia''
by Thomas Walter Reed, University of Georgia, 1949. (See especially Chapters IV and V.)
Church, Alonzo
in ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'', vol. IX, James T. White & Company, 1899, pp. 180–181.
Rev. Dr. Alonzo Church
in ''A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians'' by Lucian Lamar Knight, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1917, vol. V, pp. 2659–2660.

University of Georgia Libraries, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Alumni Heritage: The Portrait of Dr. Alonzo Church
University of Georgia Alumni Association.

Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce and Putnam Development Authority.

from ''Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Franklin College, University of Georgia, Athens, 1852-53''.

(built by Church, currently serves as th
Athens Welcome Center
.

(Church's summer residence). {{DEFAULTSORT:Church, Alonzo 1793 births 1862 deaths Presidents of the University of Georgia People from Brattleboro, Vermont American slave owners