Forty-four years after the fact, Barbara Henry vividly remembers her first meeting with Manning Pattillo.
She and her mother were touring prospective colleges and universities in Georgia. The small liberal arts school Oglethorpe University wasn’t on their radar until a Saturday afternoon, when her mother impulsively pulled onto the campus just off Peachtree Road.
“And I just wanted to go back to the hotel,” said Henry.
They spotted a man in a campus building who introduced himself by name before giving them a wide-ranging tour. At the end, her mother said, “By the way, what do you do here?”
Pattillo stuck out his hand and said, “I’m the president.”
He’d been walking campus and looking for things that might need fixing or a touch-up — a not uncommon weekend practice. The encounter stuck with Henry. Not only did she graduate from the school, but worked for Oglethorpe from the late 1980s until two years ago.
Such attention to detail and going the extra mile were hallmarks of Pattillo’s 1975-1988 presidency and helped stabilize the small university.
Born into a family of educators and strongly influenced at the liberal-arts-focused University of the South in Tennessee, Pattillo graduated in 1941 and served in the U.S. Army in World War II. After the war he came home and earned master’s and doctorate degrees. He regarded higher education as a forum for ideas, debate and critical thinking. That bred a strong tilt toward a liberal arts curriculum as a route to make students good citizens, active community participants and lifelong learners, said a family member.
“He genuinely cared about people,” said his daughter Martha Pattillo, adding that showed up in a myriad of ways.
Pattillo was a fixture at graduation ceremonies until 2022, long after retirement. He kept up with those who had departed campus for decades, storing their particulars in a seemingly near-perfect memory.
“He knew students, faculty and where they came from, which made him an effective leader,” said former provost and current history professor Glenn Sharfman.
He even attended fraternity parties at which he’d engage students and Greek-life leaders.
Manning Pattillo died June 3 from complications of old age. He was 104. He’s survived by his daughter Martha Pattillo, son John Pattillo and grandchildren and great grandchildren. A a service is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Lenbrook retirement community, 3747 Peachtree Road NE., Atlanta.
On his arrival at Oglethorpe, the school was struggling with financial, leadership and academic-standards issues. Pattillo hired high-quality faculty, a top qualification being their chops as classroom teachers. SAT scores for incoming freshman skyrocketed 200 points during his tenure.
He also got finances in order. Martha Pattillo said he took a conservative position on school finances, eschewing to spend more money than was in hand. He worked tirelessly to eventually double Oglethorpe’s endowment.
A 1988 Atlanta Journal-Constitution story spelled out how he marched into his first faculty meeting and told them that because of lower-than-expected enrollment, raises would be smaller — while promising faculty salaries would be a future priority.
The then-chair of the school’s board of trustees, Stephen Schmidt, said: “Had someone else done the same thing, they would have probably been booed. But the way he presented it and asked them to understand, they gave him a standing ovation.”
Pattillo’s friend, retired Anglican bishop David Anderson, said that Manning was cordial when meeting strangers, but always “with a reserve, a gravitas. But once he got to know you he would laugh and joke a little bit and be a bit less formal.”
And on at least one occasion, considerably less formal, Henry recalls performances by an improv group on campus in the 1980s. They drafted Pattillo for a skit riffing off the Fonzie character from the show “Happy Days” — a tough guy in a leather jacket.
When the normally buttoned-up president dismounted from a motorcycle to the strains of the blues-rocking song “Bad to the Bone,” complete with a noticeable swagger she says, he brought the house down.
Pattillo also served in key positions at large nonprofits, including as Executive Director for Education at Lilly Endowment, Vice President of the Danforth Foundation and President of the Foundation Center in New York City. He also consulted in founding the Air Force Academy’s academic programs.
Moving into retirement in the late 1980s, Pattillo and outgoing Morehouse College President Hugh Gloster partnered to advise colleges on course content, staffing and faculty retention and professionalizing human resources.
“Their emphasis was on creating high standards while treating people fairly,” Pattillo said.
“His vision for Oglethorpe was to make it a gem of the South,” said Sharfman.
And by all accounts, it was mission accomplished.
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