After Oxford

The much-coveted Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British financier and colonizer of southern Africa who had studied at Oxford University and wanted others to benefit from the Oxford experience. In addition to the 32 American winners each year, there are Rhodes Scholars from 18 other jurisdictions and countries, including Australia, South Africa, and India.

Students from Centre have won the award seven times since Americans became eligible in 1904. Here are their stories.

Winchester Stuart '08
Oxford: 1908-1911
A native of Shelbyville, Ky., and a classics major at Centre, Winchester Stuart '08 studied for the ministry at Oxford. He became known as the greatest corporate mortgage consultant of his time as head of the mortgage department at Ebasco Services Inc. in New York City. He died in 1967.

Richard W. Dunlap '15
Oxford: 1919-22, history
Richard Dunlap '15 of Danville entered Centre at 15 and earned both B.A. (valedictorian, 1915) and M.A. (1916) degrees at the College. He won the Rhodes Scholarship in 1917, but service as an ambulance driver in France during World War I delayed his Oxford studies. A journalist, he was travel editor of the New York Herald Tribune for many years and a New York correspondent for the London Daily Mail. He died in 1955.

W. Strother Hynes '22
Oxford: 1923-26, law
An English major at Centre, Strother Hynes '22 practiced law in Ashland, Ky., for 18 years, then moved to Richmond, Va., where he spent more than 20 years with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Co. He died in 1985.

John Patton Harrod '67
Oxford: 1967-69, English
Shelbyville, Ky., native John Harrod '67 became a teacher, but not until he was 35. He now teaches English and history at Frankfort High School, plays traditional music with the Grey Eagle Band, and makes documentary video and field recordings when he can.
"The scholarship was kind of a burden to me for a while because it created all these expectations. If you're a Rhodes Scholar, you're not supposed to be playing the fiddle in Eastern Kentucky and hanging around with seventy-year-old fiddle players in barns and dances and front porches. You're supposed to be being successful. . . . But then I thought, I had some pretty exceptional teachers, both in high school and in college. They got me fired up, and I wanted to get other people fired
up. . . . Once I'd made that decision, I knew that teaching was what I was supposed to do."

Raymond Burse '73
Oxford: 1973-75, chemistry
A chemistry and math major from Hopkinsville, Ky., Raymond Burse '73 distinguished himself at Oxford as one of only a handful of Americans to win an Oxford Blue (given to those on the elite teams that play against rival Cambridge University; he won Blues for rugby, basketball, and track). His post Oxford career included earning a degree from Harvard Law School and serving as president of Kentucky State University. He is now senior counsel for commercial law at General Electric Appliances in Louisville and heads the state Rhodes committee for Kentucky.
"The relationships you build and the people you meet [as a Rhodes Scholar] are tremendous," he says. "We talk about the ÔCentre mafia' in Kentucky. The Rhodes Scholar network works the same way except it's worldwide."

David M. Fowler '74
Oxford: 1974-76, medicine
A biology major from rural Wolcott, N.Y., and co-captain of the Centre basketball team, David Fowler '74 finished his medical degree at Cambridge University and worked in emergency rooms in New Zealand, Hawaii, and New Orleans, before settling in Florida. A few years ago he added a law degree to his credentials and now combines his work as an ER physician with healthcare and medical malpractice law. He also heads the Florida Rhodes selection committee.
"Centre to me was the ultimate education," he says. "When I got to Oxford, I saw that I hadn't lacked anything, but the Rhodes Scholarship definitely changed my perspective on the world. . . . Serving on the Rhodes committee impresses me with how well the country is doing. We have some incredible youth."

Michael Lanham '00
Oxford: 2000-
A math and music major from Gravel Switch, Ky., Michael Lanham '00 is Centre's most recent Rhodes Scholar. See his story at Keys to a Rhodes.

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