Background
Sellers, Sandford was born on February 5, 1892 in Lexington, Missouri, United States. Son of Sandford and Lucia Valentine (Rogers) Sellers.
Sellers, Sandford was born on February 5, 1892 in Lexington, Missouri, United States. Son of Sandford and Lucia Valentine (Rogers) Sellers.
In 1908 he graduated from Wentworth, where he participated in a variety of student activities and was senior cadet officer in his final year. Entering the University of Chicago for the following four years, Sellers graduated with the B.S. degree in 1913.
His social fraternity was Beta Theta Pi, and he played the trombone in the band. Upon completion of his college work, Sellers returned to his preparatory school, Wentworth, which he served for the next twenty years, except for the war period, 1917-1918. From 1914 to 1916, he taught math and science, coached football, basketball and track, and was athletic director and assistant commandant.
He was serving as commandant of the school when World War I broke out. In the spring of 1917, Sellers entered the First Officers' Training Camp at Camp Funston, Kansas, from which he was commissioned Captain in the United States Infantry. On completion of the Machine Gun School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in August 1917, he served as instructor of machine gunnery in the 89th Division until that division sailed for France, at which time he was assigned command of Company D, 342nd Machine Gun Battalion in the 89th Division.
He graduated from the Army School of the Line at Langres, France, and was with the army of occupation in Germany for five months. Following the war, he stayed in the U.S. Army Special Reserve and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He oversaw the addition of junior college work to the curriculum in 1923.
The Academy was regularly rated as an Honor School by the U. S. War Department. The following year, he pursued a year of graduate study at the University of Chicago, where he was granted the Master of Arts degree and was elected to Phi Delta Kappa. From 1924 to 1942, he was the Educational Adviser for the Sixth U.S. Army Corps Area.
He served on the National Safety Council from 1942 to 1943, as headmaster of the Elgin Academy from 1943 to 1945, as superintendent of Morgan Park Military Academy from 1945 to 1949, and as Director of Education for the 4th U.S. Army Corps in San Antonio, Texas from 1950 to 1962. Sandford Sellers, Jr., died on January 27, 1982 in Lake Wales, Florida. He was buried in Macpelah Cemetery in Lexington, Missouri.
He took an additional preparatory year at the University High School of Chicago, where he also graduated and was a member of the basketball team and was Western Interscholastic Tennis Champion in 1909. He was an all-conference guard for Amos Alonzo Stagg’s powerhouse football team, and also won his letter in basketball and track. In France he won two battle stars for the Toul Defensive and the St. Mihiel Offensive.
Captain Infantry, 342d Machine Gun Battalion, 89th Division, United States Army. Commissioned major, staff specialist, O.R.C., 1924. Promoted lieutenant colonel, 1930.
Inactive, 1940; colonel Illinois National Guard, 1945-1949. Member National Education Association, National Association Secondary School Prins., American Association School Adminstrs., Toastmasters Club, Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Kappa.
Married Marion Logan Kean, June 8, 1915. Children: Lillian Logan (Mistress Igor DeLissovoy), Marion Stuart (Mistress John R. Allison), Sandford III, Logan McBrayer.