John Wells Kuykendall was the 15th president of
Davidson College. Graduating from Davidson in 1959, Kuykendall went on to receive a bachelor in divinity from
Union Theological Seminary and then more advanced degrees from
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...
and
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 ...
. He eventually became a professor of religion and campus pastor at
Auburn University.
As president, Kuykendall focused on expanding the endowment, specifically in overseeing a $160 million capital campaign, which was the largest capital campaign for a liberal arts college at that time.
He also spearheaded the creation of the Dean Rusk Program in International Studies, named after
Dean Rusk
David Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909December 20, 1994) was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second-longest serving Secretary of State after Cordell Hull from the F ...
.
After retiring as president, Kuykendall served as interim president after
Thomas W. Ross
Thomas Warren Ross Sr. is an American public official who served as the president of the University of North Carolina system from 2011 to 2016. He succeeded Erskine Bowles on January 1, 2011. Formerly, he was president of Davidson College, a pri ...
resigned and stayed on until
Carol Quillen was appointed.
References
External links
Biography from the Davidson College Archives & Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuykendall
Living people
1938 births
People from Charlotte, North Carolina
Presidents of Davidson College