Samford's first president, 27-year-old Samuel Sterling Sherman, was a native of Vermont who had come south to improve his frail health.

South Carolina native Henry Talbird served as a Baptist pastor in Tuscaloosa and Montgomery before joining the faculty of Howard College.

Though president for only three years, Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry is among the most distinguished and widely-recognized of Samford’s early leaders.

Howard College struggled to secure long-term leadership after the Civil War, running through several presidents in quick succession. Howard College professor Edward Quinn Thornton was among them, serving from July 1868 through the end of the 1868-1869 session.

Like E. Q. Thornton, Samuel R. Freeman served as president of Howard College for only a brief time (1869-1871) as the college struggled to find stable leadership after the Civil War.

James T. Murfee's tenure as president of Howard College (1871-1887) was exceptional in many ways, not least because Murfee didn't leave the college--the college left him.

Benjamin Franklin Riley served during one of the many precarious periods in Samford's history.

Arthur Watkins McGaha, the son of a Marshall County, Alabama, farmer, was the first alumnus president of Howard College.

As a professor of mathematics and longtime business officer of Howard College, Albert Durant Smith must have been acutely aware of just how dire the college's circumstances were when he became president in the summer of 1896.

President A. D. Smith left Howard College on a more solid financial foundation than it had enjoyed in decades. His successor, Kentucky-born educator Frank M. Roof, magnified that success many times over and served longer than any president since Howard relocated to Birmingham.

Well-known Alabama Baptist leader L. O. Dawson declined the offer of Howard's presidency after Frank Roof's departure in 1902, as did Furman University president Andrew Phillip Montague, initially.

The presidents who preceded James M. Shelburne made significant contributions to the welfare and status of Howard College, but none of their achievements are as visible as Shelburne's at the modern Samford University.

On paper, at least, North Carolina native Charles Bray Williams seems to have been an ideal choice for the presidency of Howard College.

John C. Dawson was a native of Huntsville, Alabama, but lived there only a short time.

Thomas V. Neal accepted the presidency of Howard College at an especially precarious moment.

It seems especially fitting that in 1939 Harwell Goodwin "Major" Davis took on leadership of a college named for Christian prison reformer John Howard.

The new president, Leslie S. Wright, would help realize Davis' vision, lead the way to university status, and oversee the most significant cultural change since the college became coeducational.

Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and reared in Ashtabula, Ohio, Samford's 18th president was one of seven siblings and the oldest brother to answer a calling other than full-time ministry.

Dr. Andrew Westmoreland was elected president of Samford University on January 10, 2006.