To celebrate the inauguration of Kim Schatzel as Towson University’s 14th leader, we are looking back at the past leaders of the school. These essays are from a book we helped craft, Towson University: The First 150 Years.
George Washington Ward brought a strong background in liberal arts college education when he was appointed principal in 1905. A local scholar born in Howard County in 1867, Ward taught briefly in Maryland county schools before finishing his bachelor’s degree at Western Maryland College. He continued at the college as a professor of history and economics, then completed a doctoral degree at Johns Hopkins University.
He returned to the Western Maryland faculty and it was from there that he was called to MSNS. As principal of MSNS, Ward brought innovation to the school and the curriculum. He began holding biweekly faculty meetings in 1906 to help inspire the instructors and keep them abreast of the most advanced teaching practices. He restructured the course catalogs, streamlining the information available to anyone interested in attending MSNS. His other duties were much like those of his predecessors — caring for the physical plant of the school and acting as a surrogate parent to the students.
Dr. Ward’s tenure with MSNS was short. After just four years, he left the school to try his hand as a stockbroker. Eventually, he returned to academia, teaching history at Baltimore Polytechnic Institution from 1917 until 1932.