Appointment in Carolina

When the University of South Carolina got a new president in 1944, alumni protested, facultymen seethed, and a group of students promptly burned him in effigy. It was not that they had anything personal against Rear Admiral Norman Murray Smith, U.S.N. (ret.). It just happened that his brother was one of the most powerful men in the legislature, and so the appointment smacked of politics.

Last week, when Governor James Byrnes announced that his longtime friend, Donald Stuart Russell, would be the admiral's successor, the odor of politics arose again. But this time the scent was false. Students, alumni and facultymen had been consulted, and all had agreed that Russell was a good choice.

At 45, Alumnus Donald Russell is a respected Carolinian, a onetime soda jerker and salesman who won first honors at both the college and the law school, rose to be one of the top lawyers in the state. In 1930 he joined the firm of Nicholls, Wyche and Byrnes, eventually became Byrnes's assistant when Byrnes was Secretary of State. The two men later went into partnership again, separated only after the gubernatorial election of 1950.

Last week Governor Byrnes was quick to say that officially he had nothing to do with the appointment of his old friend ("I did not attend the board meeting at which Mr. Russell was elected"). But unofficially, he had to admit that he was pleased. In both size (3,810 students) and stature, the university still ranks far below such Southern campuses as Virginia and Chapel Hill. Both able and powerfully connected, Donald Russell might prove to be just the man to bring it up to par.

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