Leonidas Polk Family Papers

-3-

fathers that begat us.... Leaders of the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent in their instructions." (Ecclesiasticus 44:1,4.)

When we associate these familiar words of the son of Sirach with the history of the University of the South, what a galaxy of famous men -- bishops, priests, laymen -- rises before our eyes. As we glance backward along the illustrious line we recognize among others William Porcher DuBose, eminent theologian, founder of the School of Theology; John McCrady, Professor of the Relations of Religion to Science; Telfair Hodgson, Dean of the School of Theology and Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity; General Edmund Kirby-Smith, Professor of Mathematics; Major George R. Fairbanks, Commissioner of Buildings and Lands and Historian of the University; Charles Todd Quintard, Bishop of Tennessee, first Vice-Chancellor of the University and prime mover in its re-establishment following the War between the States. To these and to a host of other