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Arthur E. Morgan (1878-1975), president of Antioch College from 1920 to 1936, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in northern Minnesota. With a formal education limited to just three years of high school and six weeks at the University of Colorado, Morgan seemed an unlikely college president. He had instead received a broad experiential education, as a logger, surveyor, ranch hand, miner, typesetter, and even a beekeeper. It was in his father's engineering practice, however, that Morgan discovered his calling. In 1910 he formed Morgan Engineering Company, and he quickly developed a national reputation as a brilliant flood control engineer. In 1913 he became Chief Engineer of the Miami Conservancy District dam project in Dayton, Ohio, following that city's historic flood. Ever pragmatic, Morgan devised unorthodox flood control solutions,
such as the placement of "dry reservoirs" behind the dams that became public parks and a system of model workers' settlements. While his ideas frequently found him at odds with other experts, his designs most always worked, and in the case of the Miami Valley, it has not flooded since 1913.
As a vice president of the American Unitarian Association, he was appointed trustee of Antioch College in 1919 to look after Unitarian interests there. Though not trained as an educator, he had long maintained an interest in education. By 1920 he had formulated a plan for "industrial education," which stressed on-campus study alternated with off-campus work, a focus on broad general education, and an emphasis on the student's personal development. His fellow trustees declared him the obvious choice for president, and asked him to take the job. He became a tireless college promoter, launching the "New Antioch" into prominence in the national press. He fostered a climate of creativity for Antioch, inviting research activities, such as the Fels Institute for the Study of Human Development, to do their work on the campus.
Morgan's entrepreneurial spirit attracted industrialists such as Vernay Laboratories to Yellow Springs and inspired many an Antioch graduate to found businesses that directly served their own communities.
Although he retained his office until 1936, after 1933 Morgan had little time to concentrate on college affairs, since Franklin D. Roosevelt had appointed him director of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), perhaps the most ambitious public works project in human history. Bringing many of the lessons he learned in Ohio's Miami Valley, Morgan's TVA boasted low accident rates, high worker morale, and ingenious solutions to tame the wild Tennessee River. He ran afoul of politics, however, and in 1938 Morgan was fired by FDR for insubordination. He returned to Yellow Springs, and he maintained a strong interest in Antioch for the rest of his life, serving as a trustee for many years and as a perennial lecturer. In retirement he founded Community Service, Inc., to promote recognition and development of the small community, and authored several
books including Community of the Future & the Future of Community, Edward Bellamy, and Dams & Other Disasters.
For more information on Arthur Morgan, read Arthur Morgan Remembered (1991) by E. Morgan or contact Antiochiana.
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