During a crucial time in Lee University’s history the late Dr. Charles W. Conn stepped in as president and helped the fledgling school set a trajectory for future success.

The year was 1970 and Lee College was struggling through the transition from a Bible training school to a newly accredited liberal arts school.

Even when people in the church challenged the idea to take this new direction Dr. Conn’s reputation in the Church of God and his love of education gave him the experience to lead.

His 12-year presidency, at the time the longest in Lee history, was marked by increased enrollment, new academic programs and new buildings.

Dr. Conn’s interests ranged from photography, literature, history and writing poetry to world travel. His love of the arts were an innate part of his desire to expand the school.

He was credited by students as being, “ a man for our time,” and yet he seemed decades ahead.

While others struggled with America’s social unrest during this time, Dr. Conn embraced diversity and brought about a more global focus.

The more different a person the more interesting was his point-of-view. There was so much to learn from others.

Also during this time women’s role in authority was unsure. When others bowed to the backlash of the feminist movement, Dr. Conn saw no reason for women not to use their gifting. His philosophy was that God gave people their talents and they were responsible to him for how they used it.

A young professor named Caroline Dirksen benefited from this perspective.

Flourishing under the encouragement of her mentor, Dr. Dirksen is now a chief academic officer in a time when still very few women in other organizations hold such a position.

She is one of 27 residual faculty members from Dr. Conn’s presidency. In addition to those people many former students during that time have joined as faculty and staff.

Such numbers speak of his focus on students and the vision of building up the school.

Dr. Conn loved being around the students at Lee. He believed that they were (and are) the greatest asset the school has to offer. As president he had a standing policy that if three people arrived to his office at the same time, a businessman, a teacher and a student, show the student in.

He loved people and expressed this through his relational approach to life.

He wanted to be able to walk across campus and have the students react as if to a friend and students still recall his ability to make comfortable as well as to get them thinking.

No matter if you were a student, a family member or a stranger he had the ability to make people feel genuinely cared for.

After his presidency, when he was the official Church of God historian, he could be found all around campus speaking with students. Stories of his life were a favorite and they were often centered around his wife, Edna Minor Conn.

Author of 23 books including the Church of God history, Like A Mighty Army, he spent his early ministerial years having several works published.
He wrote the bulk of his books by hand in stacks upon stacks of yellow steno pads.

Dr. Conn was a skilled wordsmith. As a speaker, writer or just conversing with someone he did it all with the same clarity and ease, never groping for words.

He delighted in increasing his vocabulary and recommended do the same. He enoyed being able to say things more succinctly.

There was a section in Reader’s Digest for increasing your vocabulary that he even recommended using. He also encouraged those he met to journal.

An avid reader he would underline any words he didn’t know exact meanings of in books so he could look them up.

Infinitely deeper than any other love he had on earth was that of his wife Edna Minor Conn. The late Mrs. Conn was also mother to their 12 children.

Dr. and Mrs. Conn met while both attendinh Lee’s Bible training school. He was smitten from the first moment he laid eyes on her and later penned a poem about that very event.

Partners in ministry as well as raising their family, together they created a legacy built on a love of Christ and a dedication to following him in all things.