Presidents of Georgetown College

Samuel Smythe Hill    1942-1953

When Samuel Smythe Hill assumed the presidency, the college, physically and financially, was in a depressed condition.  Enrollment was down, a deficit in spending was expected, and the physical plant was in a state of disrepair.

  Born to Sterling Price and Eldora Jane (Stowe) Hill, in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1890, Hill was one of eleven children.  He received his early education in the county’s country schools and a military academy.  In 1917, he attained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond.  Before entering Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, in 1921, he taught in high schools and preached in rural churches of Virginia.  He earned Doctor of Theology degrees at Southern 1929.  While studying at the seminary, he pastored the First Baptist Church in New Albany, Indiana.  Before leaving Louisville to pastor the Bainbridge Street Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, Hill married Mary L. Brown of Bardstown, Kentucky.  They had two children--Samuel, Jr., and Mary Jane.  In 1934, Dr. Hill brought his family back to Kentucky when he accepted the pastorate of the Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville. He remained there until 1942, when he became president of Georgetown College.

    During his tenure, Hill initiated the largest capital improvements program in the college’s history up to that time.  The centerpiece was the construction of John L. Hill Chapel, which was completed in 1949.  Named in honor of an 1899 alumnus, who was a faculty member and first dean of the college, the chapel replaced the one that burned in 1930.  Academic facilities also received great attention.  A music building and a new library were built, and the physics building, built in 1861, was converted into general classrooms.  Living space for male students and faculty were created, and a modern kitchen and cafeteria were constructed in the dining hall.  He also saw the college through the World War II era, when enrollments dropped as students went to war.  Overall, however, the number of students attending Georgetown College rose from 250 in 1942 to a high of 750 in 1947.  Dr. Hill left the presidency in 1953.  He was pastor of Belle Glade Baptist Church in Belle Glade, Florida when he died on February 3, 1961.     

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