Thomas E. Corts

When the organizers of Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform needed a leader, only one person would do and that person had no time to do it, but he did it anyway.  Dr. Thomas E. Corts, President of Samford University, already had delivered a memorable address before civic leaders in Birmingham.  With biblical mien, he cried out “How long, Alabama? O how long?”  That voice and that speech called for a new constitution that in his words “empowers instead of prohibits, that offers vision instead of reaction, that promotes results instead of inefficiency and that fosters community rather than division.”

Dr. Thomas E. Corts was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio. He graduated from Georgetown College of Kentucky, and earned Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at Indiana University. In 1983 he made Alabama his home and twenty-two years later now serves as the longest tenured senior college president in the state. When combined with his previous service as president of Wingate College in North Carolina, Dr. Corts is one of only a few presidents to have served in that capacity for over three decades.

Under his leadership, Samford has prospered as in no other time in that proud institution’s long and distinguished history.  Its national standing and reputation has never been higher, and its success has been accompanied by a strong sense of purpose.  For Tom Corts, millions in capital improvements, quality enrollments and a strong faculty were not enough.  It all had to result in civic engagement.  And so he set Samford University on a course of service to the people of Alabama.   In addition to his indefatigable commitment to constitutional reform, Corts earlier helped establish the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.  It is now the state’s leading think-tank on issues and policies that affect its people.  As President of Samford, Corts set a community standard “higher than mere non-discrimination” and communicated a strong and radical message of self-awareness and acceptance accompanied by the ideal that the University and its members “treat others as we would want to be treated.”

He has served as chair of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, president of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities, as well as president of the National Fellowship of Baptist Educators.  His honors are legion, including induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Now President Corts is in his victory lap, having announced his retirement from the presidency of Samford at the end of the 2005-06 academic year.  His imprint on the state of Alabama is indelible.  One cannot now think about constitutional reform in Alabama and good government for its people without hearing his voice.  It is this legacy that makes Dr. Thomas E. Corts induction into the Communication Hall of Fame not only natural but inevitable.