Acres of diamonds: How have Temple University presidents between 1884 and 1973 realized the Conwellian vision

Russell Herman Conwell was the founder and first President of Temple University. Conwell led the founding of Temple University on a dream of mining the "Acres of Diamonds" in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania---making higher education accessible for working adults. His mission and vision for the college was derived entirely from his life experiences as a son of liberal Methodist farmers who, because of his parents' humble estate, had to work and attend school from a young age.* Temple University's founding was significant because the college was created to serve the needs of the surrounding community and its inhabitants. Temple is unique because it represents a bottom-up philanthropic founding whereby the voice of the student became the primary mode of creation.;This research focuses on the period between 1884 and 1973 and examines how Temple University presidents Charles Ezra Beury, Robert Livingston Johnson, Millard E. Gladfelter and Paul R. Anderson each distinctly interpreted and implemented Conwell's vision. Furthermore, this study examines how Conwell and his four successors acknowledged and ameliorated the educational needs of Philadelphians through administrative policies and procedures.;"Acres of Diamonds: How Have Temple University Presidents Between 1884 and 1973 Realized the Conwellian Vision" is significant because it contributes to four areas of academic research: The history of Temple University, the history of the development of the twentieth-century-university, the biographical history of five Temple presidents and institutional history. Temple University has yet to publish an official history. There were three attempts to write the history by Henry E. Wildes, Arthur N. Cook and J. Douglas Perry; however, each manuscript was rejected by the Board of Trustees. This study does not represent a full history of Temple, but does add to the research literature on this specific university and universities in general. This investigation also augments the biographical history of Temple Presidents Conwell, Beury, Johnson, Gladfelter and Anderson. For these reasons, this inquiry is important to the study of the history of education.;*James Terry White, Russell Herman Conwell , National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the history of the United States as illustrated in the lives of the founders, builders, and defenders of the republic, and of the men and women who are doing the work and moulding the thought of the present time, Volume 3, (New York: J.T. White Company, 1893), 29.