Office of the President Records: Archie Max Lennon
Collection
Identifier: Series-0103
This series contains budget documents, correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings and search committee files. The series spans 1978-1995 with the vast bulk of the material from 1992 through 1994 when Max Lennon served as President of Clemson University. There are some records related to the search for the Vice President for Academic Affairs, 1978-1980 that apparently were kept in the Presidents Office longer than other files from the Atchley presidency.
Noteworthy subjects included in this series are budgetary matters related to the Presidents Office, the Provost search and the athletic program. The files reflect the Office of the President's alphabetical/subject filing system for the period and are arranged alphabetically by folder title or the last name of the correspondent. The documents within correspondence folders are arranged alphabetically while the subject folders are in chronological order. Office of the President Records from Lennon's successor, Phil Prince, have been separated into Series 102.
There is one box of files concerning personnel and students that is restricted.
A native North Carolinian, Archie Max Lennon was born in Columbus County on September 27, 1940, to Denver H. and Mary Kelly Lennon. Lennon attended Mars Hill College graduating with an associate degree in agriculture in 1960. He received a bachelor of science degree in Animal Science from North Carolina State University in 1962 and proceeded to operate a diversified crop and livestock farm in Evergreen North Carolina. In 1966, he returned to North Carolina State and focused upon studying swine nutrition, his 1970 dissertation being "Soy Flour as a Protein Source for Early-Weaned Pigs."
Lennon was appointed an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science at Texas Tech in 1970. Two years later he left Tech and went to work for Central Soya Company on research for swine feeds but returned to Texas Tech in 1974 as Professor and Chair of the Department of Animal Science. In 1980, he accepted the position of Chair of the Animal Husbandry Department at the University of Missouri's Columbia campus and then within six months was promoted to Dean of the College and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. Three years later, Lennon moved to Ohio State as Vice President of Agricultural Administration and Executive Dean for Agriculture, Home Economics, and Natural Resources. In early 1986 Lennon accepted the presidency of Clemson University and began work on March 1, 1986.
The years of the Lennon Presidency at Clemson were marked by successful efforts to increase private giving and funding for directed research. A number of research initiatives such as The Institute for Wildlife Ecology and Toxicology were established and a major building program for University facilities such as the Madren Conference and Continuing Education Center proceeded. University-wide long range planning was undertaken as well as the implementation of total quality management (TQM). The student body grew to over 16,000 by 1989 at a time when the University suffered a decline in state support as a percentage of its budget. The athletic program witnessed the resignation of two football coaches during Lennon's administration and was the subject of public concern. As the state's formula funding for Clemson reached an all time low, programs throughout the University suffered serious cutbacks. Faced with a potential vote by all faculty regarding his leadership, Max Lennon resigned on February 26, 1994, and left Clemson during July of 1994. After working briefly with Eastern Foods, he accepted the presidency of Mars Hill in December 1995.
1.8 Cubic Feet (6 document boxes)
English
This series contains budget documents, correspondence, memoranda, reports, newspaper clippings and search committee files organized in an alphabetical subject file.
These records originated in the President's Office and are part of accessions 99-13 and 02-4.
Michael Kohl processed this series in 2006 with help from student assistant Emily Estes.
The conversion of this finding aid to Encoded Archival Description format was made possible with a grant from the South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board in 2009-2010. The finding aid was prepared for encoding by Jen Bingham.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository