Blount Library Blog

Treasures from the Averett Archives: The President That Time Forgot, Part II

After stumbling across the six-month Acting Presidency of George Swann in February of 2025, I decided to take a closer look at another place where a Presidential medical crisis might have left a previously overlooked window for an interim president: the final few years of J.T. Averett's presidency, when he was wheelchair-bound following a stroke.  Although the results were less clear-cut than that with Swann, as it turns out there was indeed another unknown 'President' hiding in that time-frame.

Allow me to introduce you to John Caldwell Calhoun (J.C.C.) Dunford - pictured to the right - the "Assistant President" of Roanoke Female College from fall 1890 through spring of 1892.

Unlike all other short-term Presidents and Principals in Averett's history, Dunford was not an emergency stop-gap after a sudden death or departure.  He was, rather, a conscious addition to the college's administrative ranks intended to remove some of the burden of the Presidency from the unexpectedly crippled J.T. Averett - a junior grade co-President, more or less.

It is tempting to assert that Dunford was primarily a teacher - something which Mr. Averett could no longer provide.  The courses which had been taught by Mr. Averett and by A.T.L. Kusian (a longtime teacher who had departed for Hollins College after the spring of 1890) were split between Dunford and another newly hired teacher, Mary A. Lacy.  (As was common at the time, Dunford's wife Olivia also joined the faculty for the two years they were here.)

Nonetheless, it would be surprising if Dunford hadn't also been actively taking part in the traditional work of the Presidency.  If he wasn't, why call him "Assistant President" at all?  In these early years, the President's role was less a fundraiser and more of a combination of administrator and admissions officer.  It was, in fact, the job of the President to round up students to meet enrollment goals.  As this could involve significant travel, J.T. Averett's need for a wheelchair could have been a significant barrier to the college's financial well-being without an 'Assistant President' to aid in those tasks.  It seems telling, then, that all known advertising for the college in these two years include the names of both Averett and Dunford, and at least one (in the July 1890 issue of Biblical Recorder) specifically says that inquiries can be addressed to "either of the Presidents."  At minimum, then, Dunford appears to have been co-responsible for recruitment.

It is likewise important to note that Dunford's later career trajectory included multiple solo-Presidencies; following his time at Roanoke Female College, Dunford was Principal of Fair View Collegiate Institute in North Carolina, followed by a stint as the President of Clinton College in Arkansas a few years later.  He was clearly considered capable of running an institution of higher learning.  It thus seems unreasonable to think he was simply a glorified teacher in his two years at Roanoke Female College.

Sadly, any sense of Dunford's administrative value to the school must remain conjecture, as he did not take the obvious next step: ascent to full control of the school after J.T. Averett's retirement.  That honor - if so it can be called, considering the school's constant financial turmoil - went to C.F. James.  Indeed, the fact of Dunford's failure to take sole charge, the failure to even mention Dunford in any later histories of the college, and James's mid-1890s financial difficulties, may all ultimately indicate that Averett and Dunford hadn't done particularly strong work in the early 1890s, and had left the school in a relatively precarious state.