John Manuel Gandy (October 31, 1870 – October 5, 1947) was and educator, advocate, and the third president of Virginia State College.Logan and Winston 1982:249–251 He became the president in 1914 when the school was known as Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, replacing James Hugo Johnston. While president of what is now Virginia State University, he also served as president of the Association of Negro Land Grant Colleges, president of the Virginia State Teachers' Association, and president of the

National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools The American Teachers Association (1937-1966), formerly National Colored Teachers Association (1906–1907) and National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools (1907–1937), was a professional association and teachers' union representing tea ...

Personal life

John M. Gandy was born in

Oktibbeha County Oktibbeha County is a county in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census the population was 51,788. The county seat is Starkville. The county's name is derived from a local Native American word meanin ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

to Horace and Mary Goodwin Gandy. His parents were freed slaves and tenant farmers. His paternal grandfather, Ed Gandy, had emigrated to the United States from Ireland. While on the faculty at Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, Gandy married Carrie Senora Brown. They had four children, of which three survived: Theodore, Marian, and John, Jr. Gandy died of natural causes in 1947 and was buried in

Blandford Cemetery Blandford Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in Petersburg, Virginia. The oldest stone, marking the grave of Richard Yarbrough, reads 1702. It is located adjacent to the People's Memorial Cemetery, a historic African-American cemetery. Alt ...

References

;Sources * Logan, Rayford, and Michael Winston 1982. ''Dictionary of American Negro Biography''. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

External links

The John Manuel Gandy Papers
Johnston Memorial Library, Virginia State University. 1870 births 1947 deaths {{US-academic-administrator-stub