Lillian Cleveland Compton, 1884 - 1973

Lillian Cleveland Compton, 1884 - 1973

Lillian Compton served as the first female president of Frostburg State Teachers College, now Frostburg State University, from 1945 to 1954.

In 1904, after graduation from the three-year State Normal School program, she began her teaching career in Allegany County. In 1916, she entered West Virginia University and earned an A.B. degree. After her graduation, she became Superintendent of Schools in Sutton, W.V., and two years later, she accepted the position of Supervisor of Elementary Education in Allegany County. She was the first woman to hold this position on a county-wide basis.

She continued her education and earned a Master's degree. Later, she taught classes at Columbia University, Fairmont State, Johns Hopkins University and Louisiana State University.

She became president the State Teachers College at Frostburg when the enrollment was at 62 students. Compton's vision and ability to argue the case of an increased enrollment following the end of World War II due to the GI Bill is credited with preventing the institution from closing in the late 1940s. Upon her retirement in 1954, the new gymnasium and auditorium was named in her honor. In 2001 that building was razed, and the new Compton Science Center erected.

In 1954 Lillian Compton became the first woman to receive an honorary degree from the University of Maryland. She was elected to the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 1999.