Annie Dove Denmark

Denmark accepted her first teaching position in 1908, shortly after her graduation from college,[8] and taught during the 1908–1909 academic year at Buies Creek Academy—now Campbell University—in Buies Creek, North Carolina.[8] One student that she taught at Buies Creek was Bessie Campbell, the daughter of J. A. Campbell, later made the namesake of the school.[9] She received a net monthly salary of $36 (equivalent to $1,086 in 2021) in this position, being paid a total of $45 (equivalent to $1,357 in 2021) monthly and spending $9 (equivalent to $271 in 2021) on board.[8] This salary was sufficient to send her to New York City during the summer of 1909, where she studied under pianist and teacher Rafael Joseffy.[8] After her return to New York, Denmark moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she taught for one year at the Tennessee College for Women as the instructor of piano.[8] She then took the same position at Shorter College—now Shorter University—in Rome, Georgia, where she stayed from 1910 to 1916.[8] In addition to teaching piano at Shorter, she also taught a Sunday school class for young women at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in Rome.[7] During the 1916–1917 academic year, she traveled back to New York to study at the Virgil Piano School under Alberto Jonás.[8] Denmark joined the faculty of Anderson College—now Anderson University—in Anderson, South Carolina, as the instructor of piano and harmony in 1917.[8] For her first eight years at Anderson, Denmark took a role as director of religious activities in addition to teaching.[13] While teaching at Anderson, Denmark continued her own studies. For many summers she traveled to Chautauqua, New York, to attend the Chautauqua Institute,[lower-alpha 4] and she took classes outside of her teaching schedule at Anderson during the school year.[14] She eventually earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Anderson in 1925.[14][lower-alpha 1] That same year, Denmark was appointed dean of women by President John E. White, a position she kept for three years.[8]

White resigned as president of Anderson effective September 1, 1927, leaving the position vacant.[18] A committee formed from three members of the school's Board of Trustees was created in order to name his successor.[18] R. H. Holliday, the business manager of the school, was named acting president in the intervening three months[19] while the new permanent president was being selected.[18] Denmark was not the first choice of the Board of Trustees: Dr. Charles E. Burts and Dr. R. C. Burts, brothers who were both from Newberry, South Carolina, each refused the job, and Dr. A. J. Barton, from Nashville, Tennessee, could not agree to terms with the Board and therefore did not take the job either.[18] Though little is known about the exact events that led to Denmark's election, it is known that her name was put forward for consideration by college trustee J. Dexter Brown[20] and that the Board of Trustees were in unanimous support of her appointment to the presidency when asked at their meeting on December 15, 1927.[18]

Denmark pictured in the 1930 edition of The Sororian, the final yearbook published by Anderson as a women's college

Denmark took office and became Anderson's fifth president on January 1, 1928.[21][lower-alpha 5] In doing so, she became the school's second lay president.[22] She is commonly cited as the first woman college president in South Carolina,[23][24] though she was predated in this distinction by Euphemia McClintock some 26 years earlier.[25][26] Denmark was formally inaugurated as president just over a year later, on February 14, 1929.[7] Her inauguration ceremony was well-attended by leaders in higher education throughout the southeast.[12] She marked the occasion of her inauguration by declaring that day to be the inaugural observation of the college's annual Founders Day, recognizing the anniversary of the granting of the college charter on February 14, 1911.[7] The Founders Day ceremony was often accompanied by a guest speaker, including people such as Clemson president E. Walter Sikes[7] and South Carolina first lady Gladys Atkinson Johnston, an Anderson graduate and the wife of governor Olin D. Johnston.[27] Denmark inherited the college's debt of $60,000 (equivalent to $946,860 in 2021) upon taking office, as well as the school's lack of an endowment.[23] She spoke three times to the Board of Trustees at meetings between January and May 1928, concluding one speech with the line, "What are you trustees willing to sacrifice for Anderson College?", and then pledging a gift of $5,000 (equivalent to $78,905 in 2021) to the school, to be paid over the next few years.[28]

As the school entered the 1930s and the onset of the Great Depression, it fought to maintain membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which required members to have an endowment of no less than $500,000 (equivalent to $8,110,558 in 2021), of which Anderson at this point had built up not even one-fifth.[29] This, among other reasons, contributed to a decision by Denmark and the trustees to convert Anderson to a junior college.[30] The trustees voted in favor of this plan and it was brought before the Baptist State Convention on December 4, 1929, at their meeting in Spartanburg. It was approved after much debate.[31] Anderson opened its doors as a junior college for the first time at the start of the 1930–1931 academic year,[32] making it the first junior college in the state.[15] The college became co-educational the following year, as it admitted its first male students in 1931.[15] Two years following the switch, enrollment had increased by 27 percent. The college reported a total of 199 enrolled students in 1931–1932.[33] Around this time Denmark published White Echoes, a collection of sermons preached by her predecessor, John E. White, during his time in charge of Anderson's First Baptist Church.[34]

Much of the administration's attention was focused on the school's financial troubles and the establishment of a college radio broadcasting station for the next several years.[35] The debt grew larger as the middle of the decade neared and in 1935–1936 the college was paying $3,600 (equivalent to $71,152 in 2021) yearly in interest alone to the Hibernia Trust Company.[36] Denmark and the trustees planned a large dinner to spur the fundraising campaign on April 6, 1936, though the dinner was canceled after an F2 tornado struck the city of Anderson that afternoon[37]—one that was part of a larger outbreak over the course of that and the previous day—resulting in one death and thirty injuries[38] in addition to the loss of two mills in town and damage to some buildings on Anderson's campus.[39] The college did, however, collect $20,000 (equivalent to $390,552 in 2021) as a result of their storm insurance policy, which went towards restoring the heating plant and other general refurbishments.[39] The school administration won a significant victory two years later when, on May 23, 1938, the South Carolina Baptist Convention assisted in paying the remainder of Anderson's debt, bringing many of the school's financial woes to a close.[40]

Enrollment climbed over the next few years and spiked noticeably after World War II; 42 of 53 men that enrolled at Anderson in 1946–1947 were veterans, largely a result of the G.I. Bill, the school enrolled a record 409 students that academic year in total.[41] Denmark also helped to increase pay for Anderson faculty on multiple occasions: in May 1944, she recommended a "slight increase" in their salaries and introduced a salary bonus in March 1946.[42] The college, still in some need of funds and a stable endowment, received $60,000 (equivalent to $833,754 in 2021) from the Baptist State Convention sometime between 1946 and 1947, which was put to use in modernizing some of the campus's buildings.[43] In 1944, Denmark and other school administration worked to implement an honor code for the college under which students would be tried by their classmates,[44] though some infractions (such as the possession of alcohol) meant a student would be subject to expulsion with no debate.[45] Throughout her presidency, Denmark kept close the college's ties with the church, as chapel attendance remained a requirement for all students, five days a week, up to and through her resignation.[46]

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees on April 23, 1952, Denmark announced her resignation as president of the college, saying,

I am herewith tendering you to as representing the Baptist State Convention of South Carolina, my resignation to take effect on January 1, 1953, or as soon thereafter as my successor can be found.[47]

This date represented the 25th anniversary, to the day, of the beginning of her term, though her successor was ultimately not found until several months later.[48] The trustees were quite surprised by this request and did not accept her resignation until the conclusion of the meeting, when Denmark insisted that they do so.[48] Denmark gave her final president's report on January 22, 1953; at the same meeting, president-elect Elmer Francis Haight was introduced to the trustees.[49] "Denmark Day" was celebrated on Founders Day of that year—February 14, 1953—during which the retiring president was honored by many former students and other guests of the college.[50] Denmark's official duties as president came to a close following the commencement exercises of May 22, 1953.[51] President Haight began his duties as Anderson's sixth president the following month.[51]

During her presidency, Denmark held a number of other positions within higher education: she led the Southern Association of Colleges for Women as its president from 1934 to 1935,[52] was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Baptist Women's Missionary Union Training School in Louisville, Kentucky, and was the first women to hold an office in the Baptist State Convention when she was its vice president in 1950.[15]

• American Women: The Official Who's Who Among the Women of the Nation. American Publications. 1935. OCLC 1196378808.
• Copeland, Kathryn (2011). Millwood, Linda; Martin, Anne Marie; Wade, Bethany (eds.). Dr. Annie Dove Denmark, South Carolina's First Female College President. Charleston, South Carolina: History Press. ISBN 9781609492120. OCLC 730005366.
• Grazulis, T. P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes, 1680–1991. Environmental Films. ISBN 9781879362031. OCLC 29191441.
• Hester, Hubert Inman (1969). They That Wait: A History of Anderson College. Anderson, South Carolina: Anderson College. OCLC 118105.
• White, John Ellington; Denmark, Annie Dove (1932). White Echoes: A Volume of Echoes from Sermons Preached by John Ellington White During His Pastorate of the First Baptist Church, Anderson, S.C. Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. OCLC 6511510.
• Wood, Joyce (2011). Anderson University. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738587158. OCLC 663953618.