Samuel Miller Lawton

Samuel Miller Lawton (November 12, 1899 – November 3, 1971) was an American educator, minister, radio host, and advocate for the blind who served as first chairman of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and co-founder and first academic dean of North Greenville University. He is the first person born blind to earn a Ph.D. in the United States, and one of the first blind Americans to serve as an academic administrator.

Early life and education Lawton was born on November 12, 1899, in Estill, South Carolina, to Thomas Oregon Lawton Jr. and Bessie Miller Lawton. He was born with retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary condition that caused blindness; his younger brother was also born blind, while their sisters were unaffected.

In 1901, the family relocated to Greenville, South Carolina, in part so that Lawton could eventually attend the state's only school for the blind, located in Spartanburg. Lawton attended regular schools until age thirteen, then spent a year at Cedar Springs, South Carolina's school for the blind, where he learned Braille, New York Point, typewriting, and violin. He later attended the Furman Fitting School and Furman University, graduating in 1920.

After Furman, Lawton studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, earning a Graduate of Theology degree. There he met Roberta Alice Stockton, a student in the Women's Missionary Training Union program. The two married in 1924, and soon after began teaching together at Mars Hill College in North Carolina. Lawton went on to earn a master's degree from George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee, and later completed a Ph.D. there as well, defending his dissertation on the religious practices of the Gullah people of coastal South Carolina - research for which he attended more than 250 religious services and conducted numerous interviews. He received his doctorate on June 2, 1939, and is generally regarded as the first person born blind to earn a Ph.D. in the United States. In 1933, while Lawton was completing his doctoral dissertation, the principal of North Greenville Baptist Academy, Dr. Donnan, invited the family to live at the school in exchange for Lawton undertaking a special research project: a survey assessing whether the academy should become a junior college.

Lawton subsequently helped secure the school's academic credibility by persuading Coker College, Wofford College, and Furman University to accept North Greenville graduates, and by convincing the South Carolina Department of Education to formally recognize the school as a junior college. The first class graduated in 1936. Lawton later served as a member of the university's board of trustees.

For over 20 years, Lawton hosted a weekly Sunday School program, International Sunday School, on radio station WSPA.

Death and legacy Lawton died of a heart attack in 1971 in Ridgecrest, North Carolina.

Awards and honors The Spartanburg Sertoma Club named Lawton as "Man of the Year," and he was a recipient of an additional "Man of the Year" award from the South Carolina Association of the Blind.

North Greenville named its men's dormitory, Lawton Hall, in his honor the year after his death; the building was later demolished, but the university continues to commemorate his role as a co-founder, including through the naming of its provost's office.

In recognition Lawton's contributions, North Greenville established the "Sam and Alice Lawton Award," given annually to married students who contributed most to campus life.