Albert A. Murphree

Albert Alexander Murphree was an American college professor and university president. Murphree was a native of Alabama, and became a mathematics instructor after earning his bachelors degree. He later served as the third president of Florida State College from 1897 to 1909, and the second president of the University of Florida from 1909 to 1927. Murphree is the only person to have been the president of both of Floridas original state universities, the University of Florida and Florida State University, and he played an important role in the organization, growth and ultimate success of both institutions.

Murphree was born near Chepultepec, Alabama in 1870. His father was Jesee Ellis Murphree, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War his mother was Emily Helen Cornelius. His parents raised him in a family of ten children in Walnut Grove, Alabama, where he attended community schools and a local twoyear college. He graduated from the University of Nashville with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1894, and taught mathematics at several high schools and small colleges in Alabama, Tennessee and Texas. In 1895, he became a mathematics instructor at the West Florida Seminary in Tallahassee, Florida, and two years later, its board of trustees appointed him as the seminarys third president in 1897, at the age of 27. Later, Murphree married Jennie Henderson, the daughter of one of the seminarys trustees. He subsequently started and completed the academic work for a Master of Arts degree while serving as president of the seminary, renamed Florida State College in 1901.

Source: Wikipedia