Bruce R. Payne Papers

Bruce Ryburn Payne was born on February 18,1874 in Mull Valley in North Carolina to Jordan Nathaniel Payne and Barbara Anne Eliza Warlick. He attended Trinity College (Duke University) in Durham, North Carolina receiving a baccalaureate degree in 1896 and a master’s degree in 1902. While earning his master’s degree Payne taught Latin and Greek at Durham High School. In 1902 he and his wife were offered scholarships to attend the Teachers College of Columbia University. In 1903 Payne received his second master’s degree the following year he was awarded a doctorate.

After receiving his PhD Payne taught for a year at William & Mary College as a professor of philosophy, while there he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1905 he became professor of secondary education and philosophy at the University of Virginia. Payne served as director of the summer institute for teachers and developed this program into a model for the continuing education of teachers during the summer months. The institute was to train young teachers and women who were not allowed to matriculate at the University of Virginia during the regular sessions. The program was rigorous and academically demanding and in being so demonstrated to skeptics the value of summer schools for teachers.

In 1911, Payne was recruited to Peabody College to be its first President and was given the task of starting a teachers’ college in Nashville, Tennessee from scratch. He immediately began planning for the construction of the first campus buildings and creating a vision for the new college. By 1913, plans were drawn up and the first buildings under construction. Sited across the street from Vanderbilt University Peabody College developed a love hate relationship that played out through the interactions of Payne and Chancellor James H. Kirkland. This sometimes acrimonious relationship lasted throughout the men’s lives.

Payne served as President of Peabody College till his death in 1937. In those twenty-six years he established the college as the premier location for teacher education in the south. Peabody’s growth of prestige can be directly linked to the careful caretaking of Bruce Payne during his tenure as leader of the institution. The faculty were cultivated and recruited with great care as were the relationships developed with the General Education Board and other granting agencies. When he died on April 21, 1937 of a heart attack in Nashville Payne had only recently returned from a trip north to meet with donors hoping to shore up the college during the difficult years of the Depression.

Payne was laid to rest at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. He left behind his widow Lula Carr, son Maxwell Carr Payne and a grieving college.