Edmund Asa Ware

Edmund Asa Ware (December 22, 1837 – September 25, 1885) was an American educator and the first president of Atlanta University, serving from 1869 to 1885.

In September 1865, he went to Nashville, Tennessee to assist in reorganizing the public schools, and thence a year later to Atlanta, Georgia, under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, as Superintendent of the Association's schools in that city and vicinity In December 1866, he was licensed to preach, and from that time preached more or less frequently.

Atlanta University chartered October 17, 1867; offered first instruction at postsecondary level 1869; first graduating class 1873, (normal school for future women teachers); and awarded its first six bachelor's degrees June 1876.

[3] He had lately returned from a visit to the mountains, to prepare for the opening of the school, and appeared in usual health; on the afternoon of September 25, 1885, he died suddenly of heart disease, in Atlanta, in the 48th year of his age.

Ware School was built in his honor in 1922 on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Walnut Street, near the Herndon Home Museum.