Kelley Dolphus Stroud taught at Forsyth’s State Teachers and Agricultural College (STAC) in the early 1930s, but it was his story before he came to Forsyth that probably got the attention of the International Brazilian Opera Company, which is now working on a score and libretto for an opera about Stroud.
Dolphus Stroud was a runner who wanted to compete in the 1928 Olympics. He won a trial 5,000 meter race in Colorado, having prepared himself by running up Pike’s Peak before breakfast. The next qualifying meet was at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Having no money, he got there by walking and hitchhiking from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Cambridge, covering 1,765 miles in 12 days. He arrived exhausted six hours before the race and failed to qualify for the Olympics.
He returned to Colorado, finished his education at Colorado College, majoring in political science. His story evidently came to the attention of William M. Hubbard in Forsyth, who got Stroud to join the faculty at STAC as athletic coach and political science teacher.
This Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colorado State College found living in segregated Forsyth a challenge. Before the school year ended, he sent his pregnant wife home to Colorado and upon leaving here, he joined her there.
After securing a master’s degree on a Rosenwald Fellowship, Stroud taught in Texas, but in time made his way to Portland, Oregon, where he ran a moving and storage company. There he continued his interest in sports–baseketball, baseball and golf–until his death in 1975.