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A recognized scholar and law professor, Alfred Benjamin Butts was born in
1890 and received a B.S. degree from Mississippi A&M College in 1911 and a
Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1920. While head of the Department of
Education and Sociology at A&M, he spent summers teaching at numerous
universities around the country, including at Yale, where he earned a law
degree in 1930. Dr. Butts' most daunting task upon assuming the
Chancellorship in 1935 was to restore the University's accreditation,
which had been lost during the Bilbo administration. This was achieved
in 1941. Dr. Butts is credited with pulling the University through the
Great Depression. To his credit, a substantial amount of construction
was achieved despite economic difficulties: the Student Union (Weir
Hall), the Physics and Astronomy Building (Lewis Hall), 21 new faculty
houses, and 17 sorority and fraternity houses. Also during Dr. Butts'
term, the name "Rebels" was selected for the football team.
