Radford University. Office of the President.

Donald Dedmon was born in Missouri and received his undergraduate degree from Southwestern Missouri State College. He pursued his M.A. and Ph. D. at the University of Iowa. His career included teaching at both the high school and college levels before he moved into university administration at Colorado State University and Marshall University. Prior to coming to Radford, Dr. Dedmon served as Marshall's executive vice president and acting president. During the two decades that Dr. Dedmon served as Radford's president, the university experienced unprecedented growth in campus size, curriculum, and student population. The school made the transition from a woman's college to admitting its first male undergraduates in the 1972-1973 academic year and to university status in 1979. Dr. Dedmon was a staunch supporter of the importance of faculty teaching at a time when many other institutions were emphasizing research over classroom work. Dr. Dedmon retired in 1994.