This is a list of presidents of Shimer College , from 1853 to the position's abolition in 2017.
This is a list of presidents of Shimer College , from 1853 to the position's abolition in 2017.
| # | Image | Name | Term begin | Term end | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Frances Shimer | 1853 | 1896 | Principal of Mount Carroll Seminary Former schoolteacher | |
 | Cindarella Gregory | 1853 | 1870 | Co-Principal of Mount Carroll Seminary, departed in 1870 Former schoolteacher | ||
| – |  | Frank J. Miller | 1896 | 1897 | Non-resident principal of Frances Shimer Academy [1] Professor at University of Chicago | [2] |
| 2 |  | William Parker McKee | 1897 | 1930 | Dean of Frances Shimer Academy Former Baptist minister | [2] |
| 3 |  | Floyd Wilcox | 1930 | 1935 | President of Frances Shimer Junior College | [2] |
| – |  | A. Beth Hostetter | 1935 | 1936 | [2] | |
| 4 |  | Raymond Culver | 1936 | 1938 | Formerly professor of Bible and religious education at Linfield College | [2] |
| – | | A. Beth Hostetter | 1938 | 1939 | [2] | |
| 5 |  | Albin C. Bro | 1939 | 1949 | Former staff at University of Chicago Press President of Frances Shimer College | [2] |
| – |  | John H. Russel | 1949 | 1950 | [3] | |
| 6 |  | Aaron Brumbaugh | 1950 | 1954 | Former Dean of the College of the University of Chicago | [2] [4] |
| 7 |  | Francis Joseph Mullin | 1954 | 1968 | Former professor of medicine at the University of Chicago | [2] |
| 8 |  | Milburn Akers | 1968 | 1970 | Former editor at the Chicago Sun-Times | [2] |
| 9 | Robert Spencer Long [2] | 1970 | 1974 | Formerly Dean at Roger Williams College | ||
| – |  | Esther G. Weinstein | 1974 | 1975 | Formerly Professor of Social Sciences and Associate Dean at Shimer College | [2] |
| 10 |  | Ralph W. Conant | 1975 | 1978 | Urbanologist | [2] |
| 11 |  | Donald P. Moon | 1978 | 2004 | Episcopal priest Former nuclear reactor physicist | [2] |
| 12 |  | William Craig Rice | 2004 | 2006 | Former staff member at the American Academy for Liberal Education | |
| – |  | Ronald Champagne | 2007 | 2009 | Former administrator at Roosevelt University | |
| 13 |  | Thomas K. Lindsay | 2009 | 2010 | Former director at the National Endowment for the Humanities | |
| – |  | Edward Noonan | 2010 | 2012 | Former architect | |
| 14 |  | Susan Henking | 2012 | 2017 | Scholar of religious studies Final President of Shimer College |
Shimer Great Books School is a Great Books college that is part of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Prior to 2017, Shimer was an independent, accredited college on the south side of Chicago, originally founded in 1853.
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Debbie Nathan is an American feminist journalist and writer, with a focus on cultural and criminal justice issues concerning abuse of children, particularly accusations of satanic ritual abuse in schools and child care institutions. She also writes about immigration, focusing on women and on dynamics between immigration and sexuality. Nathan's writing has won a number of awards. She appears in the 2003 Oscar-nominated film Capturing the Friedmans. She has been affiliated with the National Center for Reason and Justice, which, among other things, provides support to persons who may have been wrongly accused of sexual abuse.
Thomas Kevin Lindsay is an American academic who briefly served as President of Shimer College. He was the Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities until December 2008. He was also the Director of the NEH We the People initiative, which funds programs, research and other activities that explore significant events and themes in US history and culture, and advance knowledge of the principles that define America. He serves as the Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Samuel James Campbell was a prominent banker, businessman and civic leader in Mount Carroll, Illinois, in the first half of the 20th century. He operated several farms that raised Angus cattle and owned the Kable News Company of Mount Morris, Illinois, a national distributor of magazines. He headed the boards of trustees of Shimer College for more than 20 years, and was also chairman of the board at Beloit College.
Shimer College was founded in 1852, when the pioneer town of Mt. Carroll, Illinois, lacking a public school, incorporated the Mt. Carroll Seminary with no land, no teachers, and no money for this purpose.
Frances Shimer, born Frances Ann Wood, was an American educator. She was the founder of the Mount Carroll Seminary, which later became Shimer College, in Mount Carroll, Illinois. She was also the sole proprietress of the school from 1870 to her retirement in 1896.
William Parker McKee (1862–1933) was an American educator and Baptist minister. He served as the chief executive of Shimer College from 1897 to 1930, a position known at the time as "Dean". During this period the school was known by turns as the Frances Shimer Academy, Frances Shimer School, and Frances Shimer Junior College. The second executive of the college following its founder Frances Shimer, Dean McKee was also the second longest-serving executive in Shimer's history. He oversaw the rebuilding of the campus following the fire of 1906, and the commencement of the junior college program shortly thereafter.
Raymond Benjamin Culver was a Baptist educator in the United States and the fourth president of Shimer College.
Don P. Moon is an American academic administrator, minister, and former nuclear reactor physicist. He was the president of Shimer College from 1978 to 2004, and has been on the faculty of Shimer College since 1967.
Francis Joseph Mullin, also often known as F.J. Mullin or Joe Mullin, was an American academic and the seventh president of Shimer College. He was raised Catholic, but became an Episcopalian as a teenager. He was key in engineering Shimer's brief period as an Episcopal-affiliated college; the school had previously had a Baptist affiliation.
Floyd Cleveland Wilcox was the third president of Shimer College, serving from 1930 to 1935. His leadership, though marked by controversy, saw the school through the most difficult years of the Great Depression. He oversaw the transition of the school's curriculum from a two-year to a four-year junior college program.
Albin Carl Bro (1893–1956) was a Christian missionary and educator, United States diplomat, and the fifth president of Shimer College.
Aaron John Brumbaugh was a higher education administrator and professor of education, and the sixth president of Shimer College.
Robert Spencer Long, was a professor of physical science and the tenth president of Shimer College.
The Mount Carroll Seminary was the name of Shimer College from 1853 to 1896. The Seminary was located in Mount Carroll, Illinois, in the United States. A pioneering institution in its time and place, the Mount Carroll Seminary served as a center of culture and education in 19th-century northwestern Illinois. Despite frequent prognostications of failure, it grew from 11 students in a single room to more than 100 students on a spacious campus with four principal buildings. Unusually for the time, the school was governed entirely by women, most notably the founder Frances Wood Shimer, who was the chief administrator throughout the Seminary's entire existence.
Susan E. Henking is an American religious studies scholar. She was the 14th and final president of Shimer College in Chicago, appointed in July 2012 and finishing in 2017. She then served in interim roles at Salem Academy and College, including Interim President in 2020/2021.
Frank Justus Miller (1858-1938) was a leading American classicist, translator, and university administrator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He authored the Loeb Classical Library translations of Seneca and of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and was president of the American Classical League for more than a decade, from 1922 to 1934.