Former President Allen K. Jackson Dies

Montgomery, Ala.—Huntingdon College learned this week of the death of former president Dr. Allen Keith Jackson, May 5, 2022, in Meridian, Idaho. Dr. Jackson served as president of Huntingdon College from 1968 until his retirement in 1993. He was 89.

Dr. Jackson earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Denver, where he was a member of the wrestling team and a Phi Beta Kappa scholar. He accepted a Fulbright Scholarship to Cambridge University in England in 1955, later completing his Master of Theology degree at Iliff School of Theology in Denver and his Doctor of Sociology degree from Emory University. He served as pastor for small Methodist churches in Colorado before joining the faculty at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where he later served as academic dean.

During his leadership as Huntingdon’s twelfth president, the College added Greek life programs; the men’s golf team won five of six NAIA national championships; a Cultural Arts Events Series and the Stallworth Lecture Series were established; and the Dixon Wing in Houghton Memorial Library, Searcy Residence Hall, Smith Music Building, and the James W. Wilson Building were constructed.

In the higher education community, he served as president of the Council for the Advancement of Private Colleges in Alabama from 1967 to 1978 and as a member of the executive committee of the Commission on Colleges and Universities, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 1986–1988.

He became director of the Idaho Museum of Natural History after retiring from Huntingdon. He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Barbara, and their three children and extended families.

Huntingdon College is a coeducational residential liberal arts college of the United Methodist Church offering more than thirty undergraduate programs of study and 21 NCAA-Division III athletic teams. Huntingdon recently added a Master of Athletic Training program, the College’s first graduate program since its founding in 1854.

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