18 Facts About Edwin Alderman

Edwin Anderson Alderman served as the president of three universities.

Edwin Alderman's goal was the transformation of the Southern university into a force for state service and intellectual leadership.

Edwin Alderman successfully professionalized and modernized Virginia's system of higher education.

Edwin Alderman promoted international standards of scholarship and a statewide network of extension services.

Edwin Alderman's crusade encountered some resistance from traditionalists and never challenged the Jim Crow system of segregated schooling.

Edwin Alderman was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, on May 15,1861.

Edwin Alderman was son of James and Susan Alderman, grandson of Patrick and Susan Alderman and descended from Scotch and English ancestors, who emigrated in 1774 and settled on Lower Cape Fear at North Carolina.

Edwin Alderman was prepared for college at the schools in Wilmington and at Bethel Military Academy, Virginia, from 1876 to 1878.

Edwin Alderman became a schoolteacher in Goldsboro, North Carolina, superintendent of city schools there, from 1885 to 1889, and conductor of the state teachers' institutes, from 1889 to 1892.

Edwin Alderman was elected a member of the American Historical Association in 1892, member of the Maryland Historical Society in 1893, and member of the National Education Association in 1894.

In 1892 Edwin Alderman became professor of history at State Normal College and taught there until 1893 when he became professor of pedagogy at the University of North Carolina, and he was named president of that institution in 1896, then he moved on to take the same position at Tulane University in 1900, before moving again to the University of Virginia in 1904.

Edwin Alderman is buried at the University of Virginia Cemetery.

Edwin Alderman was a noted public speaker, and won fame for his memorial address for Woodrow Wilson, delivered to a joint session of Congress on December 15,1924.

Edwin Alderman was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1925.

Edwin Alderman was not the first choice for the new office.

Edwin Alderman began to serve in the fall of 1904 but was not formally inaugurated until April 13,1905.

Edwin Alderman spent two-thirds of his long-term at the University of Virginia physically disabled after a bad bout with tuberculosis.

In September 2019, fliers quoting racist comments made by Edwin Alderman were anonymously posted around the University's campus.