William T. Vernon

Born in 1874 in Missouri, William Vernon became a minister and an educator at Western University in Kansas. Appointed the institution's president in 1896 at the age of 25, Vernon was known as an for his leadership and accomplished speechmaking. He received much attention for crossing racial lines when he spoke at the Kansas Day Club celebration, a traditionally white Republican affair. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Vernon registrar of the treasury in 1906. In 1920 he was elected bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and assigned to the Transvaal district in South Africa. Upon his return to Western University in 1933, Governor Alfred Landon appointed Vernon head of the industrial department. Vernon retired five years later and died in 1944.