Renwick Jackson, originally a Presbyterian minister before a career in academia, served as the president of St. Mary's College of Maryland from 1969 to 1982, arriving at St. Mary's after serving as Dean of Students of York College in New York. Dr. Jackson held a B.A. and Doctor of Divinity from Westminster College, a B.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Edinburgh.

Renwick Jackson's arrival coincided with the college's transition from a two-year junior college to a four-year liberal arts college. His arrival came at the heels of considerable controversy surrounding former president May Russell's attempts to enforce a student code that was not in keeping with the late 1960s and three lawsuits that were filed against Russell in 1968, incidents that cast a shadow on May Russell's otherwise successful tenure as leader of St. Mary's Female Seminary-Junior College from 1948-1969. The transition to a baccalaureate institution was made more difficult by the spirit of general unrest among students and some faculty in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a result of the United States' involvement in Viet Nam and domestic incidents such as Kent State. After a finding of deficiencies by the Office of Civil Rights, Jackson's arrival also overlapped with the formation of a Committee to Racially Integrate St. Mary's College of Maryland, approved by the college's Board of Trustees in 1969. A Student Bill of Rights was issued by the new President and the Board of Trustees in 1970, stating that the college no longer served 'in loco parentis' ("in place of parents"). About these early years, J. Fredrick Fausz writes: "The earlier seventies proved to be an exciting period of educational experimentation and curricular flexibility, as St. Mary's partly anticipated and partly responded to the student demands being heard across the nation. [Successful changes implemented by Jackson] showed that the presidency of Renwick Jackson had emerged from its turbulent beginnings." (Fausz, 122)

St. Mary's experienced remarkable growth and development during Jackson's administration, as exemplified by the creation of Academic Divisions (rather than departments) in 1970, the construction of Prince George Hall and Caroline Hall in 1970, the college's completion of a Master Plan in 1976, and the construction of Montgomery Hall between 1978 and 1980. In 1974 the first sailing competition that would later become The Governor's Cup was held. With the support of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Jackson endured two significant student and faculty challenges to his administration during the mid-late 1970s. Renwick Jackson left St. Mary's College of Maryland in early 1982.

Dr. Jackson published a book titled "The Golden Run" in 2002, which is an account of his presidency. He wrote this book without knowing that an official history of the College was published in 1990, titled "Monument School of the People" and written by St. Mary's History Professor J. Fredrick Fausz. While Fausz' book contains both positive and negative assessments of different elements of Jackson's presidency, Jackson would focus on the negative points written by Fausz in Jackson's 2005 commentary "False Claims and Deception at St. Mary's College of Maryland," a publication that also addresses Jackson's reaction to statements made in a post-presidential CV by his successor, Edward T. Lewis, who served as St. Mary's College of Maryland's president from 1983-1996.

Renwick Jackson is the author of several other books, including "Blessing Lesbians On Main Street," about his decision to officiate at a wedding of two women while serving as minister at the Congregational Church of Patchogue in Long Island, New York in the mid 1990s. He has also published "Last Summer With Agnes," "Dancing With Hurricanes," a children's story called "The Dog Who Became A Seagull," three plays, and three books of poetry.

See also: J. Frederic Fausz, "Monument school of the people : a sesquicentennial history of St. Mary's College of Maryland, 1840-1990," 1990.

Janet Butler Haugaard, Susan G. Wilkinson, Julia A. King, "St. Mary's : A 'When-Did?' Timeline," 2007.