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Everett L. Rexford
(1878-1880)
Rev. Everett L. Rexford was born in Harmony, New York on April 24, 1842. He was educated at the Jamestown Academy and St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, graduating around 1865. That year, he commenced his ministry in the First Universalist Church in Cincinnati. Three years later he became pastor of the Universalist Church in Columbus, Ohio before assuming the pastorate of the Universalist Church in San Francisco, California in 1874 where he remained for four years.
As a member of the Committee on Education of the Ohio Universalist Convention, Rexford helped select Akron as the location for what would become Buchtel College. He also served as an incorporator and a member of the Board of Trustees from the very beginning. In 1874, he was honored with the Doctor of Divinity degree. When Rev. Sullivan H. McCollester resigned as President of Buchtel College in 1878, Rexford became his successor as second President of the institution.
During Rexford’s presidency he brought to fruition many changes started by President McCollester. His major accomplishments were paying off the College’s large debt, reorganizing the faculty, revising student rules, and healing the breach with the local Universalist congregation. While serving as President, he also officiated as pastor of the First Universalist Church of Akron. This dual role did not work well and coupled with a controversial sermon he delivered in 1879 led to his resignation the following year.
In 1880, Rexford accepted the pastorate of the newly formed Universalist Church of Detroit, Michigan, where he remained for eight years. He later left there to become the pastor of a Universalist society in Boston, Massachusetts before going back to Columbus. Rexford married Julia George of Dunkirk, New York, with whom he had one daughter. He later divorced and married Amanda Pleasant of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Rexford died in December of 1923 in Columbus.
“Our work went forward with excellent unity of spirit. . . . instead of exercising a sort of personal and minute oversight of the different departments, [I] insisted that each professor should be responsible for the work in his own field.”
– Rev. Everett L. Rexford
From The University of Akron Photographs Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
President Rexford looked after the moral and religious climate of the school, requiring students to attend daily chapel exercises and urging them to attend Sunday services of their choice. As a free thinker, he encouraged them to form their own opinions regarding religion and morality, but to keep it to themselves, although he did not always follow his own advice.
From The University of Akron Photographs Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
While President Rexford raised tuition and created stricter student rules, he also helped students save money on room and board by encouraging them to join boarding clubs off campus. One of the most popular and memorable was operated by Lucinda W. “Aunty” Brown on Carroll Street, which affectionately became known as the “Old Shoe.”
From The University of Akron Photographs Collection in Archival Services of University Libraries
This red brick Gothic church, built at the corner of Mill Street and South Broadway, was the second home of the Universalist Church of Akron. It was here that President Rexford also served as pastor and delivered his opinionated sermon in 1879 that led to his resignation from both positions the following year.
“He [President Rexford] brought harmony out of discord . . . and delivered to his successor a curriculum stronger than the one he had received, will give to his administration, in Buchtel annals, a secure and honored place.”
– Dean Albert I. Spanton