George Frederick Magoun

George Frederick Magoun (1821 – January 30, 1896 ), a member of the Iowa Band of Congregationalist ministers, was the first president of Iowa College (now Grinnell College), where he served as college president from 1865 to 1885.

Life George Magoun was born in Bath, Maine in 1821, where he attended Bath Academy before entering Bowdoin College. He graduated from Bowdoin in 1841. After Bowdoin, he taught at schools in Galena, Illinois and Platteville, Wisconsin from 1844-1846. Magoun continued his studies at Andover Seminary and completed his divinity degree in 1847.

Magoun was a liberal president, permitting the teaching of evolution despite his personal disagreement with Darwin's work. In Grinnell, Elizabeth Earle Magoun was one of the founders of the town's oldest women's club, the "Busy Woman's Club", founded in 1870 and renamed in honor of Mrs. Magoun in 1896.

During Magoun's tenure as president, the college grew significantly; in 1882, there were two buildings and nearly 400 students. Despite a cyclone that year that destroyed the campus and killed two students, by the time of Magoun's 1884 retirement, three new buildings had been built.