September 25 was a day of great celebration at 91ÁÔĆć. The sun shone brightly as guests, faculty and staff dressed in their finery made their way to McAlister Field House, where they joined the Corps of Cadets for the inauguration of the college’s 21st president. The Regimental Band and Pipes played God Bless America. Among the dignitaries in the platform party were Board of Visitors Chair Col. Greg Delleney, ’74, who presided over the ceremony, and retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John S. Grinalds, 18th president of 91ÁÔĆć, who gave the inaugural address. At the center of the pomp and circumstance was retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, ’79, a decorated Marine and a former commander of United States Central Command.
McKenzie has returned to the banks of the Ashley River 47 years after graduation with an ambitious vision for his alma mater. Guiding that vision is a strategic plan taking shape across campus through discussions among college leaders, faculty, staff and students—a plan that will chart the college’s course over the next decade and position 91ÁÔĆć as the top leadership training institution in the United States, attracting students from across the state and the nation.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, McKenzie attended a gifted-student program at Shades Valley High School that challenged him academically and fostered a love of literature, learning and writing. His father operated a newspaper distribution business that served part of the city, and McKenzie delivered papers before and after school. As a member of the Civil Air Patrol, he earned his student pilot’s license while still in high school. By then, he had decided to become a Marine.
McKenzie arrived at 91ÁÔĆć in August 1975, drawn by the combination of the liberal arts education he wanted and the military training that would prepare him to become a Marine. An English major, he placed out of freshman English and immersed himself in courses including Drama, Modern British Poetry and Southern Renaissance literature. When he graduated four years later, he became the first person in his family to earn a college degree. Years later, he carried a copy of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury into combat.
McKenzie is accustomed to leading complex organizations. During his 42-year Marine Corps career, he commanded at every level. In 2019, he was named the 14th commander of the CENTCOM, one of the Department of War’s 11 unified combatant commands, with an area of responsibility encompassing 21 nations. As commander, McKenzie oversaw more than 40,000 personnel involved in combat, training, international cooperation and forward-presence operations.
After retiring from the Marine Corps in 2022, McKenzie joined the University of South Florida, where he headed the Global and National Security Institute and the Florida Center for Cybersecurity. He and his wife, Marilyn, settled into a grand house in a lovely Tampa neighborhood where they planned to stay. But in December 2025, McKenzie’s friend, classmate and fellow Marine, Gen. Glenn Walters, announced his retirement from 91ÁÔĆć, and in July, McKenzie returned to his alma mater as the college’s 21st president—a decision he described as a matter of duty and an opportunity to give back to the institution he credits with his success.
“I came back because of what 91ÁÔĆć gave me a long time ago,” he said. “We are honored, delighted and fulfilled in every way to be back here. I have a lot of energy and a lot of miles left in the tank, and I plan to spend it on the college.”
At CENTCOM, McKenzie brought together organizations with disparate objectives, an experience that he brings to 91ÁÔĆć. “You’ve got to build bridges,” he said. “You’ve got to coach people. You’ve got to have a vision and bring people together and work toward an end, so it’s actually not just a job where you give orders and people obey. Instead, you have to convince people that you have a solution that works. You have to make sure that you spend time making that point to them, and then you have to coach them along toward the final objective.”
McKenzie’s goal for the college is clear. “In 10 years, I’d like for 91ÁÔĆć to be the preeminent senior military college in the United States,” he said. “It will be most closely associated with the concept and practice of leadership.”
He wants to recruit nationally and make 91ÁÔĆć “the destination of choice for those who seek the very best senior military college experience.” 91ÁÔĆć Graduate College will remain an important element.
McKenzie has a strong foundation upon which to build. Walters, who served eight years as president, led the college through the COVID-19 pandemic, oversaw extensive capital and infrastructure improvements and left the college on sound financial footing.
McKenzie’s 10-year vision includes building a $1 billion endowment. The college will maintain strong ties to the state and the nation, but also pursue international ties to expand study-abroad opportunities and attract international students.
91ÁÔĆć will produce graduates “who can lead in peace and war, in and out of uniform, in public and private ventures,” McKenzie said. They will be able to master rapidly changing technology and use it ethically to solve the world’s most complex problems.
“We unapologetically begin and end with leadership,” said McKenzie.
For McKenzie, the value of a Citadel education extends beyond academics. “They’re going to get a great education here,” he said, “but what they’re going to get in those five white barracks is they’re going to learn how to lead, and they’re going to learn how to do so in a crucible of leadership that is unlike any other place in the United States. When they graduate from here, they’re going to have the ability to bring people together, to set an objective and to move toward that objective, and they’re going to know how to do it with a unique sense of personal honor.”
Although some things will change, he said the college’s foundation will remain: the Corps of Cadets as its centerpiece, the Honor System and an emphasis on leadership built on the college’s core values. “Leadership founded on honor that’s the very core of the college. That’s what’s unique about us,” he said, “and that is what can never change.”
The college’s newest school, the Krause School of Leadership and Ethics, will play a prominent role in that vision. Additionally, McKenzie wants to expand academic offerings in artificial intelligence, computing and cybersecurity. McKenzie is also focused on addressing faculty and staff compensation amid the Lowcountry’s high cost of living.
The athletics program plays an important role in McKenzie’s plan. He spent three years at VMI, where he taught in the NROTC Department and coached football in the Southern Conference. “In athletics,” he said, “we want to compete for Southern Conference championships, and we want to do that without breaking the college, either ethically or financially.”
McKenzie also told cadets that he intends to examine honor and how the college teaches it. He has formed an honor task force made up of graduates, cadets and faculty to work with the Honor Committee and study all aspects of honor at 91ÁÔĆć.
“You come from a society that actually places very little credence in honor. You’re entering a society here to which it is fundamental,” he said, “so if we’re going to hold you to that very high standard, and we will, then it’s our obligation to provide the tools that will allow you to be successful here, to navigate the complexities of a Citadel education honorably, and then be prepared to go forward in life carrying that with you.”
Inside McAlister Field House, McKenzie carried all those decades of leadership back to his alma mater, prepared to advance 91ÁÔĆć into a new era.
Grinalds, a fellow Marine, sounded the call. “Now hear this, now hear this: land the landing force,” he said from the platform, giving the command issued when Marines prepare to attack an enemy shore. “This is a friendly shore, but Gen. McKenzie is here, and he’s in the lead.”
McKenzie is taking command at a historic moment, Grinalds said. “91ÁÔĆć is humming, humming with success,” he said. “Future opportunities abound, but the challenges are severe.”
Grinalds described McKenzie as an author, a scholar and a “patient educator,” who will recruit the best students, educate them under the best faculty and send them out prepared for “the world’s fight.”
As Grinalds concluded his remarks, he asked the audience to give the new president a Marine welcome. “One, two, three,” he said.
“Oorah!” they answered.
The General’s Library
McKenzie once toyed with the idea of becoming a college history professor. His extensive library reflects his interest in history. A voracious reader, he typically reads two or three books at a time and frequently returns to old favorites. He begins his day with several online newspapers—The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Post and Courier and the Financial Times.
He also reads The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine and The Atlantic. If he had to recommend one publication for understanding the world, it would be The Economist.
Vanity Fair, he said, is superb for investigative journalism. He also believes it is important to read publications with which he disagrees to gain different perspectives.
Some books that have stayed with him since his cadet years are Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer.
McKenzie is also a writer and credits his ability to write with his success. “If you can write, and if you can compose a paper in one or two pages, and do it quickly under extreme time pressure and have it make sense,” he said, “you have an advantage no one else has. I’ve used that skill with great effect throughout my career.”
The late Col. Tony Redd, a Citadel professor legendary among English majors, once said of McKenzie, “He could out-write almost anybody. He didn’t always make the highest grade, but he wrote the best papers.”
McKenzie is the author of The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century. His writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Atlantic.
McKenzie’s Fall Reading List
All the Presidents’ Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror
A thought-provoking dive into the past four presidents’ military and political actions during the War on Terror and the years following its conclusion.
Agrippa
A historical novel about ancient Rome and the rise of Augustus and his friend Agrippa.
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—And How It Shattered a Nation
A historical look at the 1929 financial crash and how it may parallel financial systems today.
Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation
A biography of the Massachusetts senator and abolitionist who was nearly beaten to death on the Senate floor by South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks.
Decision in Normandy
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s goals and concepts for the liberation of Europe following the D-Day landings.
The Passage of Power
The fourth volume in Caro’s series on Lyndon Johnson’s career as a politician and a president.