Albert A. Murphree

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Albert Alexander Murphree (April 29, 1870-December 20, 1927) was the third president of what is now Florida State University (1897-1909) and the second president of the University of Florida (1909-1927) and he was briefly promoted as a Democratic candidate for President of the United States in 1924.

Murphree was born in Walnut Grove, Alabama. He graduated from the University of Nashville in 1894 and taught mathematics at a number of schools in the Southern US. In 1895 he became an instructor at the West Florida Seminary in Tallahassee, Florida and two years later he was named president. He married Jennie Henderson, a daughter of one of the school's trustees. Jennie Murphree Hall, a residence hall at FSU, is named for her. In 1901, the school was renamed Florida State College, and in 1905, with the Buckman Act reorganization of Florida's university system, it became the Florida State College for Women. (It would become FSU in 1947.)

The Buckman Act also established a male college in Gainesville, Florida, the University of Florida. Muprhree became its second president and is considered to have played a key role in its development. Under his tenure the school grew from 106 students to 2,200.

While President of UF, Muprhree became friends with William Jennings Bryan. The three term presidential candidate from Nebraska established a winter residence in Miami, Florida in 1912 and became a permanent resident of the state in 1921. He became a frequent speaker across the state and first met Muprhree at a speech at UF in 1916. Bryan became fundraising chair for a drive to build UF's Florida Union (now called Dauer Hall).

Without consulting Muprhree ahead of time, on January 13, 1924 Bryan announced his to become elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, where he would nominated Muprhree as the party's candidate for President of the United States in that year's election. Bryan vigorously campaigned despite Murphree's refusal to put himself forth as a candidate, saying that he was flattered by Bryan's effort but that "Nobody expects a Southern man to be nominated President, much less a Florida man." Florida newspapers urged Muprhree to run, but few others took the notion seriously. Bryan won his appointment as delegate, but was greeted by boos and jeers at the convention in a moment Bryan told Senator J. Thomas Heflin was the most humiliating of his life.

UF's Murphree Hall, a residence hall at UF, is named for Murphree.