Mars Hill College

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Mars Hill College is a private, coed, liberal-arts college affiliated with the North Carolina Baptist Convention. The college is located in the small town of Mars Hill, North Carolina, 15 miles due north of Asheville, western North Carolina's largest city. Mars Hill College is easily accessible from Asheville via Interstate 26, which runs about a mile east of the college.

1 History
2 Mars Hill College today
3 Notable alumni
4 External links

[edit] History

Mars Hill College was founded in 1856, and it is the oldest college or university in western North Carolina. The college was originally named the French Broad Baptist Academy, after the nearby French Broad River. In 1859 the college changed its name to Mars Hill, in honor of the hill in ancient Athens on which the Apostle Paul debated Christianity with the city's leading philosophers. During the American Civil War the college was closed for two years, but it reopened after the war. From 1897 to 1938 the college, under the leadership of Dr. Robert Moore, enjoyed substantial financial and physical growth. In 1921 Mars Hill became an accredited junior college. Dr. Hoyt Blackwell served as president from 1938 to 1966, and under his leadership Mars Hill became an accredited four-year college in 1962. Dr. Dan Lunsford, a 1969 graduate of Mars Hill, is currently the college's president; he holds an Ed.D from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Under Dr. Lunsford the college has constructed a new dormitory and science building, greatly upgraded its athletic facilities, tripled its endowment, and seen an increase in student enrollment.

[edit] Mars Hill College today

Mars Hill is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and the college's enrollment is typically around 1500 students. The college is a Division II member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Mars Hill's sports mascot is the Lion. The men's cross country team has recently been the most successful sport at the college; they have won 11 straight conference titles and have competed in the NCAA Division II meet numerous times. The college offers five degrees (Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Social Work), and 31 majors. Mars Hill is known for its excellent departments in music and other fine arts. The "Bailey Mountain Cloggers", the college's dance team, have won 14 national championships in clogging and other traditional folk dances, and they frequently perform internationally, especially in Europe. In 2002 the college opened the Ramsey Center for Regional Studies. Named after an MHC alumnus who served a record four terms as the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, the center is dedicated to preserving the heritage and culture of the people of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

In 2007 MHC joined with four other Baptist-affiliated schools (Campbell University, Gardner-Webb University, Wingate University, and Chowan University) to file a joint proposal to the North Carolina Baptist Convention. Although all five schools stated that they had no wish to formally withdraw from the convention, they did propose to significantly loosen their ties to the Southern Baptist Convention. The five schools proposed to eliminate the requirement that the state convention have final approval over who could serve as trustees over their schools. This would allow each school to choose non-Baptists to serve on their Boards of Trustees. The schools also proposed to transfer money given to them by the state convention into a scholarship fund for Baptist students; this would serve to lessen the convention's influence over their decisions, as the convention can currently decide where and how the money is spent. The proposed changes were initially approved at the 2007 meeting of the North Carolina Baptist Convention. The 2008 meeting of the convention will vote on whether to give final approval; if it does then Mars Hill College will gain de facto independence from the Southern Baptists, although it will still remain Baptist-affiliated.

[edit] Notable alumni

John S. Battle, (1890 - 1972), Governor of Virginia from 1950 to 1954, served on President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Civil Rights Commission. Attended Mars Hill when it was a junior college, later earned a law degree from the University of Virginia.
William L. Brown, (1922 - 2005), President and CEO of the Bank of Boston from 1971 - 1989. Doubled the bank's assets from $18 billion to $36 billion before his retirement.
Dr. Dan Locklair (born 1949), Professor of Music at Wake Forest University, internationally-known composer who has won awards from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His work "The Peace May Be Exchanged" was performed at the funeral service for President Ronald Reagan at the Washington National Cathedral.
Graham Martin, (1912 - 1990), Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Ambassador to Thailand (1963-1969); U.S. Ambassador to Italy (1969-1973); U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam (1973-1975). He was the last ambassador to South Vietnam before that nation collapsed and fell to Communist forces from North Vietnam in 1975. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Dr. Wayne Oates (1917 - 1999), psychologist and minister at the University of Louisville medical school who fused psychology and theology to create many of the practices used in modern pastoral counseling. He is also credited with coining the word "workaholic".
Dr. Kenneth E. Peacock (born 1948), Chancellor of Appalachian State University since 2004.
Dr. Tina Pippin (born 1956), Chair of the Religious Studies department at Agnes Scott College; she is an expert on feminist interpretation of the Bible, and in apocalyptic literature.
Dr. David Price (born 1940), United States Congressman from North Carolina's Fourth District from 1987-1995 and 1997 to the present. After graduating from Mars Hill, he earned divinity and doctoral degrees from Yale University and taught political science at Duke University.
Dr. H. Dean Propst (born 1934), Chancellor Emeritus of the University System of Georgia; holds a doctorate in education from Vanderbilt University.
Liston B. Ramsey (1919 - 2001), North Carolina state legislator who served 19 terms in the state assembly. He was elected Speaker of the State House of Representatives four times in the 1980s, and was the first legislator in the state's history to have been elected to the Speaker's office for four terms.
Eugene L. Roberts, Jr., (born 1932), National Editor of The New York Times from 1969 - 1972; Executive Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1972 - 1990; Managing Editor of The New York Times from 1990 - 1997. In 2007 he won the Pulitzer Prize in history for his book The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation.
Lacy Thornburg, (born 1929), North Carolina State Attorney General from 1985 - 1993; United States Federal District Judge for Western North Carolina, 1995 - Present.
LaVonda Wagner, (born 1964), Head Women's Basketball Coach at Oregon State University, assistant coach at the University of Illinois from 1994 - 2002 and at Duke University from 2002 - 2005. Named the Oregon State Women's Coach of the Year by the Corvallis Gazette-Times in 2006; she is also a WNBA television analyst for the Fox Sports Network (FSN).