Biography:

University and foundation administrator. Born– October 3, 1891, Goodwater. Parents– Daniel and Amanda Delight (Lessley) Carmichael. Married– Ruth Mae Crabtree, July 13, 1918. Children– Two. Education–Alabama Presbyterian College, Anniston, for two years; University of Alabama, B.A., 1911, M.A., 1914; Rhodes Scholar at  Oxford University, B.S., 1917.  Served in the U.S. Army, WWI; a volunteer in Herbert Hoover’s Commission for Belgian Relief; worked for the YMCA in India and East Africa.  Teacher and principal in the Birmingham City Schools, 1919-1922;  assistant to the president, dean, and president of  Alabama College at Montevallo, 1922-1935;  dean of the graduate school,  vice chancellor and chancellor, Vanderbilt University, 1937-46; Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, president, 1946-53; president of the University of  Alabama, 1953-57.   A consultant to the Fund for the Advancement of Education and a member of President Truman’s Commission on Higher Education, 1946-47; chairman of the board of trustees of the New York State University System, 1948-53.  Awarded the Queen’s Medal, King Albert’s Medal, and the medal of the Belgian National Relief Committee, by the Belgian government; awarded the British Army Service Medal; and the American Service Medal. Received the American Council Book Award Gold Medal and the higher education prize of the American Council on Education, 1962. Honorary doctorates from many institutions, including the University of Alabama (1937). Carmichael Library at Montevallo,  Carmichael Towers at Vanderbilt, and Carmichael Hall at the University of  Alabama are named in his honor.  Died September 25, 1966.

Source:

Current Biography; American National Biography online; Who’s Who online

Publication(s):

The Changing Role of Higher Education. New York; Macmillan, 1949.

Graduate Education– a Critique and a Program. New York; Harper, 1961.

Racial Tensions: A Study in Human Reactions.  University of New Hampshire Press, 1959.

Universities, Commonwealth and American; a Comparative Study. New York; Harper, 1959.

Papers;

Collections of the papers of Oliver Cromwell Carmichael are held at the University of Alabama, Vanderbilt University, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in New York.