Donald Dedmon

Donald Newton Dedmon (August 13, 1931 – February 13, 1998) was an American educator.

Dedmon was born in Wright County, Missouri, and received his undergraduate degree English and speech from Southwest Missouri State College (now Missouri State University) in 1953, and taught high school before earning an M.A. in speech in 1956, and doctorate degree in oral education from University of Iowa in 1961.

He taught at Saint Cloud State College, in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, from 1959 to 1962 and at Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale, from 1962 to 1964, when he became chair of the Department of Speech at Colorado State University. From 1966 to 1968 he also did communications consulting work for the pharmaceutical company Smith, Kline & French in Philadelphia.

He became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Marshall University in 1968, and was appointed executive vice president the following year, becoming acting president of the University in 1970 when the president resigned.In this role he led the campus through the November 14, 1970, plane crash in which 37 members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football squad, eight members of the coaching staff, 25 boosters, four flight crew members, and one employee of the charter company were killed. The team was returning home after a 17-14 loss against the East Carolina University Pirates (now their conference rivals) at Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina. David Strathairn portrays Donald Dedmon in the movie We Are Marshall.

His tenure was short at Marshall before becoming president of Radford University on March 20, 1972. Dr. Dedmon served in this capacity for more than twenty years, during which time the University experienced rapid growth and a major transition from a small women's college to a co-ed institution, before reaching university status in 1979. The enrollment tripled during this time span.

During his presidency, Dedmon fostered continued growth but also faced concerns about his governing style and Radford's academic standards. A year after his arrival, the student newspaper complained that the new president had staffed the administration in order to create a power base on campus. In 1975 the same paper published an article charging that Radford's emerging reputation as a party school arose from the institution's need to increase enrollment. A reputation for forsaking academics in favor of social life stuck to Radford University throughout Dedmon's tenure as president.

Dedmon was considered an eloquent orator who believed in emphasizing faculty teaching over research work by university professors. In 1983 a member of the university's administration was fired after clashing with Dedmon and complaining that ideas not coming from the president were blocked. Towards the end of his tenure Dedmon became increasingly entrenched and distant from the faculty who complained of his micromanagement.

His distance from the faculty was exacerbated when Dedmon spent much of the early 1990s away from Radford University first on sabbatical in Hawaii and later on medical leave during a lengthy recovery from a ruptured spleen. In 1993 after Dedmon waived the traditional six-year process, and granted tenure to his administrative assistant the faculty nearly passed a vote of no-confidence in the president.

Dedmon announced his retirement from Radford University on 9 June 1994, but officially held the presidency while on medical leave until 15 August 1995.His last public appearance at Radford University was in September 1995 when he spoke at the inauguration of his successor, Douglas Covington. Dedmon moved to South Florida where he spent the remainder of his life.He died in Naples, Florida in 1998.

The Dedmon Center at Radford University was named in his honor. The 58,000-square-foot athletic center opened in 1981.

Dedmon married Geraldine Mary Sanders, a native of Canada in 1957. They had two daughters.