Dr. Cleveland Leon Dennard (1929-1992) was the founding president of the Washington Technical institute, a predecessor to UDC. Dennard was appointed to the post by president Lyndon B. Johnson at a time when the city’s government functions were largely controlled by the White House and Congress , Dr, Dennard served at WTI from1968, through 1977, a time in which enrollment increased from 500 to nearly 5,000; in which he initiated programs in aerospace, business, engineering, environmental science, public administration, and health science, and in which he oversaw construction of the new Van Ness campus. Dr. Dennard was later President of Atlanta University, serving from 1977 through 1983. From 1984 through 1992, he was a management consultant and acting chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. Dr. Dennard earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M University, a master’s in industrial education at Colorado State university, and a doctorate in education administration at the University of Tennessee. Photograph of Cleveland Dennard, ca. 1968

Dr. Edgar C. Higbie (1875- 1944) was appointed president of Wilson Teachers College in 1931. Dr. Higbie retired as President of Wilson Teachers College in February 1941, because of ill health. He remained on the faculty until his death in 1944. Higbie was born in West Berlin, Wisconsin and graduated with a degree in education from the University of Minnesota. His teaching and school administration experience prior to Wilson Teachers College was largely in rural Minnesota and South Dakota (including at the university that became the University of Minnesota at Morris). He became identified with progressive methods in agricultural education. He was president at Dakota State University from 1920 through 1931. Higbie was a prominent educator, known for his study of the sociological elements and implications of teacher education. He stressed the humanistic approach in the study of education.