Jerry Hudson

In 1972, Jerry Hudson was provost of Pepperdine's Malibu campus, though the position encompassed more than just academic responsibilities. Hudson's role in realizing the dream of Pepperdine Malibu can hardly be overstated.

The Graphic, in its first issue from Malibu, praised Hudson effusively: "Here is the man whose hair has literally turned gray between the time Malibu was first proposed and the campus' opening. [...] Pepperdine University owes Dr. Hudson its thanks, not just for the tremendous job he has done in getting the new campus open, but for his ongoing job as provost."¹

Hudson had been a student of Howard White at sister-school David Lipscomb College in Nashville, coming to Pepperdine to teach history in 1962.² President William Banowsky named Hudson provost and dean of the Malibu campus in 1971, and Hudson oversaw the construction of the campus as well as the development of the new curriculum.²

Hudson had aspirations to be Banowsky's successor in the presidency, but after a conflict about the faculty, Hudson took a job as president of Hamline University in Minnesota, beginning in 1975. Shortly thereafter, Pepperdine's board offered Hudson the presidency back in Malibu, but he declined.² Hudson went on to serve as president of Willamette University in Oregon.³

In his memoir, William Banowsky remembers Hudson as having played "an indispensable Malibu miracle role."³