Dudley DeWitt Carroll (1885-1971)

As an advocate for the New South’s economic progress, President Edward Kidder Graham believed that the university should offer courses in the new field of scientific business management. To teach this subject, he hired Dudley Carroll as an economics professor. In 1919, Graham’s successor as president, Harry Chase, created the Department of Commerce and appointed Carroll as its chair. The department immediately attracted over one hundred majors and required a traditional liberal arts education during the first two years. In the last two years, students took specialized courses in accounting, banking, and marketing. The department became a school in 1927 and began awarding the MBA degree in 1952.