Frank Rose (academic)

Rose was honored with Omicron Delta Kappa's Laurel Crowned Circle Award in 1990, the society's highest honor. He was also awarded several honorary degrees from the University of Cincinnati, the University of Alabama, Samford University, Transylvania College, Lynchburg College, Saint Bernard College (renamed Southern Benedictine College), and the University of the Americas in Mexico City. Rose died in 1991 from cancer and pneumonia, aged 70.

In 1958, Frank Rose became president of the University of Alabama. He was a 1959 delegate to the Atlantic Congress of NATO for the United States Committee. Rose was elected to the South's Hall of Fame for the Living in 1960, and earned the 1966 Distinguished Service Key from Omicron Delta Kappa, for which he was national president. Rose served as Chairman of the Board of Visitors in 1968 for the United States Military Academy at West Point. He further served as Chairman of the Educational Advisory Committee of the Appalachian Regional Commission in 1968. On August 25, 1969, the Alabama state legislature inducted Frank Rose into the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Rose was president of the University of Alabama during a perilous sequence of events surrounding desegregation that included the June 11, 1963, highly orchestrated "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" by Gov. George Wallace, who had promised to do just that to prevent desegregation of the state's schools.

By passing on to Gov. George Wallace the admissions applications of potential Black students, Rose facilitated use of the Alabama Highway Patrol's investigative powers to disqualify or blackmail applicants into withdrawing. This technique had become standard practice at the University of Alabama after its use in the mid-1950s to discredit Autherine Lucy. But investigators could find nothing of substance to use against Vivian Malone or James Hood.

Rose was a Meridian, Mississippi native. He earned a A.B. degree at Transylvania College, now Transylvania University, and a B.D. from Lexington Theological Seminary. Rose then attended the University of London for graduate school. In 1945, Transylvania College hired him as professor of philosophy, and in 1951, Rose became president of that institution. He was the youngest college president in the country. The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce elected Rose in 1955 as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Men in America." Rose was also inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa at the University of Kentucky in 1955.

Frank Anthony Rose (October 16, 1920 – February 1, 1991) was an American academic, formerly a president of the University of Alabama.