Walter Williams, the editor of the

Walter Williams, the editor of the Columbia Missouri Herald, and a university curator influenced opinion to establish the school. Ten years passed before the proposal was commonly accepted. Walter Williams was named the first dean. In the midst of the Depression in 1930, the Board of Curators chose Williams to lead the university through the economic crisis. Williams had turned down an offer of the presidency in 1921, but this time he could not refuse. He remained president until his death in 1935.