Sandford Sellers, Jr.

Sandford Sellers Jr. (February 5, 1892 – January 27, 1982), was the third Superintendent of Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri, serving from 1923 to 1933.

Biography
Sellers was born on the campus of Wentworth Military Academy on February 5, 1892. In 1908 he graduated from Wentworth, where he participated in a variety of student activities and was senior cadet officer in his final year. 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. Entering the University of Chicago for the following four years, Sellers graduated with the B.S. degree in 1913. In the university he was a member of all four class honor societies and was selected as a university marshal by the faculty on the basis of scholarship and service. He was an all-conference guard for Amos Alonzo Stagg’s powerhouse football team, and also won his letter in basketball and track. 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. In France he won two battle stars for the Toul Defensive and the St. Mihiel Offensive. 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.

After the war, he returned to Wentworth Military Academy and served as associate superintendent until 1923, when he succeeded his father, Sandford Sellers, as superintendent. 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. In the spring of 1933, Sellers resigned his position as superintendent of Wentworth and was succeeded by his younger brother, James McBrayer Sellers.

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.

Sellers died on January 27, 1982, in Lake Wales, Florida. He was buried in Macpelah Cemetery in Lexington, Missouri.