Spragens, Thomas A., 1917-2006

Thomas A. Spragens was born on April 25, 1917, in Lebanon, Ky. After graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1938, he worked in the Kentucky Department of Revenue. From 1940 to 1945, he served in the federal government, including senior analyst at the Bureau of the Budget and Assistant Chief of Food Allocations in the wartime Foreign Economic Administration. In the summer of 1946, Spragens accepted a position to assist the president of Stanford University in managing development problems caused by that school's exploding enrollment. He remained as assistant to the president for five years, serving under two presidents and two interim presidents. In 1951 Spragens was asked to join as secretary and treasurer the newly formed Fund for the Advancement of Education, a foundation subsidiary to and financed by the Ford Foundation. The charge was to carry on the interests of the parent foundation in the area of higher education. In 1952, he was invited to serve as the president of Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. He remained at that school until 1957, when he accepted the presidency of Centre College. During the Spragens administration student enrollment nearly doubled, as did the size of the faculty; the curriculum was extensively revised to provide a better interdisciplinary education; the endowment increased approximately nine-fold; and Centre obtained a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Spragens resigned as Centre's president in 1981, and died February 11, 2006.