THE FOUNDER

Time has put the tag of "Founder" upon the first president: Dr. William Hooper Councill. His personal efforts in keeping the school in existence through use of his own money and foundation and personal gifts have earned him that narne. As a freed man at the age of 17, he obtained all of his education at great physical and mental expenditure and vowed that others should not pay such a price.



William Hooper Councill
1875-1909

Councill might well have come down in history as "The Pioneer of Industrial Education in the South," because he added industrial training in 1883 after the state had come out openly seeking industry to boost the still lagging economy of Alabama.

Although Booker T. Washington is given credit by some as the state’s industrial pioneer, it is a fact that Councill had been teaching at the Normal School six years before Washington came to Alabama, and the next year Councill added an industrial department to the normal school. He writes about this fact on October 24, 1883, in a letter to General Joe Wheeler, then Congressman from the district:

"We are adding an industrial department to our school, and our chances of getting aid from the Slater and Peabody Funds are in proportion to the success attained by this new addition," he wrote.

He might also have been called "the orator," for he was famous worldwide for this strenuously nurtured gift and moved many to contribute the money so vitally needed to keep the school open. He and his supporters succeeded in having it made the Negro land-grant college for Alabama and moved the campus to its present hillside location surrounded by tillable land.