On June 29, 1899, 36 members of the Southern Seminary board of trustees gathered in Atlanta, Ga., for the purpose of electing a new seminary president. William H. Whitsitt had resigned as president earlier that year amid controversy surrounding his published views regarding the history of baptism by immersion. The effects of that controversy and the decision by J. P. Greene of William Jewel College to decline the seminary presidency left the seminary in urgent need of a new president. That leader was chosen in Atlanta as the trustees unanimously voted to elect E. Y. Mullins to the presidency.

Mullins was serving as pastor of Newton Centre Church in Massachusetts as the seminary trustees gathered in Atlanta. According to his wife, Isla May Mullins, the first telegram that was received regarding his election as president provided for more confusion that clarity. That telegram from the editor of the Baptist Argus simply read “Congratulations. Send your photograph.”[1]

Mullins was unaware that he was even being considered for the presidency and initially dismissed the thought. Telegrams continued to arrive into the evening, however, and they all confirmed that he had indeed been elected as the fourth president of his alma mater. His wife recorded the following recollection of the evening of June 29:

“The messages continued to come at intervals through the evening; and then, knowing that the telegraph office closed early, Mr. Mullins went down and asked, as he had on another occasion, to take charge of the wire until his messages ceased coming. The agent knew him well, smiled and gave him the wire. As E.Y. tuned in, as he had done in the old days when he was an operator, it was a bit awkward to catch signals correctly and get into the swing of things. Telegraphers are sensitive as their fingertips strike unexpected things. So, one lusty operator called back to the interloper, ‘Who in h— are you, anyway?” and the interloper chuckled as he replied, ‘Never you mind, just go ahead with your thunder.’ He soon got the hang of things, as he told his wife, and took message after message for himself, the very last being the official message from the Board of Trustees of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary calling him to its presidency.”[2]

Mullins officially accepted the presidency on July 8, 1899, and took office on Oct. 2 of that year. He would go on to serve in that position for 28 years until his death in 1928. During that time, Mullins left his mark on the direction of the seminary and Southern Baptist life as a whole. He led the seminary in an extensive fundraising effort that facilitated the relocation of the seminary to its current location in 1926.

As a seminary president and writer, Mullins also greatly influenced the theological direction of the seminary and many Southern Baptists towards progressive theology. In addition to his service as seminary president, Mullins also served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1921-1924 and as chairman of the Baptist Faith and Message Committee in 1925.

To learn more about E. Y. Mullins or to examine the papers of the presidents of the seminary, visit the archives on the second floor of the library or our website at archives.sbts.edu.

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[1] Isla May Mullins, Edgar Young Mullins: An Intimate Biography. (Nashville: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention), 104.

[2] Ibid., 105.