Bob Jones Sr.

==Bob Jones University==
During the [[The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy|Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy]] of the 1920s, Jones grew increasingly concerned with the secularization of higher education. Children of church members were attending college, only to reject the faith of their parents. Jones later recalled that in 1924, his friend [[William Jennings Bryan]] had leaned over to him at a Bible conference service in [[Winona Lake, Indiana]], and said, "If schools and colleges do not quit teaching [[evolution]] as a fact, we are going to become a nation of atheists."<ref>Turner, 19</ref>

In the fall of 1925—shortly after the [[Scopes Trial]]—Jones and his wife were driving in south Florida talking about the need for an orthodox Christian college as an alternative to what he perceived to be loss of both state and denominational colleges to secularism. After stopping for some sandwiches, Jones announced, "just as a clap of thunder out of a clear sky," that he was going to found such a school. His wife's first response was, "Robert, are you crazy?"  Jones immediately turned the car north and began consulting with friends in Alabama and north Florida about a location.<ref>Johnson and Wright give no date for this event. Turner (23) says it occurred in “early April 1925,” but as late as August 29, 1925, Jones told an Alabama audience, “I can’t figure out why any man in Covington County would want to sell out and go to Florida.  This is the greatest country I know of.” ''Andalusia (AL) Daily Star'', August 29, 1925, 1.  Less than two months later he announced to a crowd in the Methodist church of Panama City, Florida, that he planned to establish an interdenominational college there in Bay County. ''Panama City Pilot'', October 22, 1925, 8.</ref>

On April 14, 1926, a charter was approved by the circuit court in [[Panama City, Florida]], and Jones promoted real estate sales to raise money for the college. On December 1, 1926, ground was broken on [[St. Andrews Bay (Florida)|St. Andrews Bay]] near [[Lynn Haven, Florida]], and the college opened on September 12, 1927, with 88 students. Jones said that although he was averse to naming the school after himself his friends overcame his reluctance "with the argument that the school would be called by that name because of my connection with it, and to attempt to give it any other name would confuse the people."<ref>Turner, 23-25. In the earliest years of the college, important contributions were made to its stability by J. Floyd Collins and [[Eunice Hutto]]. Johnson, 180, 198.</ref>

Bob Jones took no salary from the college, and in fact, for years afterward, he helped support the school through personal savings and income from his evangelistic campaigns. Both time and place were inauspicious. The [[Florida land boom]] had peaked in 1925, and a hurricane in September 1926 further reduced land values. The [[Great Depression]] followed hard on its heels. Bob Jones College barely survived bankruptcy and its move to [[Cleveland, Tennessee]], in 1933. Nevertheless, the reputation of both the school and its founder continued to grow, and with the enactment of [[GI Bill]] at the end of [[World War II]], the college was virtually forced to seek a new location and build a new campus. In 1947, the school moved to [[Greenville, South Carolina]], where it was renamed [[Bob Jones University]].<ref>On the move to Greenville see, John A. Matzko, "'This Is It, Isn't It, Brother Stone?'  The Move of Bob Jones University from Cleveland, Tennessee, to Greenville, 1946-47," ''South Carolina Historical Magazine'', 108 (July 2007), 235-256.</ref>

By that time, oversight of day-to-day operations had long since passed to his son, [[Bob Jones Jr.]]  Nevertheless, the elder Jones continued to raise money, preach regularly at chapel services, and provide inspiration to the hundreds of ministerial students who flooded the campus during the 1950s and revered him as "Doctor Bob."  Gradually, during the early '60s, he began to suffer "hardening of the arteries," resigned as chairman of the board in 1964, and was forced to retire to the University infirmary in 1966. Despite mental confusion, his prayers were said to have remained bell-clear virtually to the end.<ref>Turner, 210-11, 320</ref>