Walter Alexander Groves (March 10, 1898 – September 22, 1983) was an American missionary, minister, educator, and academic administrator who was the 16th president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School before enrolling at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He spent three years there before leaving to enlist in the army during World War I. After the war's conclusion, he returned to Lafayette and graduated in July 1919. He spent the following three years studying at Princeton Theological Seminary but came one class shy of meeting the requirements for his degree. He returned to Lafayette to teach in 1922 and was ordained as a minister the following year; in 1925, he left the United States for missionary work in Tehran at the American School of Tehran and spent the majority of the next fifteen years there, returning only twice during the span.
Groves and his family left Iran in July 1940, shortly before the Anglo-Soviet invasion of the country. While on the ship home, he received a telegram from Centre College president Robert L. McLeod offering him a job as professor of philosophy and religion. Groves accepted, and taught his first class at Centre in October 1940, the morning after arriving on campus for the first time. After teaching at Centre for two years, Groves became professor of theology at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and spent four and a half years there before returning to Centre as its president in January 1947. During his ten-year term in charge of the school, Groves managed personnel issues with the faculty and students; he started a campaign to encourage professors to pursue doctoral degrees.
Groves strengthened Centre's ties to the Presbyterian Church; he held the church's pro-desegregation views and wished for those views to be adopted by the college. Disagreements with the board of trustees on this issue ultimately led to his resignation effective August 1957. He returned to Iran shortly after and spent time in administration at the Abadan Institute of Technology and Pahlavi University before returning to the United States to retire. He went back to Iran once final time in 1966 to preach and while there he helped to found Damavand College. He died in Albany, Georgia, in 1983.
Early life and education
Groves was born on March 10, 1898, in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both of his parents were immigrants from the British Isles: his mother, Ellen, was born in England and immigrated in 1885, and his father, Robert, was born in County Down, Republic of Ireland, and immigrated in 1883. Groves was the oldest of six children in his family; he had five younger sisters, two of whom died in infancy. He graduated from Central High School in 1915. He completed three years of schooling at Lafayette College, in Easton, Pennsylvania, before leaving to enlist in the army during World War I. He was sent to training in Plattsburg, New York, and had spent three months there before the Selective Service Act of 1917 was expanded to include men 18 years and older, after which he took up training at Camp Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served until the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. He returned to Lafayette in January 1919 and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in July of that year. While at Lafayette, he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Beta Kappa, and the cross country team, and was captain of the track team.
Groves enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary in September 1919 and completed his studies there in 1922, though he did not receive a degree because he lacked one necessary course. He went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1925.
Early career and missionary work
Groves began his professional career when he joined the faculty of his alma mater, Lafayette, as a professor of history and the Bible in 1922; he spent two academic years in this position. In 1923, the Presbytery of Philadelphia ordained him as a minister, and from 1924 to 1925 he was the secretary of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) Board of Foreign Missions.