Dr. Mell Achilles Nash was born in Texas and came with his parents to a log cabin near Arcadia, Oklahoma, in 1902. He graduated from Central Normal School (now the University of Central Oklahoma) in Edmond in 1908 and later earned degrees from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Baptist University. He was a teacher in the public school systems of Greer, Pontotoc, Marshall, Cleveland, and McCurtain counties, was a faculty member of Southeastern State College (now Southeastern Oklahoma State University) in Durant, and served as high school inspector for the State Department of Education. He was the manager of the Oklahoma Education Association, state superintendent of public instruction, and president of the State Board of Education before he became president of Oklahoma College for Women (now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma) in Chickasha (1927-1943). He also served as the chancellor of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education until his retirement in 1961.