Presidents

The Troika

Henry Bowden, Chair, Board of Trustees

Judson Ward, Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculties

Chancellor Goodrich C. White

If the long, hard quest for Goodrich White's successor had its perils, the year of searching for White's successor's successor was no less interesting. When Walter Martin stepped down from the presidency at the end of June 1962, the trustees appointed three men to run the University until the trustees could find a new president. Comprising Henry Bowden, the chair of the board; Judson Ward, the executive vice president and dean of the faculties; and Chancellor White, the threesome became known as "The Troika." It was the heyday of the Cold War; students dubbed the Administration Building "The Kremlin." They would soon see other edifices even more bunker-like.

While the administrative arrangement may have been unorthodox, the interim year bore some good fruit. Through the spring and summer of 1962, the University successfully carried its suit to the Supreme Court of Georgia to overturn a statute impeding Emory's enrollment of black students. With a ruling in Emory's favor on September 15 of that year, the first African American student enrolled in the School of Dentistry. Bowden, who along with Law School Dean Ben F. Johnson Jr. had led the charge, was awarded the Alexander Meiklejohn Award by the American Association of University Professors.