Herman Lee Donovan served as President of the University of
Kentucky for fifteen years, from 1941 until 1956. Donovan, an educator by
training and profession, guided the University through the crises of racial
integration and of World War II and its aftermath. Like his predecessors, he
fought vigorously to extend faculty rights and to improve salaries for his
professors. He also sought to enhance the status and image of the University by
recruiting exceptional young talent and increasing the number of Extension
services offered in the Central Kentucky region.
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| Herman and Nell Donovan |
Donovan was born in 1887, in Mason County, Kentucky.
Graduating from Western Kentucky State Normal School (now Western Kentucky
University) in 1908, he married Nell James Stuart of Pembroke, Kentucky in
1909. He earned an A.B. degree from State University (University of Kentucky)
in 1914, an M.A.in 1920 from Columbia Teachers College (later, Columbia
University), and in 1925 a Ph.D. from George Peabody College for Teachers, in
Nashville. In 1921 Donovan took a professorial position at Eastern Kentucky
State Normal School (later, Eastern Kentucky University) and in 1928 became
president of that institution. Upon the retirement of President Frank McVey, he
was selected as the University of Kentucky's fourth president in 1941.
The first problem confronting the Donovan administration was
the effect on the campus of the Second World War, which the United States
entered late in the new president's inaugural year. The U.S. declaration of war
against the Axis powers resulted in the departure of male students from the
campus and a general decrease in the enrollment of men. To alleviate the
demographic pressures created by this situation, the University made available early
graduate programs to R.O.T.C. enlistees and to students drafted into the armed
forces. It directly assisted the war effort by placing its facilities at the
disposal of the Army Specialized Training Program, which provided for the
training of officers serving in the Army Corps of Engineers.
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Aerial view of Coopertown, Veterans' housing project at the
University of Kentucky, 1947
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The conclusion of the war brought a massive influx of
veterans onto the campus, who qualified for the higher education benefit of the
General Issue (G.I.) Bill. To provide for badly needed student housing, Donovan
procured funds from the federal government for the purchase of prefabricated
student living quarters, resulting in the construction of the residential
"village" of Cooperstown to house the veterans and their families.
Donovan staunchly defended the principle of academic
freedom, opposing attempts in 1951 to bring the University under the control of
the State Department of Education in curricular matters, as well as proposals
by legislators and religious leaders a year later to require a loyalty oath on
the part of University employees.
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Lyman Johnson, right, and Kentucky State University
President R. B. Atwood, leave federal district court in Lexington, after the
court ruled in favor of Johnson's admission to the University of Kentucky, 1949
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The year 1949 witnessed the beginnings of the successful
racial integration of the University of Kentucky. Lyman T. Johnson's
application for admission to the Graduate School, at first denied on the basis
of Kentucky's segregationist Day Law, was subsequently ordered approved by
court action and Johnson was admitted, albeit off-campus, to the graduate
program in history that year. With the matriculation of the first
"class" of African-Americans in the fall of 1954, the official
academic segregation of the campus was effectively ended. Donovan's approach to
the issue, essentially cautious and low-key throughout, resulted in a continuance
for years to come, of a de facto separation of the races in classrooms and
campus social situations.
Positive developments on the campus were evidenced in a
number of other areas. The President encouraged faculty members to communicate
with and establish professional relationships with their academic counterparts
in other institutions of higher learning. In order to attract new students, he
pushed for the opening in 1955 of a northern Extension center in Covington.
Moreover, a new Department of Geography and a College of Pharmacy were
established in 1944 and 1957, respectively, and impetus was given the preliminary
development of a Medical School in 1955.
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Celebration dinner after UK victory over Oklahoma in the
Sugar Bowl, New Year's Day, 1951; pictured from right, Charles Grenrod, Ab
Kirwan, Betty Kirwan, Governor A. B. Chandler, Athletics Director Bernie
Shively, Mrs. Chandler, UK President Herman Donovan; others are unidentified;
photographer: Leon Price Picture Service, 1951
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Major team sports flourished during this time. The hiring of
Paul "Bear" Bryant in 1946 as football coach resulted in a string of
lucrative winning seasons. Basketball, however, maintained its dominance and
produced a number of championship teams, despite setbacks to its reputation
occasioned in 1951 by the emergence of a point-shaving scandal implicating
several of the 1948-49 players.
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Cars parked in front of Donovan Hall. Donovan Hall was named
after former University of Kentucky President Herman L. Donovan. On May 30,
1955, the dedication occurred, 1957
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In 1956 Donovan stepped down as president of the institution
he had led through a world war and into a post-war period of unprecedented
growth and affluence. For him retirement brought a variety of avocational
pursuits. Always a prolific essayist and pamphleteer, he continued writing
articles and produced a book, Keeping the
University Free and Growing (1959). Donovan served as director of the
Lexington Chamber of Commerce, the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation, and the
Kentucky Home Mutual Life Insurance Company. He died in Lexington on November
21, 1964.
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