Margaret Mordecai Cruikshank (''née'' Jones; October 13, 1878 – December 26, 1955) was an American schoolteacher and college president. She served as the president of the Columbia Institute in Tennessee from 1922 to 1932 and as the president of St. Mary's Junior College in North Carolina from 1932 until her death in 1955. She was the first woman to serve as head of St. Mary's and is the only alumna to have served as president. Cruikshank had degrees from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Biography

Cruikshank was born Margaret Mordecai Jones on October 13, 1878, in

Hillsborough, North Carolina The town of Hillsborough is the county seat of Orange County, North Carolina, United States and is located along the Eno River. The population was 6,087 in 2010, but it grew rapidly to 9,660 by 2020. Its name was unofficially shortened to "Hillsb ...

to Halcott Pride Jones and Olive Echols Jones. She attended the Nash-Kollock School for Young Ladies, a boarding school in Hillsorough, before transferring to St. Mary's School, an Episcopal boarding school in

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

, from which she graduated in 1896. She and her twin sister, Mary Pride Jones, had moved to St. Mary's after the deaths of their parents. Upon graduating, she worked as a schoolteacher at St. Mary's, teaching mathematics, astronomy, German, and Bible classes. After three years of teaching, she enrolled at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

in 1901. She returned to St. Mary's to teach for another three years before enrolling as a student at the

Teachers College A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

in New York City. During her summer breaks, she travelled to Europe. She graduated from Columbia in 1911 and on June 17 of that year, she married Ernest Cruikshank, who was the business manager of St. Mary's. They had three children: Ernest, Mary Pride, and Olive. Cruikshank returned to St. Mary's, where she taught until 1921 when her husband became the president of the Columbia Institute in Tennessee. Her husband died in 1922 and she succeeded him as president, serving in that capacity until 1932, when she was elected as principal and academic head, and later as president, of St. Mary's Junior College, her alma mater. She was the first woman to serve as head of St. Mary's. While serving as president, she helped establish the school's Student Government Association and approved their constitution in 1938. In 1937 she earned a master's degree from

. She was an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

and a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

. Cruikshank died of a heart attack on December 26, 1955. A dormitory built in 1966 at St. Mary's is named in her honor. A scholarship named in her honor was established at St. Mary's in 1958.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruikshank, Margaret Mordecai Jones 1878 births 1955 deaths American high school teachers Heads of American boarding schools Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Schoolteachers from North Carolina Episcopalians from North Carolina North Carolina Democrats Duke University alumni St. Mary's School (North Carolina) alumni Teachers College, Columbia University alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni People from Hillsborough, North Carolina Women heads of universities and colleges