David Edgar Guyton

David Edgar Guyton (February 21, 1880 - April 16, 1964 and taught at Blue Mountain College (BMC) for 50 years. He had been attending a one-teacher school near where he lived, becoming that school's first male graduate. His major focus there was American history, which he supplemented with courses in economics, sociology, and English literature of the Victorian era.

Career Guyton initially taught French and German at BMC; later he taught English and education classes. Eventually history and economics became his areas of concentration. He also wrote for The Times-Picayune, The Birmingham Age-Herald, and The Southern Sentinel newspapers. and in 1959 that newspaper designated him correspondent emeritus.

He wrote poems that were published in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers, A columnist wrote in The Birmingham Age-Herald, "It is not a sentimental book but a simple one of a strong and beautiful character."

Guyton was elected president of the Bank of Blue Mountain on January 17, 1933. An item in The Toronto Daily Star about the election noted that Guyton "will continue his scholastic and newspaper work" and concluded, "He rather likes to have even his spare moments fully occupied." He later became the bank's chief executive officer also. He was district governor of Rotary International in 1951–1952,

In June 1936 Governor Hugh L. White appointed Guyton to a four-year term on the State Blind Commission of Mississippi. Also that month Mississippi's Lieutenant Governor J. B. Snider appointed him to represent that state on the National Poetry Council and to be a delegate to the Congress of American Poets.

Depot Bible class For 72 years Guyton was a member of Lowrey Baptist Church in Blue Mountain. He taught a men's Bible class at the local depot of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad for more than 30 years. He began each session with a brief review of national and world events of the previous week, then read Scripture and taught the Sunday School lesson. After concluding with a song, most of the men walked up the hill to attend the morning worship service. A columnist wrote about the weekly sessions in The Commercial Appeal, "It's a thing that ought to be preserved and cherished." and who had attended elementary school with him. They lived near the college,

Recognition In 1938 It was dedicated on November 1, 1957, with Paul Flowers, book editor of the Commercial Appeal, as dedicatory speaker. An editorial in The (Jackson, Mississippi) Clarion-Ledger noted some of the couple's achievements and said, "Theirs is a record which is a credit to the college, to the state and to the overall advancement of higher education." The college awarded him an honorary LL. D. degree in 1960.