Charles J. Turck | |
|---|---|
 Turck c. 1931 | |
| 13th President of Centre College | |
| In office June 3, 1927 – July 1, 1936 | |
| Preceded by | R. Ames Montgomery |
| Succeeded by | Robert L. McLeod |
| 9th President of Macalester College | |
| In office September 1939 – 1958 | |
| Preceded by | John Carey Acheson |
| Succeeded by | Harvey Mitchell Rice |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 13, 1890 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | January 12, 1989 (aged 98) Arlington, Virginia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Bellevue Cemetery |
| Spouse(s) |
Emma Fuller
(m. 1914; died 1978)Nancy Head (m. 1983) |
| Education | Tulane University (BA) Columbia University (LLB) |
| Signature |  |
Charles Joseph Turck (September 13, 1890 – January 12, 1989) was an American lawyer, educator, and academic administrator who was the president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A native of New Orleans, Turck attended Tulane University before graduating from Columbia University with a law degree in 1913. After practicing law in New York City for three years, he taught law at Tulane and Vanderbilt University. He took his first administrative position when he was named dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1924, a job he held for three years until his election to Centre's presidency. He spent nine years leading the school, from June 1927 to July 1936, during which time he continued plans to emphasize academics over athletics and gained the school admission to the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He left Centre for a position in the state tax commission under Governor Happy Chandler and also took an administrative role in the social education department of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America later that year.
Turck went to Macalester in 1938 to give a lecture; at that time, the school was nearly a year into a presidential search to replace John Carey Acheson. He was offered the job eight months after his talk. He accepted and took office in September 1939, becoming the school's ninth president. There, he worked to distance Macalester from its evangelical roots and emphasize the strengths of its liberal arts curriculum. He led the school through World War II, during which he spoke out against isolationism, which was broadly favored by the student body, and was accused by J. B. Matthews of being a communist spy.[1] Macalester's enrollment saw a drastic increase after the war due to the G.I. Bill, as the school enrolled over six hundred veterans in 1947. He resigned the presidency in 1958 having held it for nineteen years, longer than any other Macalester president as of 2024[update].
- ^ Kilde 2010, p. 200.