THE FEW-DICKEY-MUNROE family’s ties to Emory are as old as the University itself. Emory’s founding president, Ignatius Alphonso Few, was the first of seven generations linked to Emory. In all, the family counts among its ranks at least twenty-seven alumni related by birth or marriage, among them another three University presidents and a former chair of the Board of Trustees.

Ignatius A. Few was the son of Ignatius Few, a Revolutionary War major who became a wealthy plantation owner in Columbia County, Georgia, and Mary Candler, who was the great-aunt of Asa Griggs Candler, founder of The Coca-Cola Company, and Bishop Warren A. Candler 1875C, the tenth president of Emory.

Few’s uncle, Benjamin Few, was the great-great grandfather of James Edward Dickey 1891C, a Methodist minister and professor of mental and moral sciences who served as Emory’s twelfth president. Dickey and Charles E. Dowman 1873C, a minister and professor of languages who served as Emory’s eleventh president, married two sisters, Jessie and Julia Munroe. Their wives’ brother, Mark Welch Munroe 1881C, was the founder of a bank in Florida. His descendants include daughter Mary Gray Munroe, for whom Emory’s theater was named; son-in-law Randolph W. Thrower ’34C-’36L, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service under President Richard M. Nixon; grandson William W. Cobey Jr. ’62C, a retired politician in North Carolina; and great-grandson Mark William Bates ’73B, who founded a hardware company in Florida.

James Dickey and Jessie Munroe Dickey raised five children in the president’s house at Oxford: Julia, Annie, Jessie, Claire, and James E.

Julia Dickey married Clarence E. Boyd, a Latin and Greek professor at Emory, and had two children: Clarence E. Boyd Jr. ’36C, who became a vice president at The Coca-Cola Company, and Edward Dickey Boyd ’38C, who pursued a career in life insurance.

Annie Dickey married Henry H. Jones ’11C in the first wedding to be held in Oxford’s Allen Memorial Church. A minister in the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church, Jones served as superintendent of the Oxford District of the Methodist Church and wrote a weekly column in the Wesleyan Christian Advocate for forty-four years. His brother, John “Jack” S. Jones ’12C, also attended Emory. Annie and Henry had four children: Jessie Munroe Jones, Elizabeth Jones, Laura R. Jones ’44Ox-’58G, and Claire Dickey Jones ’47Ox. Jessie married John F. Whittemore ’48Ox-’49B, and their daughter is Anne Dickey Whittemore ’69Ox-’71C. Claire Jones’ son is Thomas H. Jackson Jr. ’71Ox, currently the executive director of communications for the University of Georgia.

Jessie Dickey and her husband, Robert M. Strickland, were the parents of Robert M. Strickland Jr. ’94H, who became chair and CEO of Trust Company Bank and served for sixteen years as chair of Emory’s Board of Trustees. Robert M.’s son is Douglas W. Strickland ’85B, a restaurateur in Atlanta.

James E. was the father of Mary Anne Dickey ’62C.