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In the fall of 1941, Dr. James Earl Danieley was faced with the desire to attend Elon College and the need to come up with $82 to pay for tuition.

His father was very poor and had a lengthy illness. Danieley was left to tend the farm. His family had very little fi nancial resources, but they had honor and integrity. And character is the biggest quality a leader can have, Danieley said.

“And daddy said more than once, ‘Son, we don’t have much, but we’ve got a good name. And that’s something nobody can take away from you,’” Danieley said.

Danieley graduated from Elon in 1946 and was immediately offered a position teaching chemistry. He accepted and then began graduate work in organic chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, so he could be more qualifi ed.

In 1953, he became Dean of the College. The position was not his cup of tea, so he went to Johns Hopkins University to do postdoctoral research. In 1957, Elon Trustee George Colclough called to tell Danieley he was elected president – even though Danieley had not applied for the position and did not even realize he had been nominated. He became the sixth president in Elon’s history at only 32 years old.

“Elon has had eight presidents,” Danieley said. “I was well acquainted with the last four.”

Danieley said he fi nds it ironic that “the person who came along [as president] was the person who was needed to lead in a particular way at a specifi c time under certain diffi cult conditions. And I look at it and think, there was no way, absolutely no way that I could have done what [William Allen] Harper did. I don’t think [Leon] Smith could have done what I did. No way I could have done what [Leo] Lambert has done.”

The difference that was made in the academic quality of the institution during Danieley’s time as president is his most tremendous legacy. Danieley and his administration also made a large physical plant upgrade, but that victory would have been very hollow if the great strides had not been made in academics, he said.

“I was determined to be a leader in the academic community,” Danieley said. “There was no way I was going to let Elon be at the bottom of the barrel.”

Danieley said his will and determination are fuel for his fi re to

keep going until he achieves what he needs to.“I think that I fi rst have to have a vision of something that I

think is important, something that needs to be done and something where I can make a difference,” Danieley said. “Once I get that – the vision – that conviction that I can make a difference, then I like to think that neither Hades nor high water can keep me from going toward my goal.”

Danieley has a theme song he likes to use when describing where Elon came from and where we are now: “There’s no more remarkable story in the history of American higher education than the story of the growth and development of Elon University.”

Danieley retired from his presidency at 48 and has been teaching ever since.

He never misses an Elon basketball game. He goes not only because he loves the sport but because “his boys,” some of his students, are on the court. Elon alumnus Adam Constantine is one of them.

“It was meaningful to me that he kind of reached out to me,” Constantine said. “We talked and became friends just because that’s the kind of guy he is. He didn’t just watch the games, he immersed himself into the players’ lives. And that really means a lot to look into the stands and seeing people who actually care about you.”

At the end of a home basketball game one day, people in the crowd starting chanting “Dr. Danieley” over and over again. Danieley stood up and waved, and a tradition was born. At every game, people launch the Dr. Danieley chant and he stands up to acknowledge it with a wave of his white towel.

“Whether it’s a small school or a school of 30, 000 there’s always an elite group that’s always there that anchors [the fan base],” Constantine said. “And he is the anchor of that elite group.”

Danieley plans to always be around for his students in the classroom and on the court, and to witness Elon’s continued growth.

“I’ve been blessed to be here and see it for 69 years out of 120,” Danieley said. “So I’ve seen a lot of it. And if I have my way, I’ll see some more of it.”

He turned 86 in July but certainly doesn’t want to slow down.“I can’t retire because I’m not tired,” Danieley said. “If you take

the word ‘retire’ you can’t re-tire if you’re not tired.”Story By Ashley Barnas

ELON’S REMARKABLE STORYTELLER

GET TO KNOWEarl Danieley

Arrived at Elon in 1941 (graduated from Elon

in 1946)

Hometown: Alamance County

“There’s no more re-markable story in the history of American higher education than the story of the growth and development of Elon University.”

19 // � e Legacies of Elon’s Leaders

� e Legacies of Elon’s Leaders // 20

Earl Danieley

ELON’S REMARKABLE STORYTELLERPHOTO BY ASHLEY BARNAS