King College

General Information:

About King College
King College is a Presbyterian-affiliated comprehensive college structured on a university model offering more than 80 majors, minors, pre-professional degrees and concentrations in fields such as business, digital media, nursing, forensic science, education, and humanities. Graduate program are offered in business administration, nursing, and education. A number of off-campus learning opportunities and travel destinations are also available.

Location: Bristol, Tennessee, the twin city of Bristol, Virginia. One community in two states: Bristol, Virginia, on the north side of State Street and Bristol, Tennessee, on the south side nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.

Both Bristols are part of the Tri-Cities metropolitan area with a total population of nearly 450,000. Bristol is known as the "Birthplace of Country Music." It's also home of the Bristol Motor Speedway, which attracts thousands of people to the area each year for NASCAR races on the world's fastest half-mile track.

In addition to auto racing, you'll find plenty of recreational entertainment, dining and shopping options in the area. For example you might:

Explore the winding paths and breathtaking scenery of Bristol Caverns
Shop the specialty stores and coffeehouses along State Street
Absorb some culture at The Paramount Center of the Arts, Theater Bristol, and Viking Hall Civic Center, offering everything from rock concerts to ballet
Campus: 135 wooded acres and Georgian-style architecture buildings provide a quiet, beautiful learning environment that's just two minutes away from bustling downtown Bristol.

Our History
King College came into being as a result of the upheavals of the Civil War in Southern Appalachia. Because of the sharp divisions between Union and secessionalist stances, those Presbyterians who had supported the Confederate cause found themselves without a church college in their region following the conflict.

Manifesting the historic zeal for education that has long been a hallmark of the Reformed tradition, leaders of the Holston Presbytery in Northeast Tennessee determined to establish a college. Though conditions were difficult in the post-Civil War South, the presbytery set forth its vision in a ringing declaration of purpose on April 9, 1866: “The presbytery is deeply impressed not only with the importance of establishing a classical school, but one of such high order as will greatly elevate the standard of classical and scientific instruction in East Tennessee, and which with such instruction, will combine that strict discipline and the thorough religious training that will fully develop the moral as well as the intellectual man.”

The Reverend James King, a prominent landowner and Senior minister of the denomination in Northeastern Tennessee, came forward with a gift of land for a campus near the town of Bristol. The location, a rounded hill crowned with towering trees, was personally meaningful to King, for it was the site where he had made his own Christian commitment and to which he had been accustomed to retire with his Bible for personal meditation. King called it his “glory grove,” and, in appreciation of the gift, Holston Presbytery voted to name the new institution King College in his honor.

A campaign among local citizens provided funds for the erection of a large three-story building, with a central Victorian tower, while the Reverend George A. Caldwell, minister of the Bristol Presbyterian Church, embarked on a campaign to develop a permanent endowment, soliciting donations from locations as far away as New York City as well as within Northeastern Tennessee. The Reverend James Doak Tadlock, a graduate of Princeton Seminary and a member of Holston Presbytery, was chosen as the founding president of the College, which matriculated its first students and began classes in August, 1867. A man of faith and dedication, Tadlock had well-defined views as to the proper character of a collegiate education, believing that it should conform to the strict classical model of the liberal arts set forth by Yale College. Course offerings were limited to the classical languages, mathematics, and science, but the instruction was thorough and demanding. Tadlock maintained close personal relationships with his students and inspired his young men to accept personal commitments to lives of service to their God and fellow men, and he encouraged the formation of student-led literary societies, in which the students honed their skills in public speaking and debate.

During the eighteen years of his presidency, Tadlock produced only sixty-three graduates, but they went forth to make their mark in the world. From this number would come forty ministers, seven of whom were missionaries in foreign lands. Ten became lawyers; another ten were college professors, five becoming college presidents; three were editors of magazines and newspapers; and others went into business. More than seventy percent of Tadlock’s alumni had graduate or professional training, and half were recipients of honorary degrees. Eight had national careers of such prominence that they were chosen for inclusion in Who’s Who in America. As one graduate would write later of his beloved president, “We were proud of him. The sacrifices we knew he was making to remain with the little college endeared him to us, and the fact that we had such a president made every man of us feel that King College ranked any college in the land.”

Tadlock’s successors in the presidency broadened the curriculum and increased the range of course offerings but continued his emphasis upon developing young men who could provide both intellectual and moral leadership to their communities. By the early twentieth century, however, King College was facing new challenges and opportunities. The growth of the town of Bristol had transformed the rural environment of the campus into an urban setting of city blocks filled with houses and commercial buildings, and the advent of regional accrediting associations mandated uniform standards of quality. It was essential, then, that King should become an accredited institution.

The Reverend Tilden Scherer, who assumed the presidency of the institution in 1912, made these concerns the major goals of his administration. Fortunately he was to have the financial support of a number of business leaders in the city of Bristol, including Edward Washington King, who would be a steady and reliable benefactor for half a century.

Throughout the Southern mountains there were other Presbyterian leaders who were convinced that the time had come for the church to assume a greater responsibility for humanitarian concerns in the Southern highlands. The result was the formation in 1915 of the Synod of Appalachia, encompassing Presbyterian congregations throughout Eastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, Western North Carolina, and neighboring portions of West Virginia and Kentucky.

King was given official recognition as the synod’s college and thereby gained that larger constituency which would be necessary to its future development. In the following year the Reverend Isaac S. Anderson, a member of the class of 1875 and a grandson of James King, offered a wooded tract of sixty acres east of Bristol as a new campus site. The college immediately launched a campaign to raise funds for buildings and, with the completion of Bristol Hall in 1917, moved to its new location in the fall term. Over the course of the next decade, six major buildings would be erected on the new campus.

King College also achieved national prominence for its prowess in athletics during this period. The college football team seemed unbeatable in the early years following World War I, and the highlight of its triumphs came in 1921 when the King College team defeated a North Carolina rival by 206 to 0, a record score which still stands in the annals of collegiate football as one of the highest ever won on the gridiron. The newspaper reporter covering the event wrote that the King team ran the ball with the ferocity of a “tornado” and thus was born the name that has ever since been applied to all the sports teams of the school: the King College Tornado.

Like almost all educational institutions, the college was hit hard by the Great Depression, and simple survival became the watchword. In 1931, Stonewall Jackson College, a Presbyterian institution for women in Abingdon, Virginia, closed its doors, and King responded by becoming coeducational. When the Reverend Thomas P. Johnston assumed the presidency in 1935, he made financial stability his foremost goal. Gathering about him dedicated ecclesiastical and lay leaders throughout the Synod of Appalachia, he launched a comprehensive fund-raising drive that enlisted the united support of Presbyterians in the Southern mountains. Their efforts were remarkably successful, permitting the College to face the future with confidence.

The post-World War II years were a time of remarkable growth and achievement for King College. In March, 1943, the Reverend Robert Todd Lapsley Liston assumed the presidency and began a twenty-five year tenure that would be one of the most significant in the history of the institution. Liston was determined that King must achieve in the fullest measure the academic distinction that had been the goal of its founders, and he turned to the task with vigor and bold determination.

Given strong support by a Board of Trustees whose leaders during this period included Dr. Huston St. Clair, James C. White, and Frank W. DeFriece, Jr., he made academic quality his first priority. New moneys were poured into faculty salaries, the library, and laboratory equipment, while Liston personally recruited bright high school graduates to fill the classrooms. Major campaigns were launched to build a larger permanent endowment fund. By 1948 King had won accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and by 1960 King was recognized in leading graduate and professional schools for the high academic quality of its alumni.

Initially Liston had concentrated his energies upon academic achievements, but he soon recognized the need for physical improvements to the college, and the 1960s decade witnessed a building program that transformed the appearance of the hilltop campus. A major campus plan completely redesigned the physical appearance of the school, and a grassy central lawn known as the “Oval” was developed, about which the chief academic buildings were placed. New roadways and college entrances were constructed, and during the decade Liston added five major buildings: the E. W. King Library/Administration Building, dormitories for men and women, an astronomical observatory, and the F. B. Kline Gymnasium.

The programs that Liston had carried out were continued and expanded during the 1970s in the presidencies of Powell Alexander Fraser and the Reverend Roy Kinneer Patterson, Jr. The James C. White Building offered state-of-the-art facilities for scientific instruction and laboratory work in the natural sciences, and a new home for the college president was constructed. Athletic fields were upgraded, and renovations to existing facilities provided larger and better-equipped classrooms. The academic curriculum was broadened to meet changing curricular needs, with special emphasis given to pre-professional programs such as teacher preparation. Development and recruitment efforts were greatly expanded, and with the restructuring of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the college constituency was broadened to include an expanded region of Presbyterian congregations in the Southeast.

In 1979, the College completed a transition in legal ownership. A new Board of Trustees assumed control of the institution, and King became an independent school, but with formal covenantal relationships with various Presbyterian judicatories to develop cooperative and participatory relationships for sharing in the work of Christian higher education. The Reverend Donald Rutherford Mitchell, who served as president from 1979 to 1989, led the faculty and trustees in a careful refinement of the college’s statement of purpose, strengthening its emphasis upon the mission of King to bring together faith, learning, and living in an educational setting of academic challenge and Christian nurture. Enrollment doubled during the early years of Mitchell’s administration, and greater emphasis was placed upon the recruitment of international students. The increased enrollment necessitated construction of a new dining hall-student union, Maclellan Hall, an additional residence hall for women, and remodeling of the college chapel to increase its seating capacity. Mitchell’s programs were given solid support by the Trustees under the leadership of Board chairman Hugh O. Maclellan, Jr., whose unwavering dedication provided assurance of financial stability during this period of growth.

The presidencies of Charles E. Cauthen, Jr., and Richard J. Stanislaw from 1989 to 1997 built upon former achievements. Major campus renovations continued, with improvements in heating and airconditioning of buildings, and maintenance facilities were improved. President Cauthen was instrumental in establishing a campus-wide computer network, known as KingNet, which linked computing facilities throughout the campus to central academic and administrative systems. Also at this time the Holston Associated Libraries was formed, which provided King with an electronic cataloging system that linked its library with those of other regional colleges, thus greatly expanding access to reference and research materials. During the administration of President Stanislaw the largest financial campaign in the history of the school, for $12.5 million dollars, was launched, coming to a successful conclusion in 1998 with an over-subscription of $15 million dollars.

In 1997, the Reverend Gregory Doty Jordan was elected president of King College, and his efforts have extended the work of his predecessors. Dr. Jordan and the Trustees undertook a year-long study, which resulted in the preparation of a comprehensive strategic plan for the future of King. The statement of purpose of the institution was clarified and made more explicit. Specific developments which have been undertaken since then include the redesign of the College’s core curriculum, together with a totally new curricular calendar. A nursing program has been inaugurated after careful planning revealed the critical need for nurses in the years ahead. The Peeke School of Christian Mission was opened in the fall of 2001. The Center for Graduate and Professional Studies now offers a total of four adult-oriented degree programs: Master of Business Administration, RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Business Administration, and Post- Baccalaureate Teacher Licensure. There is a new emphasis upon providing an international focus for the College. The computing network has been enhanced with the installation of fiber optic cabling in all dormitories and classrooms of the college, permitting a full range of facilities for transmitting audio-visual information. Major changes have been made in the appearance of the campus. The adjoining golf course, which had been leased for years, has been appropriated for college use and has been redesigned for new athletic fields, a new campus gate and entrance to the college, and for the construction of additional buildings in the near future. A new student Athletic/Convocation Center was dedicated in December, 2002. The new auditorium seats 1,200 for convocations and sporting events. In addition, it houses an indoor running track, a weight training room, exercise space, a hospitality room, and faculty offices for athletic personnel.

A campaign for $50 million dollars, well beyond any former goal in the institution’s history, has been completed. Thus, King College is positioning itself to play a significant role of service and leadership in the 21st century that promises to fulfill and carry forward the vision laid down by its founders more than 130 years before.

Our Mission Statement
To educate students in an academically rigorous and collegiate setting that integrates Christian faith, scholarship, service and career, leading to meaningful lives of achievement and cultural transformation in Christ.

Our Vision Statement
To grow continually as a Christian comprehensive college, with pre-professional and professional schools, that builds lives for achievement and cultural transformation in Christ.

Our Reputation
Our reputation goes beyond satisfied parents. For the past 20 consecutive years, U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks King College as one of the best colleges in the nation as well as a “Best Value” in regional liberal arts colleges in the South. We’ve also been included in America’s Best Christian College and The Student Guide to America’s 100 Best College Buys. King College has recently been included in The Princeton Review as a "Best in the Southeast" college. King College is one of the 136 schools receiving the "Best in the Southeast" designation.

It’s not just parents who are happy with the life and instruction at King College. When compared to students at other four-year private Southern colleges, a recent study shows that our students are more than satisfied with King.

CAMPUS
King College, located in Bristol, Tennessee, is in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The 130-acre hilltop campus is two miles from the center of Bristol, a city of 43,300 residents. Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport, Tennessee, form the Tri-City metropolitan area with an aggregate population of approximately 450,000.

Public transportation includes Greyhound bus line and three airlines. Tri-Cities Regional Airport, a 35- minute drive from the campus, offers daily flights connecting Bristol with cities throughout the United States. Bristol is on National Highways 11, 58, 421, and US Interstate 81.

Several buildings comprise the college physical plant, which has been attractively planned with a Georgian architectural theme:

Bristol Hall (1917) houses faculty offices (Social Sciences, English, Kayseean/Yearbook, Instrumental Music, Nursing, and Business) and the Academic Center for Excellence.

Burke Observatory (1962) contains a classroom and research space as well as a reflecting telescope with an electronic camera that records digitized images. The Counseling Center (1972) is for both campus and community use. In addition, it houses the Vice President for Business Operations and some administrative staff.

The Facilities Services Building (1991) houses the Maintenance, Grounds, and Housekeeping.

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