M. L. Brittain (1886C, 1928H)

Dr. Marion Luther Brittain was born in Wilkes County, Georgia

on November 11, 1865, and graduated from Oxford College in 1886. He became principal of Crew Street School in Atlanta, and later served as head of the language department at Boys School. In 1898 he pursued his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, and upon his return in 1900 became principal of the Fulton County Schools. In 1910 he became Georgia state superintendent of schools. Dedicated to the cause of education, he was famous for standing up to corrupt politicians, and was credited with a dramatic improvement in the Georgia school system. Brittain, the second Emory alumnus to become president of Georgia Tech (the first was Isaac Stiles Hopkins, president of Emory from 1884 to 1888 who was chosen to be the first president of Georgia School of Technology in 1889) was elected in 1922. Gentle and well-liked, he accomplished much for the school, including the establishment of the ROTC unit (the first in the South), the creation of the School of Aeronautics with a prestigious $300,000 gift from the Guggenheim Foundation, and the addition of a ceramics engineering course. Brittain retired in 1944, became President Emeritus, and wrote a history of the school called The Story of Georgia Tech. He died in 1953.

Emory's highest student award, the Marion Luther Brittain Award is named for Dr. Brittain, who, in 1942, donated funds to create it. According to a letter written by then-Emory President Goodrich C. White, dated March 6, 1953, "It was his wish to establish an award, somewhat similar to the Tech 'T', in recognition of unselfish service to the University." The first Brittain award was presented in 1948 to undergraduate Henry Franklin Gay, a veteran of World War II who founded the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity as a student. Since then, the award has been given yearly, with the exception of 1972, when it was declined. Presented each year at Commencement as the University's highest student honor, the award goes to a graduate who has demonstrated exemplary service to both the University and the greater community, as well as qualities of strong character and integrity.

Sources: Emory Magazine, Summer 1991, Summer 1997 http://www.library.gatech.edu/archives/finding-aids/display/xsl/UA004