Ormond Beatty

Ormond Beatty
The article's subject pictured from the torso up, facing the camera
Portrait by John Sartain, 1890
7th President of Centre College
In office
September 1, 1870 – June 19, 1888
Pro tempore: 1868 – September 1, 1870
Preceded byWilliam L. Breckinridge
Succeeded byWilliam C. Young
Personal details
Born(1815-08-13)August 13, 1815
Mason County, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedJune 24, 1890(1890-06-24) (aged 74)
Danville, Kentucky, U.S.
Resting placeBellevue Cemetery
Spouses
  • Sarah Lewis Rochester
    (m. 1839, died)
  • Mildred Ann Bell
    (m. 1848; died 1867)
  • Elizabeth O. Boyle
    (m. 1879; died 1886)
Children2
EducationCentre College (AB, AM)
Yale College
Signature

Ormond Beatty (August 13, 1815 – June 24, 1890) was an American educator and academic administrator. He was the seventh president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. An 1835 graduate of Centre, Beatty became a professor the following year and taught chemistry, natural philosophy, mathematics, metaphysics, biblical history, and church history over the course of his career. He was selected to fill the position of president pro tempore following the resignation of William L. Breckinridge in 1868 and was unanimously elected president by the board of trustees in 1870. He was Centre's first president who was not a Christian minister, and he led the school until his resignation in 1888, at which point he taught for two additional years before his death in 1890. Beatty also involved himself in religious affairs, serving as a ruling elder in the First and Second Presbyterian Churches in Danville, as a commissioner to three Presbyterian Church General Assemblies, and as a trustee of the Danville Theological Seminary.