John Garland James (born December 1, 1844 – February 12, 1930) was an American Civil War veteran, banker and academic administrator.

[3] During his college career, he served in the Confederate Army, acting as a color guard and third corporal in the Battle of New Market and fighting in the intermediate lines during the evacuation of Richmond in 1865.

[2] On September 11, 1865 after the conclusion of the Civil War, Alpha Tau Omega was founded by the three founders, Otis Alan Glazebrook, Alfred Marshall and Erskin Mayo Ross.

Otis Alan Glazebrook, the valedictorian of the class of 1866 and the primary founder of ΑΤΩ, made the following statement regarding James.

[6] He was joined in the move by his friend and fellow Virginia Military Institute alumnus and Alpha Tau Omega member, Hardaway Hunt Dinwiddie.

[5] James predecessor, Thomas S. Gathright, and his entire staff had been dismissed due to a scandalous rift between the faculty members.

In November of 1882 through early 1883, a dozen cadets and a faculty member died of influenza, measles, dysentery and/or other related disorders.

It implies that the primary reason for any negative changes or failures in the college's development during that time was due to issues or conflicts within the previous faculty.

[6]The military system of school government... tends to develop in the student a high sense of personal honor and moral responsibility, and to give him those habits of regularity, promptness, self-reliance, and respect for proper authority, which go far to make the good citizen and the successful man of business.

[6]In March 1883, James stepped down from the office of college president to join his brother Fleming in a banking venture in Colorado, Texas.

He resigned due to frustration from the ongoing struggle to enhance the campus with limited resources and the political challenge of portraying the college positively in Austin and across state media.

This led to the publication of "The Southern Student's Hand-Book of Selections for Reading and Oratory" by A. S. Barnes and Company in 1879, with a revised edition following less than a year later.

When James was 79, he wrote the following about himself:[17]I am glad to say I still feel young, am active mentally and physically and can easily walk ten or twelve miles and stand about as much work as ever.

My library is my greatest pleasure, not a big one, but along lines that interest me, especially valuable in respect to literature of native authors of Spanish-American republics, Philippine Islands and West Indies.