Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com...rsity-reaches-new-heights-with-Payton-at-helm
TUSKEGEE -- The year was 1981, and Benjamin Payton was happily ensconced in New York, where he had a rewarding job with the Ford Foundation.
It also was the 100th anniversary of what then was known as Tuskegee Institute.
Payton wasn't looking for another job at the time, but his name was well-known to search committee leaders who believed he was the right man to succeed Luther Foster, who was retiring after serving 28 years as president.
Actually, it didn't take that much of a selling job to get Payton to leave the "Big Apple" with all its attractions for a tiny town in Alabama where there aren't that many sidewalks to roll up.
Members of the search committee already had gone through 300 applications and couldn't find anybody they felt was right to continue the stellar work of the legendary Booker T. Washington and carried on by three successors.
TUSKEGEE -- The year was 1981, and Benjamin Payton was happily ensconced in New York, where he had a rewarding job with the Ford Foundation.
It also was the 100th anniversary of what then was known as Tuskegee Institute.
Payton wasn't looking for another job at the time, but his name was well-known to search committee leaders who believed he was the right man to succeed Luther Foster, who was retiring after serving 28 years as president.
Actually, it didn't take that much of a selling job to get Payton to leave the "Big Apple" with all its attractions for a tiny town in Alabama where there aren't that many sidewalks to roll up.
Members of the search committee already had gone through 300 applications and couldn't find anybody they felt was right to continue the stellar work of the legendary Booker T. Washington and carried on by three successors.