PAINE COLLEGE, PREPARING FOR TRANSFORMATION: DR. LESTER MCCORN
BY BRANDI KELLAM
D r. Lester McCorn’s career path has been anything but conventional. His journey to the presidency of his second leadership role at an HBCU began when, as a high school senior who had overcome childhood homelessness, he applied to just one college, Morehouse, at the urging of the first lady of his church. “I was talking to my pastor’s wife who asked me what I was going to do with my life after I graduate.” McCorn recalls he told her he didn’t know. “Have you considered Morehouse? That’s Martin Luther King’s alma mater.”
“She knew I loved Dr. King,” McCorn recalled.
many of his peers who aspired to follow in King’s footsteps, he envisioned a different kind of calling, one focused on mentoring the civil rights leader like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., rather than becoming one himself. “Everybody that came to Morehouse wanted to be Dr. King,” McCorn said. “I wanted to be the one who taught Dr. King. Benny Mays is my hero.” He was referring to Benjamin Elijah Mays, the renowned Atlanta educator and president of Morehouse College from 1940 to 1967, who was known as a “spiritual mentor” to Dr. King.
Though he had long envisioned becoming a college president, McCorn’s first appointment came unexpectedly. While serving as a pastor and seminary professor at United Theological Seminary, he was nominated to lead Clinton College in Rock Hill, South Carolina. “It happened almost by accident,” McCorn said, noting he was surprised to be approached, as the role hadn’t even been on his radar. At the time, Clinton was regarded as one of the lesser- known HBCUs, but McCorn saw an opportunity to put the college on the map. “I saw it as a great
That spark was enough to set McCorn’s trajectory in motion. He applied only to Morehouse, was accepted, and the decision would reshape his life and ultimately position him to lead HBCUs through some of their most defining challenges. He currently serves as the 18th president of Paine College, a historically Black college founded in 1882 in Augusta, Georgia. “I’m not a college president if it weren’t for Morehouse,” said McCorn.
But McCorn says that, unlike
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