James Nov-Dec 2023 web - Flipbook - Page 29
or those unfamiliar with
Berry College, the one
thing they might know
is something about its
size (it is the largest contiguous college campus in
the world) or perhaps the
near certainty of a campus
deer sighting. What you
might not know is that the
college, just three miles
from downtown Rome, was
founded by Martha Berry
in 1902 on just 83 acres she
inherited from her prominent
businessman father.
At the time, students would
work on building and maintaining the school in exchange for
tuition. This model, at the core of
her approach to education, would
lead one of her friends to fund major
improvements to the school— notably, many more thousands of acres
that would become the bulk of the
world’s largest college campus. If
this were a Paul Harvey radio broadcast, we’d save this name until the
end. But no. The name is business
magnate Henry Ford.
Berry had met Ford at the home
of another mutual friend, Thomas
Edison and his wife Mina (Mina
and Martha were active members
of the Daughters of the American
Revolution.) After another meeting
of the group and a visit to Rome by
the Fords in 1922, the friendship was
sealed along with Ford’s support
of the school. The first gifts were
tractors and a truck but soon there
were many visits to campus by Ford
and his wife Clara to discuss with
Stephen Briggs took the presidential reins at Berry College in 2006.
Some of next year’s freshmen class
may not have been born when
Briggs moved to Rome. As
James magazine highlighted
recently regarding Mercer
University President William
Underwood, who started
the same year, this tenure
is unusual among college
presidents these days. The
average tenure of a university president is just 5.9 years,
according to data from the
American Council on Education.
At the time, Briggs was provost at the College of New Jersey
and was satisfied there. But he had
a friend who encouraged him to visit
when previous president Scott Colley announced his retirement. “I was
Martha the plans for the school and
just really struck by the character of
her educational philosophy. Ford’s
the place. It had a very distinctive
biggest advice was to keep buying
land. And indeed she did, to the tune identity, history and culture which I
loved,” Briggs remembers.
of more than 27,000 acres.
Briggs was also drawn by the
Those 27,000-plus acres are now
philosophy
of the place. “We’re very
home to a Georgia Department of
serious about educating the head,
Natural Resources-managed Wildlife
heart, and hands (part of the Martha
Management Area (WMA). It conBerry philosophy). I liked that and
tains over 80 miles of hiking, biking
then, of course, it’s a remarkable
and horseback riding trails, along
with two disc golf courses. It has also place,” Briggs continues. “I’m a little
been named among the most beauti- entrepreneurial, and there was so
ful college campuses on a wide range much opportunity in ways that I
thought was going to be interesting
of lists, including Travel+Leisure.
and fun and to be part of a team that
was building something great.”
Fostering Changes
Briggs grew up in the Baltimore
More importantly for the actual
area,
went to high school in the
subject of this piece, though, is that
the school was recently ranked number one in the Best Value Schools catN OV EM B E R /D EC E M BER 2023
29
egory by U.S. News & World Report.