Henry Churchill King (1858-1934) served as Oberlin College’s sixth president from 1902-27. An Oberlin graduate (A.B. 1879), King spent 48 years in service, either in an academic or administrative role, to Oberlin College.

Oberlin Professor of English Charles A. Wagner (1869-1939) wrote of King, after his death, that “His life, his hopes, his aims are interwoven in the fabric of the College.”

Donald M. Love, in Henry Churchill King of Oberlin (New Haven, 1956), describes King’s presidential administration as that “of important transition… King’s accomplishment for Oberlin was that of the conservative who holds fast to what is good in the past and that of the progressive who presses on to the high calling of the future” (p. 249).

King’s leadership qualities were even recognized by President Woodrow Wilson. Following WWI, President Wilson requested that King and Charles R. Crane, a Chicago businessman and trustee of Robert College in Constantinople, serve on an Inter-Allied commission to the Middle East for diplomatic and American policy needs. See the College Archives’ exhibit on the King-Crane Commission for details about the commission, as well as photographs.

Henry Churchill King, Y.M.C.A. Headquarters in Paris, 1918

For a biography and more information concerning the life and career of King, see the finding guide for the Presidential Records of Henry Churchill King (2/6).

Beginning in January 2008, the Oberlin College Archives website will feature each month one of the fourteen presidents of Oberlin College (The Oberlin Collegiate Institute from 1833-1850).  For the complete listing of the presidents and the finding guides to their presidential records, see the following link: www.oberlin.edu/archive/holdings/finding/index.html.

Announcements and Other Information

The College Archives' 2006-07 Annual Report is available for viewing online.