(Conclusion of a Series)
ATLANTA -- There are many “Who’s Who” publication.

     There’s a Who’s Who in Business and Industry,” for instance. There’s a “Who’s Who in American Law” and a “Who’s Who in Theartre and Entertainment.” There’s a “Who’s Who in the South and Southwest” and a “Who’s Who Among American Women.” There is, in short, a “Who’s Who” for almost every field of human endeavor, sometimes separated by geography and gender.

     But there’s one “Who’s Who” that towers above all the others. It’s “Who’s Who in America,” which includes people from all fields, all geographic regions and both sexes — provided, of course, the public stature they have achieved, the positions they hold or have held, their contributions to society and the reputations they have established for themselves all are notable enough.

They’re the best of the best, the crème de la crème.

     One Vidalia-area native who has made it to “Who’s Who in America” is Dr. J. Ollie Edmunds, presently and for the past 16 years chancellor of Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, an institution he previously had served as president for 19 years.

“John Ollie Edmunds, university chancellor, born Higgston, Georgia,” is how his biography in “Who’s Who in America” begins. Next comes, in the structured mold for all “Who’s Who in America” biographies, the names of Dr. Edmunds’ parents, Plato D. and Lee S. (Ganey) Edmunds.

     In a letter to Lee (Mrs. Henry) Wilkes of Higgston in December of 1981, Dr. Edmunds referred to his father as Durham Edmunds. With a first name like Plato, it’s no wonder the elder Edmunds used his middle name instead. Also with a name like Plato, it’s a wonder it wasn’t the father, rather than the son, who achieved lofty stature in the field of education.

     Actually, the elder Edmunds was a sawmill man who came to Higgston from Roberson County, N.C., a few years before the turn of the century. It was there that he met and married Dr. Edmund’s mother, who herself was a newcomer to Higgston at the time.

     ”Many years ago, while my mother was still living, my family visited Higgston and she pointed this house out to me,” he said in his letter to Mrs. Wilkes. “When my wife and I were in Higgston during December, 1980, we were both very pleased at the appearance of the outside of the house. Edna Morris has since told me that the inside of your house is as meticulously clean as the outside.”

     Dr. Edmunds was referring to Edna Earle Morris of Mount Vernon and the staff of the Ladson Genealogy Library in Vidalia, from whom he had learned Mrs. Wilkes’ identity.

     ”I am writing you this long letter, Mrs. Wilkes, to tell you how pleased I am that this house in which I was born is in good hands and is being maintained in such good condition,” he went on. “I do not wish to bother you in any way, but some time when I am in that area, I would like to walk around in this house in which I lived the first three years of my life.

     ”Whenever, in the future, you or your grandson get ready to dispose of the house, I would like to be sure that the buyer of the house is someone who will care for it in the same fine manner you have. If I cannot be sure of that, I might even like to buy it…”

     Dr. Edmunds’ mother, to whom his father gave the house when it was built, sold the house and two lots in 1906 to Elizabeth Gay for $285. Mrs. Gay willed the house to her daughter, Lula (Mrs. Sidney) Swann, and it was there that the Swanns raised their large and tragedy-plagued family.

Two Wives and Many Honors

     According to the “Who’s Who” biography, Dr. Edmunds received four of his five earned degrees at Stetson. He received an A.B. there in 1925, and A.M. in 1927, an LL.B in 1928 and an LL.D in 1943. His other earned degree, another LL.D, came from the University of Richmond.

     Dr. Edmunds has been the recipient of at least three honorary degrees as well. He was awarded the Doctor of Letters from the University of Miami in 1951, an unspecified (by “Who’s Who”) degree from Jacksonville University in 1964 and the Doctor of Humanities degree from Rollins College in 1963.

     Dr. Edmunds’ first wife, whom he married in 1934, was Emily Bryant. It was she by whom he had his two children, John and Jane. After her death in 1959, he married Martha Lee in 1978.

     Before entering the field of college administration, Dr. Edmunds had a distinguished career in law and jurisprudence. Admitted to the Florida bar in 1927, he practiced law in DeLand from 1927 to 1930. After serving as a Duval County judge in Jacksonville from 1931 to 1944, he again engaged in the private practice of law from 1944 to 1948.

     He was a Lt. (j.g.) in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, as well as executive officer of the Jacksonville Battalion of the Port Security Force. He is a three-time recipient of the Freedom Foundation Award, receiving it first in 1952, again in 1955 and finially in 1968.

     A long-time member of the Association of American Colleges, he served that organization as its national president in 1959. He is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Alpha Delta, Theta Alpha Phi and Delta Sigma Phi.

     Politically a Democrat, he was a candidate for the office of United States Senator from Florida in 1944. A Baptist by faith, he was president of the Florida Baptist Convention in 1961.

     His fraternal and civic-club memberships include Masons (33rd degree), Shriners and Rotary. Socially he is a member of the Seminole Club, Tamuquana County Club and River Club, all in Jacksonville, and the Lake Beresford Yacht Club in DeLand. He also is a member of the University Club in New York City and the Olympic club in San Francisco.

     All that and a Higgston background too. Some people have everything.

E-mail: raytapley@juno.com

The Advance, Wednesday, May 05, 1983, page 11a.