Paul Whitfield Horn

Duane's take

Now, this one comes straight from the official marker, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Paul Whitfield Horn. First president of Texas Technological College, now Texas Tech University.

You want to talk about a man who built something from nothing, well, pull up a chair, because this story starts long before anybody broke ground in Lubbock. Horn was born in Boonville, Missouri, to George Washington Horn and Mattie Myers. He earned a master's degree in education and began teaching.

In 1890, he married Sallie Maud Keith, and two years later their only child, Ruth, came into the world. That same year, 1892, the Horn family made their move to Texas. Paul took a principal's post at Valleyview, stayed one year, then moved on to Belcherville as superintendent of schools for two years.

That was the pattern with this man. Every few years, a new position, each one more prestigious than the last. He climbed steadily, and by 1910 he was serving as president of the Texas State Teachers Association.

Then in 1922 came another step up: the sixth president of Southwestern University. Respectable work. Settled work.

Or so it seemed. Because in 1923, the newly-formed board of Texas Technological College came knocking, and they wanted Horn to be their very first president. Now, here is where the story shifts.

Horn and his family arrived in Lubbock on December 6, 1923, and the place they arrived to was not yet a college in any full sense. It was a vision on flat West Texas land. Horn threw himself into it.

He oversaw all aspects of the building and growth of the college, every brick and every policy. He had opinions, strong ones. He was not in favor of Greek fraternities and sororities, because he deemed them exclusive, and that ran contrary to his vision of an institution where all students, regardless of creed or background, could fit in.

What he did support were student clubs and athletic programs, especially football, which helped raise the college's profile. The man was building something, and he knew it. Then the trouble came.

Around the time of the famed Scopes Monkey Trial, controversy over academic freedom found its way to Tech. Local clergy accused Tech professors of teaching evolution. The controversy dragged on, and Horn was left to act as referee, standing in the middle of a debate that was rattling the whole country, right there on his own campus.

He kept working. He kept building. On April 11, 1932, at the age of 64, Paul Whitfield Horn died.

The Tech student newspaper, The Toreador, put it this way: President Horn has finished his work, but his spirit lives on forever. That is not a bad epitaph for a man who arrived in Lubbock with nothing but a blank piece of land and got to work.

What the marker says

When Texas technological college, now Texas Tech University, was created in 1923, the board selected longtime educator Paul Whitfield Horn as its First President. Horn was born in Boonville, Missouri to George Washington Horn and Mattie Myers. He graduated with a master's degree in education and began a teaching career. He married Sallie Maud Keith in 1890, and their only child, Ruth, was born two years later. The Horns moved to Texas in 1892, where Paul served as principal of schools at Valleyview for one year, then superintendent of schools at Belcherville for two years. Every few years, he accepted increasingly prestigious positions, eventually serving as president of the Texas State Teachers Association in 1910. In 1922, he was selected as the sixth president of Southwestern University. It was from here that the newly-formed Texas Tech board hired him as their first president. Horn and his family arrived in Lubbock on December 6, 1923, and quickly got to work. He oversaw all aspects of the building and growth of the college. He was not in favor of Greek fraternities and sororities because he deemed them exclusive, which ran contrary to his vision of an institution where all students regardless of creed or background could fit in. He did support student clubs and athletic programs, especially football, which helped raise the college's profile. He experienced controversy around academic freedom near the time of the famed scopes monkey trial, as local clergy accused tech professors of teaching evolution. The controversy dragged on, leaving Horn to act as referee. At the age of 64, Horn died on April 11, 1932. In the words of Texas Tech student newspaper The Toreador, "President Horn has finished his work, but his spirit lives on forever!"