Floyd Wilcox

Who was Floyd Wilcox?

Floyd Cleveland Wilcox was the third president of Shimer College, serving from 1930 to 1935. His leadership, though marked by controversy, saw the school through the most difficult years of the Great Depression. He oversaw the transition of the school's curriculum from a two-year to a four-year junior college program.

Wilcox was born in Mason, Michigan on March 17, 1886. Wilcox obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Kalamazoo College in 1910, and subsequently studied at the Newton Theological Institute in Massachusetts until 1911. In 1913, he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. In 1920, he obtained a Master of Arts in Education from the Teachers' College of Columbia University. He subsequently traveled to California and received a Cubberly Fellowship at Stanford University, where he earned a Doctor of Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 1930. Wilcox's graduate study focused on the junior college, and this was a significant factor in his selection for the presidency of Shimer.

1930 was also the end of the tenure of Shimer's second president, William Parker McKee, who had served since 1897. He had also served in administrative positions at schools in China. Based on this experience, his graduate studies, and the recommendations of prominent educators, Wilcox was unanimously recommended by the search committee and approved by the Shimer College Board of Trustees, at a salary of $5000 per year.