President Raymond R. Paty Records

Dr. Raymond Ross Paty was born November 4, 1896, in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1921. After graduation, he became the first principal of the newly opened Cumberland Mountain School, a preparatory school in Crossville, Tennessee. While serving as principal, he attended graduate school at Columbia University in New York City during the summers and received a Master of Arts Degree in 1927. In 1929 he joined the faculty of Emory University, and later became Dean of Men. Paty left Emory in 1938 to become president of Birmingham-Southern College in 1938 and served in that capacity until 1942. He was given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Emory in 1938.

Paty was named president of The University of Alabama in 1942. He guided the campus through the difficult years of World War II. Notably, it was during his tenure as president that the Medical College of Alabama was established at The University of Alabama’s Birmingham extension center. The medical college and the extension center would later become the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

After leaving The University of Alabama in 1947, Paty became Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. He later became public relations director for Rich’s Department Store and a member of the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Paty married Adelaide Martha Pund, of Augusta, Georgia. He died in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 7, 1957.