Edward McShane Waits: Legacy of Leadership at Texas Christian University (1871–1949)

Edward McShane Waits, Disciples of Christ minister and president emeritus of Texas Christian University, son of Charles Martel Waits and Mary Ellen (Moore) Waits, was born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, on April 29, 1871. Waits’s father was a farmer, and Edward was one of at least fourteen children.

Before turning eighteen years old, Waits attended Kentucky Wesleyan College in Millersburg, Kentucky, and served as principal of the public school in Ellisville, Kentucky. He taught for two years in Nicholas County, Kentucky. In 1896 he earned a bachelor of arts degree from Kentucky University (later Transylvania University) and graduated from its College of the Bible. That year, following his ordination as a Disciples of Christ minister, Waits began pastoring at a church in Fulton, Kentucky, where he remained for five and a half years. On May 23, 1899, he married Sarah Wilson Wooten at her family’s home in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Sarah died in 1915, and Waits never remarried. The couple had one daughter, Mary Elizabeth.

In 1902 Waits moved to Texas, where he continued his ministry in Ladonia. The following year he became pastor at the Christian church in El Paso before again moving in 1907 to succeed Homer T. Wilson at the Tabernacle Christian Church in downtown Fort Worth. In 1909 Waits consolidated the church with the Bellevue Christian Church to form the Magnolia Avenue Christian Church. The church became one of Fort Worth’s largest churches, and Sunday school membership reached 1,000 people during his tenure. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram described Waits as “one of the outstanding figures in the Christian denomination in the South.” In 1912 Waits spent several months traveling through Europe and the Near East. Two years later he published a religious book, Appreciations of a Beautiful Life.

In 1916 Waits resigned from the Magnolia Avenue Church and accepted a pastorate in Los Angeles, California. He ultimately decided to remain in Fort Worth and accepted the job of president of Texas Christian University (TCU)—Waits had served for five years as secretary of TCU’s board of trustees. He was appointed to succeed Frederick Doyle Kershner’s vacant position (William B. Parks had served as interim president since 1915). On November 14, 1916, Waits was formally installed as university president in a ceremony at the university’s auditorium.

At the outset of his presidency, Waits oversaw a university with an enrollment of 301 students, a $300,000 debt, and no permanent library building. Within a year the nation plunged into World War I. During the war period, Waits recommended military discipline be taught to students. In 1918 the creation of the national Student Army Training Corps gave students the opportunity to receive preliminary military training while at TCU. Under Waits’s leadership the university secured growing recognition in the post-war years. It was elected to membership in the Association of American Colleges in 1921 and both the Southern Association of College and Secondary Schools and the Southwest Athletic Conference in 1922. In 1921 Waits proposed a major fundraising campaign leading up to the school’s golden jubilee in 1923. The campaign saw the university increase its endowment to $500,000. Additionally, in December 1923 Mary Couts Burnett dedicated a three-million-dollar trust to TCU. Burnett donated an additional $150,000 to fund the construction of the Mary Couts Burnett library, which was completed in 1925.

In 1927 TCU liquidated all of its debts, and the university received a gift of $166,666.67 from the General Education Board. In 1930, owing to a successful fundraising drive headed by entrepreneur Amon G. Carter, a new football stadium was completed. TCU’s growth was stymied by the Great Depression, and the university was forced to institute major pay cuts for faculty. In 1934–35 Waits “tramped the streets of Fort Worth” to solicit funds needed to raise salaries by 10 percent. In 1939, as the university’s finances improved, Waits proposed a major building program—$1.5 million were approved for the program, but World War II disrupted these plans.

During TCU’s golden jubilee celebration, Waits received an honorary doctor of laws (LL.D.) degree from the university—he also received honorary LL.D. degrees from Transylvania University and Austin College in Sherman. During his presidency Waits established himself as an affable and well-liked executive. He was described by former TCU dean Colby Hall as a “pulpit speaker of forceful language,” but also “gifted in making friends.” Nicknamed “Prexy” by the student body, Waits was “recognized as a friend of the youngsters” and was called the football team’s “twelfth man” by Assistant Coach Mike Brumbelow because of his propensity to yell and rally the crowd at games. His passion for the team was justified, as TCU won Southwest Conference championships in 1929, 1932, and 1938 and the Sugar Bowl in 1935 and 1938.

While president of TCU, Waits kept up his ministerial duties. He led most chapel services at TCU and also preached at churches throughout Fort Worth. In 1926 Waits garnered national attention for burning his accumulated sermon manuscripts; he asserted that his time as a university president had awakened him to the reality that pulpit religion “must be suited to the modern mind.” In 1929 he published A College Man’s Religion, a collection of essays dealing with religion and college life reflective of his new philosophy of religious instruction. Waits regarded the completion of the new University Christian Church building in 1933 as one of the high points of his career at TCU. During his time as president, Waits also officiated many funerals, including Fort Worth mayor Egbert Cockrell; minister Chalmers McPherson; and Evan Stanley Farrington, Fort Worth’s longtime director of physical education.

In 1936 Waits was celebrated by the Fort Worth Club for his twenty years of service to TCU and recognized as “one of the foremost scholars of the Southwest.” He was named the “most outstanding citizen of 1937” by the Fort Worth Exchange Club. Waits served as president of the Christian Church’s national board of education, as superintendent of the denomination’s Texas Bible School work, and as an associate editor of the Dallas-based Christian Courier. He also served as a director of the Fort Worth Public Library; was a charter member and director of the Good Government League of Fort Worth; and was a member of the University Club of Fort Worth, the Rotary Club of Fort Worth, and the Masonic order. Waits was a Democrat and supported the prohibition movement.

TCU advanced tremendously under Waits’s leadership. During his tenure, enrollment increased from just over 300 to more than 2,000 students, and the number of faculty grew from fifteen to more than 100. Additionally, he eradicated the school’s debts and grew the university’s endowment from $100,000 to more than $3 million. In 1941 Waits retired as president of TCU after nearly twenty-five years of service. The university bestowed upon him the status of president emeritus and established the Edward McShane Waits Scholarship in his honor. Waits was succeeded by McGruder Ellis Sadler. In 1948 the university named a women’s dormitory Waits Hall in his honor. Waits Avenue, located on and near the TCU campus, is also named in his honor. In the last years of his life, Waits was cared for by his daughter, who taught at TCU and had married TCU professor Gayle Scott.

E. M. Waits died on December 26, 1949, due to a cardiovascular illness. He was seventy-eight years old and is buried at Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth.