This is a list of notable people associated with Bob Jones University, located in the American city of Greenville, South Carolina.

Notable graduates

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Notable faculty and staff

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  • Carl Blair (1932–2018), painter and sculptor
  • Emery Bopp (1924–2007), painter and sculptor; chair, Division of Art, 1953-92[1]
  • Walter Fremont (1924–2007), Dean of the School of Education, professionalized BJU's education curriculum; leader in the Christian school movement; namesake of the university's fitness center[2]
  • Dwight Gustafson (1930–2014), conductor and composer; assumed the position of acting dean of the BJU School of Fine Arts in 1954, when he was 24 years old, and served as dean for 40 years; known for writing and arranging more than 160 musical compositions; namesake of Dwight Gustafson Fine Arts Center[3]
  • Eunice Hutto Morelock (1904–1947), mathematics professor; one of the first female academic deans of a coeducational college in the US;[4] namesake of a wing of the Bob Jones Academy quadrangle
  • Robert Kirthwood "Lefty" Johnson (1910–1971), BJU business manager from 1935 until his death; namesake of a residence hall
  • Darell Koons (1924–2016), painter
  • Laurence Morton (1924–2002), chairman of the BJU piano department for more than forty years
  • Robert N. Schaper (1922–2007), evangelical theologian, resigned from the BJU faculty in 1952 and completed his academic career at Fuller Theological Seminary
  • Katherine Corne Stenholm (1917–2015), founding director of the University's Unusual Films studio; one of the first women film directors in America; keynote speaker at the Cannes Film Festival, 1958[5]
  • Jamie Langston Turner (b. 1949), novelist; her novel A Garden to Keep won 2002 Christy Award; her Winter Birds was named one of the "one hundred best books" of 2006 by Publishers Weekly[6]

Notable honorary degree recipients

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Notable benefactors

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  • Bibb Graves, two-term governor of Alabama (1927—31, 1935–39). Although Graves was Exalted Cyclops (chapter president) of the Montgomery branch of the Ku Klux Klan when he was first elected governor, he was also a progressive who sought to improve public education in Alabama. Graves served as a member of the board of trustees of Bob Jones College and a BJU residence hall was named for him until 2011.[8]
  • John Sephus Mack (1880–1940), early twentieth century entrepreneur who (with Walter C. Shaw) created G.C. Murphy Stores, a regional chain of more than two hundred "five and dimes" headquartered in McKeesport, PA. Mack was a significant contributor to Bob Jones College during the Depression—when Murphy Stores were actually expanding—and he underwrote major building projects on the Cleveland campus. Mack also gave business advice to Bob Jones, Sr. and "Lefty" Johnson before his death in 1940. The BJU library is named for him and a residence hall for his wife.[9]
  • Robert Lee McKenzie (1870–1956), developer and first mayor of Panama City, Florida. The college charter was signed in the office/library of his home, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places;[10] Dixon-McKenzie Dining Common is named in honor of him, his wife, and his sister-in-law, Mary Elizabeth Dixon
  • Agnes Moorehead, actress of Bewitched fame, willed her Ohio estate to BJU. Moorehead's father was a Presbyterian minister, and in 1921, when Agnes was an undergraduate at Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio—a Presbyterian school founded by her uncle—the college presented an honorary degree to Bob Jones, Sr.[11]

Notable former students (non-graduates)

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bopp obituary; Bopp memorial article in the Greenville News, February 3, 2007
  2. ^ Turner, Standing Without Apology, 282-84; Fremont obituary
  3. ^ Turner, Standing Without Apology, pp. 284-86.
  4. ^ Reflecting God's Light, 11.
  5. ^ Stenholm biography at IMDB.
  6. ^ Biographical information on Turner
  7. ^ Former Georgia Gov. Maddox dies Wednesday, June 25
  8. ^ Biography of Graves from the Alabama state web site; Dalhouse, Island in the Lake of Fire, 36; Dictionary of American Biography, Sup. 3: 317-18.
  9. ^ Information on Mack and Murphy stores; Turner, Standing Without Apology, 59-60, 350
  10. ^ Biographical information on McKenzie from Florida Heritage website
  11. ^ Hayhurst, Leonard L. (May 7, 2019). "Moorehead's spirit still bewitching Muskingum University". Zanesville Times Recorder. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  12. ^ News article from the Columbia (SC) State Archived May 22, 2006, at the Wayback Machine