Claybrook Cottingham

Claybrook C. Cottingham​

* * *

3rd President of
Louisiana College in Pineville​

In office
1910 ​ - 1941​
Preceded by  |  W. C. Friley​
Succeeded by  |  Edgar Godbold​

* * *

10th President of
Louisiana Tech University in Ruston​

In office
1941 ​ - 1949​
Preceded by  |  Edwin Sanders "E. S." Richardson, Sr.​
Succeeded by  |  R. L. Ropp​

* * *

Born  |  May 4, 1881}​
Ottoman, Lancaster County,

Virginia, USA​

Died  |  August 17, 1949 (aged 68)
Mexico City, Mexico​

Resting place:
Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville, Louisiana​

Nationality  |  American​
Spouse(s)  |  Myrtle Baker Cottingham (married 1904-1949, his death)​
Children  |  Mary Virginia Cottingham Majors

Margaret Drew Davis​ Claybrook Baker
Cottingham, Sr.​

Alma mater |  University of Richmond (Virginia)​

Baylor University​ (Waco, Texas)

Occupation  |  Educator; College president​
Religion  |  Southern Baptist​

​ Claybrook C. Cottingham (May 4, 1881 - August 17, 1949) was an educator who served as the third president of Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana, and the tenth president of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.​

## Contents

* 1 Background
* 2 Academic career
* 3 Family and legacy
* 4 References

## Background[edit]

A son of George Cottingham and the former Louise Palmer, Cottingham was born in Ottoman in Lancaster County on the Atlantic coast of Virginia. He was educated at Chesapeake Academy in Irvington, Virginia. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees prior to 1902 from the University of Richmond, then known as Richmond College, in the capital city of Richmond. He obtained the Doctor of Divinity degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. From 1900 to 1902, he was the assistant principal at his alma mater, Chesapeake Academy.[1]​

## Academic career[edit]

Cottingham moved to Louisiana to become from 1902 to 1905 a professor of Greek and philosophy at the defunct Mount Lebanon College, sometimes called Mount Lebanon University, a forerunner of Louisiana College, locatedin Bienville Parish in northwestern Louisiana. Cottingham served as the last president of Mount Lebanon from 1905–1906, when he became from 1906 to1910 a founding professor of the new Louisiana College. His tenure as LC president stretched from 1910 to 1941, when he became the tenth president of Louisiana Tech, formerly known as Louisiana Polytechnic Institute.[1]​

A world traveler, Cottingham was still serving at Louisiana Tech when he died at the age of sixty-eight in Mexico City, Mexico, where he was visiting his older daughter, Mary Virginia Majors, who lived in Mexico.[1]​ ​

## Family and legacy[edit]

​ On June 8, 1904, Cottingham married the former Myrtle Baker (1889-1965) of Mount Lebanon, daughter of the merchant Jesse Lewis Baker (1850-1918) and the former Mary Smith Williamson (1860-1902).[2] Their children were Mary Virginia Majors (1907-1967), Margaret Drew Davis (born 1913), and Claybrook Baker Cottingham, Sr. (1915–1991), a United States Navy commander.[3]

A Cottingham grandson, C. B. Cottingham, Jr. (1943–2008), who served in both the United States Army and United States Air Force during the 1970s,[4] died at the age of sixty-five, a resident of Hanover in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Claybrook and Myrtle Cottinghams are interred at Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville.​ A Baptist deacon, Cottingham was from 1914 to 1916, the president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, based in Alexandria. He was also a director of Rotary International from 1930 to 1931.[1]​

Lynn Edward May, Jr., wrote an unpublished dissertation on Cottingham entitled "Claybrook Cottingham: A Study of His Life and Work."[1]​

The Claybrook Cottingham Expressway (U.S. Route 167) in Pineville is named in Cottingham's honor. A men's dormitory for honor students on the Louisiana Tech campus and a women's dormitory at Louisiana College are both named "Cottingham Hall" in his memory. The Louisiana Tech dormitory is adjacent to Richardson Hall, named for Edwin Sanders Richardson, Sr., Cottingham's predecessor as the Louisiana Tech president.[5]​

## References[edit]

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cottingham, Claybrook C.. A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography: Louisiana Historical Association. Retrieved on June 10, 2020.
2. ↑ Myrtle Baker Cottingham. Findagrave.com. Retrieved on June 10, 2020.
3. ↑ Dr. Claybrook Cottingham. Findagrave.com. Retrieved on June 10, 2020.
4. ↑ Claybrook B. Cottingham, Jr., obituary, Singleton Funeral Home, Glen Burnie, Maryland, accessed December 19, 2010
5. ↑ A later Louisiana Tech president, F. Jay Taylor, had previously been a professor of history and an administrator at Louisiana College, but he came to LC long after Cottingham had left. Their paths would have crossed only in 1941-1942, when Taylor was a student at Louisiana Tech and Cottingham was in his first year as president there.

​​​​​