Foye G. Gibson

Dr. Foye G. Gibson, a 1927 graduate of Emory & Henry, was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame in 1974 for his contributions to the college sports program during his tenure as president.

After graduating from Emory & Henry, he attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University and became a United Methodist minister. In 1941, he assumed presidency of E&H, a post he held until becoming president of Scarritt College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1956. In later years, Gibson was an administrator of retirement homes.

During Gibson’s tenure at E&H, the school underwent a significant amount of construction and renovation of academic and residential halls. He steered the college through a difficult drop in enrollment during World War II and earned a reputation for his fiscal prowess. He is credited with upgrading academic standards, tripling the number of faculty and staff, tripling the level of endowment, establishing a faculty retirement plan, and adopting a tenure policy for professors. He also developed the campus duck pond and personally captured some wild ducks from the Holston river to populate it. And, of course, he was a chief supporter of the college’s sports programs.

Over the years, Gibson was honored by numerous groups. He has received honorary doctorates from Emory & Henry and from Randolph-Macon College, the DeFriece Award for service to the humanities, and the national award for United Methodist Administrator of the year in 1972. In 1978, he was inducted into The Ancient and Honorable Society of True Tennessee Mountain Men.

Gibson, a native of Bristol, Tennessee, died on November 16, 1981 at the age of 78.