Andrew Adgate Lipscomb (September 5, 1816 – November 23, 1890) was an American clergyman and educator. Lipscomb was born in

Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Georgetown is a historic neighborhood, and commercial and entertainment district located in Northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 in the Province of Maryland, the port of Georgetown predated the establishm ...

As a young man, he entered the ministry of the Methodist Protestant church, joining the Maryland conference in 1835, and for some time was President of the Alabama conference. From 1842 to 1849 he was pastor of the Bibb Street Methodist Protestant Church in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, which was dedicated shortly after his arrival; he had solicited a move to Alabama because the climate was better suited for the pulmonary tuberculosis that had plagued him for a number of years. During his tenure in Montgomery he warned of the dangers of Irish immigration to the United States and the accompanying growth of

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in a book, ''Our Country: Its Danger and Duty'' (New York, 1844). He fared well in Montgomery as a preacher, providing for a family consisting of a wife, two children, and two sisters, and owning two slaves.Lipscomb 13. Compelled by tuberculosis to retire from the ministry, he founded in 1849 the Metropolitan Institute for Young Ladies at

. Lipscomb then served as the inaugural President (1856–1859) of the Tuskegee Female College of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

(present-day

Huntingdon College Huntingdon College is a private Methodist college in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1854 as a women's college. History Huntingdon College was chartered on February 2, 1854, as " Tuskegee Female College" by the Alabama State Legislature ...

in Montgomery, Alabama). From 1860 until his resignation in 1874, Lipscomb served as the Chancellor 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) in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. Lipscomb was the first leader of UGA to have the title

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

instead of President. His tenure included a multi-year period (fall of 1863 through January 1866) during which the University was closed due to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Also, for the year preceding Lipscomb's Chancellorship (1859), the University had no presiding official (neither President nor Chancellor) between the time of President Church's resignation and Chancellor Lipscomb's start as the University underwent a comprehensive reorganization. His administration oversaw the construction of the library (currently the north half of the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building) in 1862 and Moore College in 1874. The offspring of Lipscomb and his first wife, Henrietta Blanche Richardson, also contributed to the University. Their son, Francis Adgate Lipscomb, was a faculty member of the English department. Their grandson, Judge Thomas F. Green, served as a law professor at UGA and as a member of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Their great-grandson, Thomas F. Green Jr., also served as a faculty member of the Law School. Lipscomb Hall, a UGA

dormitory A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

, is named in the former chancellor's honor. After Lipscomb's academic career, he wrote ''Studies in the Forty Days between Christ's Resurrection and Ascension'' (1885) and ''Studies Supplementary to the Studies in the Forty Days between Christ's Resurrection and Ascension'' (1886). He died in 1890 in Athens and was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery in the same city.

References

Reed, Thomas Walter. ''History of the University of Georgia by Thomas Walter Reed; Frontmatter and Chapter I: The Beginnings of the University''.
Athens: University of Georgia, ca. 1949.

University of Georgia Libraries, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
History of Huntingdon College.
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External links

Photograph of Andrew A. Lipscomb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipscomb, Andrew A. 1816 births 1890 deaths Huntingdon College people Presidents of the University of Georgia People from Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)