Dr. Robert G. Mangrum

Educator/Public Servant

Dr. Robert G. Mangrum, currently serving as Coley Professor of History and University Historian at Howard Payne University, was born in Abilene, Texas on May 6, 1948.  After attending school in Abilene through the third grade, his family moved to Richardson, Texas in 1957 where he graduated from Richardson High School in 1966. He attended Hardin-Simmons University, graduating in May 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science, and received a commission as a U. S. Army Officer.

Going on active duty in August 1970, Mangrum attended Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon finishing the Infantry Officer Basic Course, he received training as a 4.2” Heavy Mortar Platoon Leader.  Mangrum then served in Germany from January 1971 to November 1973, in leadership assignments with military police. Returning to the States in 1973 following active duty, Mangrum entered graduate school at the University of North Texas, where he completed a Master of Arts degree in American History and received his Ph.D. in American history in 1978.

His first employment after graduation in the fall of 1978 was in Newton, Mississippi at Clarke College, a Baptist junior college. During his stay at Clarke, he met and married Cheryl Ann Everett of Lake, Mississippi.  Their wedding, on May 31, 1980, was immediately followed by a move to Brown County, Texas, where the Mangrum’s have spent their married life with careers at Howard Payne.

Beginning in the fall of 1980, Mangrum first served at HPU as an associate professor of history and government and head of the department of history; in the fall of 1981, he was named Assistant Director of the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom and Coley Professor of American History.  In 1984 he was named Director of the Academy honors program. Serving as the Academy Director until December 1997. In January 1998 he was named University Historian and in 2001 he was named Burress Professor of Genealogy and American History, a position he held for 29 years. Now in his 44th year at HPU, he continues to serve as the Coley Professor of American History and as University Historian.

From 1974 to 1998, Mangrum continued to serve in the U. S. Army’s Individual Ready Reserve in numerous leadership positions. After 28 years of active and reserve duty with the U.S. Army, Mangrum retired in June 1998 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In May of 1998, he was elected to the Early City Council where, after three terms on the council and two terms as mayor pro tem, he was elected mayor in May 2005. Currently, he is finishing his tenth term as mayor.

For distinguished service in Christian higher education, in the United States Army, and as Mayor of the City of Early, Hardin-Simmons University proudly inducts Dr. Robert G. Mangrum into the HSU Hall of Leaders.