History of Piedmont College - The Walter Years

The Walter Years

The Board of Trustees in 1949 allowed Van Cleave to resume the office of the Dean while James E. Walter would become the 9th president. Walter’s presidency was by far the longest in the history of the college as he was president for 34 years. The first major issue that Walter had to tackle was getting the endowment fund up to $500,000 which was $350,000 more than it was when he took office. In his first ten years, Walter was able to raise over $450,000 and bring the endowment fund to an acceptable level.

By June 1953, Walter had won the appreciation for outstanding service and devotion to the college. On June 29 of the same year, TIME magazine said, “Of all U.S. college presidents, James E. Walter of Congregational Piedmont college in Demorest, Georgia is probably the most tenacious.””

Walter did have his fair share of hatred. In the early 1950s Walter accepted a gift of $500 per month from the “anti-Semitic, anti-Negro Judge George Armstrong’s Texas Education Association.” After firing Piedmont’s treasurer for speaking out against the gift, Walter received 106 letters from faculty and students requesting his resignation. Walter dealt with the unhappiness, and continued as president so he could continue to help the college.

In 1951, Walter invited retired General George Van Horn Moseley to speak. Students and faculty protested because of Mosley's racist and anti-semetic views. TIME called him a "trumpeter for Aryan supremacy." One faculty member was fired for speaking in opposition to the speaking engagement. Calls for the president's resignation followed. Almost the entire faculty and 9 trustees resigned in the next two years and enrollment fell by two thirds.

Piedmont received accreditation was achieved in 1965. Walter had increased the endowment fund into the double-digit million-dollar mark by 1982. Walter had decided that his time as president needed to come to an end and in 1983 he retired.