Lloyd Silas Cressman was inaugurated as president of Friends University on October 17, 1952 in Alumni Auditorium. Retiring president Watson gave an encouraging charge to Cressman as the pastor of University Friends Church gave a dedicatory prayer. Cressman, an Ontario, Canada native, had been a member of the faculty and the college pastor at Friends since 1949. Prior to coming to Friends, he had served as a Friends minister in Wichita, Oklahoma, Oregon and Indiana.