John Ballard Rendall

John Ballard Rendall (April 5, 1847 – September 3, 1924) was an American Presbyterian minister, educator, and politician. He served as a professor of Latin at the historically black Lincoln University of Pennsylvania from 1872 to 1906, president of Lincoln University from 1906 to 1924, and member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1899 to 1900.

Biography Rendall was born in Madurai, India, on April 5, 1847, to Congregationalist missionaries John and Jane (Ballard) Rendall. Of Scottish descent (from Orkney), his family returned to the United States when he was ten years old, and he was raised under the aegis of his uncle, Isaac Norton Rendall, a minister.

Rendall became principal of the preparatory department at Lincoln University in 1870 and became professor of Latin at Lincoln in 1872. He was ordained to the ministry in the Presbytery of Chester in 1876 and became clerk of the presbytery in 1894. He succeeded his late uncle, Isaac Norton Rendall, as Lincoln's president in 1906, serving until his death eighteen years later.

As president, John Ballard Rendall was popular and respected (and known to participate in the students' rough-and-tumble football games) but a poor fiscal manager. In 1906, Lincoln was the third wealthiest university in Pennsylvania when measured by endowment capital per student. The university's poor investment decisions, lackluster fundraising, overly generous tuition waivers, and even substantial embezzlement by a former financial officer depleted the university's endowment and resulted in Lincoln's running substantial operating deficits most years.

Elected in November 1898 as a member of the Fusion Party, Rendall served a single term (1899–1900) in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives representing Chester County. He lost his reelection campaign in 1900.

Rendall died after a long illness involving pernicious anemia on September 3, 1924, in Lower Oxford Township. His remains were interred at Oxford Cemetery.