Presidents of Georgetown College

Henry Noble Sherwood    1934-1942

             Georgetown College was still struggling to survive when Sherwood assumed his duties in the Fall of 1934.  Sherwood discovered shortly after his arrival that he would have to contend with more than the Depression in stabilizing the college’s finances.

Henry Noble Sherwood was born in 1882, in Mitchell, Indiana.  He received most of his education in his home state, receiving A.B. (1909) and Ph.D. (1914) degrees from Indiana University.  In between, he earned an M.A. (1910) from Harvard University.  He devoted his career to higher education, teaching from 1911-23 at Wisconsin State Teachers College in LaCrosse, the University of Cincinnati, and Franklin College, Indiana, where he also became dean.  During his time at Franklin, he entered the ministry, serving as pastor, while also teaching, of the Baptist church in Franklin for nine years. In 1924, he was elected as a Republican to be Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, receiving 60,000 more votes than his party’s successful candidate for governor.  

After his tenure as state school superintendent, Sherwood spent most of his remaining years in Kentucky. He was a professor of history at the University of Louisville from 1928 until the trustees of Georgetown College called him as president in 1934.

Sherwood’s appointment sparked intense criticism from Kentucky Baptists.  At its 1934 annual meeting in Henderson, Kentucky, the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky passed a resolution demanding the revocation of Sherwood’s appointment, or the Association’s annual contribution to Georgetown would be stopped.  The Association objected to Sherwood’s baptism in a Disciples of Christ church, and did not accept his baptism in an Indiana Baptist church, or that he had pastored a Baptist church.  The trustees responded by supporting Sherwood, saying that Sherwood was a scholar, educator, administrator, Christian gentleman, and Baptist.  Despite an attempt at compromise by the trustees and representatives of the Association, Kentucky Baptists impounded its contribution to the college.

           Despite the turmoil, Sherwood re-established the college’s stability.  Faculty members received their back pay; income was exceeding expenses; bonds were issued to pay the $134,000 debt; enrollment grew as a result of his recruiting efforts; professors offered courses at centers in surrounding towns; and the school started programs in elementary education and secretarial studies.  He and others organized the Bradley Society on campus, the first step in establishing a Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Georgetown.  A Phi Beta Kappa, Sherwood remained active in the Kentucky chapter.

The controversy over Sherwood’s baptism continued.  In 1941, Kentucky Baptists voted to continue impounding the funds it usually gave to Georgetown.  The college needed the $47,000 in funds that Kentucky Baptists had set aside.  The rapid drafting of students caused enrollment to drop by 18 percent, creating a projected deficit of $3,000.  Just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the trustees, in a special meeting, voted not to renew Sherwood’s contract.

            After leaving Georgetown College in 1942, Sherwood accepted a temporary position as assistant editor of publications, at the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture.  Before leaving in 1944, he was professor and acting chairman of political science.  He served two years as chancellor of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, when he resigned to become the president of the Board of Higher Education for the Disciples of Christ in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He retired in 1950 and returned to Louisville, where he died on February 25, 1956.  His wife followed him in death seven months later.

 During his life, he authored Makers of the New World, Man’s Growing Idea of God, and Our Country’s Beginnings, which was used in Louisville, Kentucky’s public schools during the late 1920s.  Another book was used as a textbook for civics in prisoner of war camps.

           While pursuing his undergraduate degree, Sherwood married Adda Angeline Henderickson of Williams, Indiana.  They had two daughters.

Please direct inquiries to Dr. Glen Taul