Heidelberg University Athletics

William Terry Wickham was a doer. When he set out on a project, it got finished.

Born on June 4, 1899 in Sycamore, Ohio, Wickham's father, William Horace Wickham, an M.D. and graduate of Otterbein College and Johns Hopkins Medical School, encouraged or even pushed young Terry to develop mentally more rapidly than his peers.

When Terry was 12, his father felt that Terry was wasting his time in elementary school and tried to get the local school officials to admit him to Sycamore High School. A law suit followed, one that is still cited in law books (Wickham vs. Board of Education), and Dr. Wickham lost.

While this was going on, however, young Terry's mother (a former teacher herself) arranged for him to be tutored in the County Seat (Upper Sandusky). This tutoring program resulted in Terry taking and passing the then existing "Boxwell Exam" which was an alternate way of gaining admission to high school. Terry did enter Sycamore High School then and graduated at the age of 14 in 1913.

Because of that early start, Terry Wickham was able to graduate from Heidelberg in 1920 at the fairly typical age of 21, in spite of his having completed an enlistment in the Army during World War I. While at Heidelberg, he completed the "Arts Curriculum" and participated in football, tennis, and basketball. Following graduation, he served in education in Mount Victory and Crooksville. While at Crooksville, he hired a young Muskingum graduate, Rebecca Dugan, to teach English and music. They were married in April 1924.

In 1924, at the young age of 25, he was hired as Superintendent of the newly formed Orange Village Consolidated School. During these years, Terry Wickham earned a Master's degree in Education at Ohio State University.

In 1943, he was hired as superintendent of the Hamilton, Ohio city school systems, and Heidelberg brought him back to Heidelberg as its President in 1948. Both of his children attended Heidelberg, daughter Mary Ellen a 1946 graduate and son Bill, who graduated in 1951 and was a sophomore when Terry assumed presidency.

Terry Wickham was president at Heidelberg from 1948 to 1969, some great years for the school in athletics, labeled as the "Hoernemann years." Paul Hoernemann had come to Heidelberg in 1946 and brought football glory to Heidelberg. He ultimately put aside coaching to become Terry's right hand man, Vice President for Development, and served in that capacity until his untimely death.

Earning several honorary doctorates, Terry Wickham's time at Heidelberg is primarily known for the building he did, in terms of physical buildings, fund raising, and increased endowment. Buildings built during Wickham's 21 years as President included: Seiberling Gymnasium; Bareis Science Building; King Hall; Brown Hall; Miller Hall with Hoernemann Refectory; Stoner Health Center; Krieg Hall; Beeghly Library; and the purchase of College Hill School, to be renamed Aigler Alumni Building.

He was the prime motivator in the creation of the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges.

Terry and Rebecca Wickham retired to Sun City Center, Florida in 1969. They lived there until 1981, when declining health prompted them to move to Fairhaven Home in Upper Sandusky. Terry Wickham died there on February 15, 1988.

(This profile appeared in the Hall of Fame Banquet program.)