Charles Ross Endsley, Sr. Obituary:

Knoxville, Tennessee News-Sentinel; Feb 10, 1961

 

SWEETWATER, Feb 10 (Special)--Col. Charles Ross Endsley, Tennessee Military Institute president emeritus, died today at Sweetwater Hospital.

 

Col. Endsley, 76, had long been a well known Southern educator and Presbyterian layman.

 

Col. Endsley was born in Belfast, Tenn., the son of James Bedford Endsley and Anna Bell Endsley.  He married Miss Ethel McQuiddy in 1908.

He got his early education at Miller and Mintor Prep School and Cumberland University.  He got his AB degree at Cumberland and in 1941 he was presented an LL.D degree by Maryville College in recognition of his great service to education. Quit in 1956. He began his early teaching career at Brandon Training School, Wartrace, Tenn., where he stayed four years.  Then he was principle of Winchester School for Boys, Winchester, Tenn., two years.

He became headmaster and later superintendent of Castle Heights Military Academy at Lebanon.  In 1919 he moved to Sweetwater to become superintendent of TMI and in 1926 he was also made president.  He served until ill health forced him to resign in 1956, when he became president emeritus. He had served as president of the Mid-South Association of Private Schools and of the Association of Military Schools and Colleges of the United States.  He maintained an active interest in the Southern Association of Colleges and secondary Schools.  He served on that association's executive committee and its committee on institutions of higher learning for five years. Leader in Church Col. Endsley was an elder of Sweetwater Presbyterian Church, former moderator of Knoxville Presbytery and a member of the Presbytery committee on home missions and committee on stewardship for more than 20-years.  He was also on the board of trustees of King College, Bristol.

 

He leaves his wife; a son Col. C. R. Endsley, Jr., Sweetwater; two daughters, Mrs. Joseph A. Sizer and Mrs. Beverly C. Wood, both of Sweetwater; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

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Note:  The article is in error about his father's name being JAMES BEDFORD ENDSLEY.  His father's name was JAMES BURGESS ENDSLEY.  James Burgess Endsley did have an uncle, Bedford Endsley, however.  Charles Ross Endsley's wife was from Normandy on the other side of Bedford County from Belfast.  He taught in Winchester, Pikeville and Lebanon all before 1919.  I doubt that his wife, Ethel May McQuiddy or her children ever had occasion to be well acquainted with Charles Ross's Endsley side of the family; hence the error.

Similarly, James Burgess Endsley's wife's name was A-M-N-A, not Anna.

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Transcribed and donated by Dick Wood

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