Merrimon Cuninggim

Merrimon Cuninggim (May 11, 1911 – November 1, 1995) was a Methodist minister and scholar who, as Dean of the Perkins School of Theology, began the process of racially integrating Southern Methodist University. Under his leadership, Perkins would become the first integrated graduate school in the American South. His father, Jesse Lee Cuninggim, was a Methodist minister who moved Scarritt College from Kansas City, Missouri, to Nashville, and later taught at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Career In the 1940s, Cuninggim was Professor of Religion at Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia, and later at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. During his tenure, in 1952, he successfully led the drive to racially integrate, making it the first desegregated graduate school in the American South.

Cuninggim served as the executive director of the Danforth Foundation from 1960 to 1973.

Later, Cuninggim also served as the president of Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 1976 to 1979. He also served on the boards of trustees of his alma mater, Vanderbilt University and Duke University.

Cuninggim founded The Center for Effective Philanthropy in 1979. From 1979 to his death in 1995, he was a consultant for the Duke Endowment, the Lilly Endowment, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He also served as a consultant for the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center at Vanderbilt University, named in honor of his sister.

Tennis Cuninggim was a ranked tennis player who competed at Wimbledon and Forest Hills. At Pomona College, he was both the tennis coach and the chairman of the Religious Department.

Personal life and death Cuninggim was married to Annie Whitty Daniel. They had three daughters, Lee Neff, Terry and Penelope Cuninggim.

He died on November 1, 1995, in Cockeysville, Maryland.