This video titled, “Alumni Interview with Dr. J. Earl Danieley,” took place in Johnston Hall, South Campus, Elon University, Elon, North Carolina on May 18, 2012. A piece of this video included an interview with Dr. J. Earl Danieley. Some of Danieley’s comments included: “I am Earl Danieley;” raised on a tobacco farm five miles north of Elon; one of Danieley’s great-grandfathers lived in the town (pronounced) ‘e-Lon’ and was the mayor of the town; great-grandmother’s brother (Frank Isley) supervised the cutting of the trees on the original campus of Elon College for the first building (Main Building); Isley’s father (great-great grandfather, Alfred, taught in a little private school just back of Elon’s Athletic Field House called the Cable School; Danieley, himself, had never been on Elon College’s campus until 1941; Danieley had never attended a football game; he came from rural school with all 11 grades with a total of 1,100 students; Danieley’s first six years in school were spent in a two-room school house (six grades) with two teachers; the second grade teacher helped Danieley discover that he wanted to be a teacher as a profession; at the time, Elon College was not well-thought-of in the educational community; Elon had lost its accreditation in 1932; people in Burlington would say, “if you cannot go to college, go to Elon;” Danieley’s high school principal was a graduate of Carolina and he wanted Danieley to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Danieley was the valedictorian of his high school class; Danieley thought attending college was unrealistic because his father was very ill (we thought terminally ill— he was in bed for three years); Danieley was the oldest child and he had to run the farm; Danieley got up at 6:00 a.m. and milked two cows, fed the animals, and got in his 1928 Model Ford and came to Elon College for classes – went home in the afternoon and worked the fields, and at the end of the day milked those two cows and fed the animals again; and had a small amount of time to do some Elon homework before going to bed. Danieley stated, he and his neighbor alternated driving to their Elon College classes in their continued Model Ford cars. Danieley’s classes included: a 15 hour class load in English, French, History, Economics, and Religion. The total cost for the 15 hour class load that included tuition and fees were $82.50. Danieley stated that they did not have that much money in the family (they were very poor people). Danieley walked to see the Elon College business manager, who had known the Danieley family because he was the principal of his high school. Danieley said, to the Elon College business manager, he could not pay that amount of money to attend Elon College. The business manager deferred payments, signed Danieley’s card, and allowed him to attend class after selling a load of tobacco. After the load of tobacco was sold, Danieley began his freshman year at Elon College. When Danieley began his Elon College classes, he thought he was going to be a history teacher until he took United States History with Dr. Schultz. Danieley stated, one semester of that particular class, he knew that he was not going to be a history teacher. In the spring, Danieley added an Algebra course. He stated, he was a good math student in high school. After enrollment in the Elon Algebra course, he stated, he knew he was going to be a math teacher. Danieley stated, he received an A+ in the Elon College Algebra course. He said, “He loved the Algebra course.” In the fall and proceeding semesters, Danieley continued to take advanced math courses. Danieley’s dreams of becoming a math teacher ended when a Harvard professor came to Elon College. Danieley stated, “He was the worst teacher he ever had and received a very poor grade.” Danieley was out of Elon College for a year and a half because of World War II. Danieley returned to Elon College in the fall of 1944 and for the first time in his life, he picked up a chemistry book. Danieley stated, “It was love at first sight.” Danieley immediately went to work on a major in chemistry. Danieley graduated in the fall of 1946. He took a job in his home high school to teach math and chemistry. Danieley continued by stating, “I immediately went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and began my graduate work towards a principal’s certificate – a master’s degree” (Danieley thought if he had the principal’s certificate he could make a little bit more money.). Danieley stated that a Teacher’s Certificate in North Carolina was paying $1,438.00 for nine months of teaching. Danieley knew he could not live, have a wife, and children with his teaching salary, so he thought of becoming a principal. Danieley had been out of Elon College for three months, and President Edgar Smith called Danieley and asked him to stop by his office on a weekend. Smith asked Danieley to return to Elon College to teach freshman chemistry. Danieley said, “This was less than three months after I graduated from Elon College and I had been asked to come and teach chemistry at Elon College.” Danieley stated, “I was thrilled out of my mind!” Danieley had 110 students in three sections within his first year of teaching. His class met five days a week (Elon was on a quarter system in those days) and most of the students were 26 or 27 years old (and Danieley was 22 years old). Danieley stated, he worked all the time with 15 hours a week of teaching, 12 hours in the laboratory, and he did not know he was over worked because of the work experience on the farm. Danieley said, this is how he began his chemistry teaching career. After the teaching position at Elon College, Danieley said, he had to go to graduate school in chemistry. Danieley switched his program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to chemistry graduate work. At UNC, the master’s program had 70 students in chemistry. After Danieley received his degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Danieley took a year off and attended Johns Hopkins University as a researcher. In February of 1957, Danieley received a telephone call from the Secretary of the Elon College Board of Trustees, informing Danieley they had selected a new president. The new selected president of Elon College was J. Earl Danieley. The Board of Trustees always selected an Elon president from in-house and never did a national search. After the phone call, Danieley went back in the kitchen and Verona Daniels Danieley (wife) asked, “What was that?” Danieley stated, “It was George Colclough and they elected a new president of Elon College.” Verona asked, “Who is the person?” Verona had been secretary to Elon’s 5th President, Leon Edgar Smith and was interested in what was going on. Danieley said, after some hesitation, he said, “Me.” Verona looked at Danieley and she said, “Poor Earl.” Danieley stated, this seemed like a strange thing for a man’s wife to say. She meant this because she spent six years in the president’s office with the demands, stresses, difficulties, and it was something they were not interested in at all. Two Elon University alumni, Max Cantor and Tim Johnson, were producing an Elon Alumni video for University Communications.