John Decatur Messick (November 9, 1897 – October 3, 1993) was the fifth president of what is now East Carolina University.

He then went to summer school to complete graduate work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 1947, Messick became the fifth President of East Carolina Teachers College, a position he held until resigning in 1959.

[1] From 1965 to 1968, Messick was the Executive Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs for Oral Roberts University.

This biography of an American academic administrator born in 1890–1899 is a stub.