(1897 - 1951) Thomas Lee Aaron, the fourth president of Franklin Springs Institute, was born August 4, 1897 amid meager surroundings in Jackson County, Georgia in the community of Good Hope near Braswell Springs. As a child, he had little opportunity for advancement and actually dropped out of school temporarily. Although there were no Christians in his family, he was converted in a tent meeting at age 16 and felt the call to preach the same year.

T. L. Aaron's desire to learn and his love of Christian educatien became immediately apparent. First he attended the Holmes Bible and Missionary Institute in Greenville, South Carolina, for five years. Moving to Atlanta, he next studied at the Atlanta Theological Seminary where he received a B.D. degree in May of 1923. Still in Atlanta, in June of 1923 he married Frances Huggins, who had been on the staff at Franklin Springs Institute and continued his education at Oglethorpe University, receiving his A. B. degree in June 1925.

A successful pastor, Aaron was assigned to churches in Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Washington, D.C. Moving to pastor the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Washington, D.C., he continued his education at George Washington University, where he received his M.A. degree and completed some classwork toward the Ph.D. degree.

It is no surprise, then, that T. L. Aaron was chosen to head Franklin Springs Institute when the church decided to reopen it in 1933. G. F. Taylor had tried unsuccessfully to start new schools in Arkansas and Texas during 1931 and 1932, in addition to attempting to purchase the Franklin Springs property from the church to reopen the school there to be funded by operating a soap manufacturing and marketing enterprise called the "Triangle Soap Company." He agreed that Aaron was the man for the job and came back to the school to teach under Aaron's administration.

Aaron quickly threw himself into the task of preparing for the new beginning. Several changes were evident. The classes offered were grades 8 through 11 and three college-level courses. Faced with a limited and deteriorating campus, he refurnished the buildings as much as possible and opened the first week of September, 1933, with 53 students. The first organized choir boosted morale at the school, and President Aaron planned a number of social gatherings for the students, a radical departure from earlier years.

During T. L. Aaron's 17 years as president, other significant changes were to follow. One of his goals was to see the school focus on a college curriculum and campus rather than elementary and high school programs. The dormitory started in 1928 by Byon Jones and occupied by boys had to be completed. The large academic building on the next hill accommodated the girls for a number of years as enrollment increased following accreditation of the high school in 1935 by the Georgia State Accrediting Commission.

By 1939 enrollment in the college classes had grown rapidly with students filling dormitories. The transformation from institute to college was more evident than ever when the Board of Education and Publication met in June, 1939 to discuss new buildings and a new name. It was at this time that the decision was made to change the name from Franklin Springs Institute to Emmanuel College, with the high school program to be called Emmanuel Academy.

A new administration building was also on the horizon. Aaron chose to construct this three-story brick veneer building on the site of the old resort near the tabernacle building still in use. The completion of the spacious, 154 feet by 52 feet building with three floors and beautiful Georgian architecture for $18,000 was a triumph indeed and formed the beginning of the present campus quadrangle. This building was later named after T. L. Aaron.

The coming of World War II temporarily put a halt to growth and expansion at Emmanuel College. Enrollments dropped from 1941 to 1945 and Aaron's dream of an accredited four-year college was on hold. However, with the availability of funds to veterans under the G. I. Bill of Rights, enrollment quickly doubled in 1945-46. The last reminder of the original campus, the wooden landmark that had been a skating rink converted to classrooms, chapel, and dining hall, caught fire and burned quickly to the ground on March 21, 1946.

With the enrollment growing, in the summer of 1948 for $3,000 President Aaron purchased ten government surplus buildings worth $400,000 and moved the materials from, these buildings to Franklin Springs to construct another large building at a right angle to the administration building. He threw all his energies into the enormous task of constructing the 253 feet long building with three lateral extensions for the kitchen, chapel, and library. This spacious and attractive building was named the Taylor Memorial Building in memory of G. F. Taylor. Because of the strain of running the school and constructing the new building, on August 18, 1949, Aaron suffered a heart attack from which he never fully recovered. Fortunately for a number of years his able assistant, high school principal, and college dean had been W. G. Drum, who picked up the mantle at that point.

In other events, in November 1949 the church arranged for an exchange of the old college building on the next hill for the publishing house located nearer the main campus. Therefore the presses were moved and the former publishing building became the college's Music Hall (now Nash Hall).

T. L. Aaron returned to his duties in November 1949, but his strength was severely limited. The next year he resigned as president and W. G. Drum was named "acting president." Suffering a second, fatal heart attack while sleeping on January 20, 1951, President Emeritus Aaron completed his work on earth. His record was impressive and his contribution to the church and Emmanuel College beyond measure. Like G. F. Taylor before him, he died at age 53, but during his life this dedicated, forward looking man saw Emmanuel College transformed physically and philosophically from a small limited academy to a significant two-year college well on its way toward full accreditation. T. L. Aaron's loss was felt not only in Franklin Springs, where he also pastored the local church, but throughout the Pentecostal Holiness Church.

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