Presidents of Georgetown College

Arthur Yager   1908-1913

            Arthur Yager, the first lay president and the third alumni of Georgetown College,  assumed the presidency of a college in excellent financial condition.  The quality of the faculty remained high, enrollment looked solid, and the physical plant provided a sense of stability.

Born on October 29, 1858, in Henry County, Kentucky, to Franklin Jackson and Diana (Smith) Yager, Yager earned his A. B. and A.M. degrees in 1879 and 1882 respectively from Georgetown College.  While working on his master’s degree, he headed the college’s Academy.  Yager then went to Johns Hopkins University in 1882 to work on his doctorate, which he received two years later.  He returned to Georgetown College and became professor of history, economics, and political science, a position he held until his resignation as president in 1913.  On three occasions, he was chairman of the faculty (1898-1901, 1903-1904, and 1905-1907).  Eight years after starting his teaching career at Georgetown, he married Estill Lewis.  They had four children.

Yager became very active in community improvement projects and politics.  He helped rally support among Kentucky Democrats against the “Free-Silver” issue in 1896, and played a prominent role in the campaigns of William Lindsay, one Kentucky’s two United States senators at the time.  He also supported projects to improve the quality of life in Georgetown.  During his presidency, he actively worked to establish a hospital, build a library, and prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages.  He also led a local development board, which attracted a manufacturer of petroleum products.   When it looked as though the Indian Oil Company would shut down because of increased rail transportation rates, Yager headed a committee that tried to resolve the situation, but failed.

When Yager became president in 1908, he built on foundations laid by President Dudley.  The challenge grant that President Gray had gained from the Rockefeller Foundation remained unmet.  Rockefeller promised the college $75,000 if the college could raise $25,000.  The money was to be used as new endowment.  Gray’s short tenure and Taylor’s stormy relations with the trustees hampered efforts in achieving the goal, but Yager met the challenge.  Yager’s other major contributions focused on academics.  He successfully defended liberal arts education at Georgetown College at a time when some Baptists were attacking it as leading young men and women away from traditional Baptist values in favor of secular ones, and he helped the college’s graduates win their first Rhodes Scholarships.  While Yager was chairman of selection committee in Kentucky (1905-1913), three Georgetown graduates went to Oxford University as Rhodes Scholars.

In 1913, Yager left Georgetown College to accept an appointment as governor of Puerto Rico from President Woodrow Wilson, a former classmate at Johns Hopkins University.   As governor, he reformed local government and secured some privileges enjoyed by American citizens for Puerto Ricans.  He remained until the end of Wilson’s presidency, and then returned to Louisville, Kentucky, to be a visiting lecturer.  Yager continued his political involvement by running unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for Congress from Kentucky’s fifth congressional district.  He died in 1941 in Pewee Valley, Kentucky.

Please direct inquiries to Dr. Glen Taul