Pearl S. Buck

Black text on top of  a vertically split background. The left features a translucent grayscale depiction of the author, and the right a translucent blue image of the school.

Randolph-Macon Women’s College, known as Randolph College since 2007 when it started admitting men, is a private college in Lynchburg, Virginia. The college was established in 1891 when the president of Randolph-Macon College was unable to garner support to have the school be open to female enrollment. After struggling to find a suitable location for the establishment, the city of Lynchburg donated fifty acres to the institution.

Alumni of Randolph College include the writer and Chinese missionary, Pearl S. Buck. She was born June 26, 1892, and was part of the 1914 graduating class. Buck spent most of her formative years in China due to being a child of missionaries. Her book The Good Earth, depicting “peasant life” in China, was the best-selling novel of both 1931 and 1932. She was a missionary in China from 1914-1932 but due to her theological views, she ended up resigning. Pearl S. Buck was an advocate for women and minority rights.