Northwestern University has had 22 different presidents throughout 25 presidential terms (including 8 interim/acting presidential terms) since it was founded in 1851. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
No. | Image | President | Term start | Term end | Refs. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | Clark T. Hinman | 1853 | 1854 | |
interim | Henry Sanborn Noyes | 1854 | 1856 | ||
2 | ![]() | Randolph Sinks Foster | 1856 | 1860 | |
interim | Henry Sanborn Noyes | 1860 | 1867 | ||
interim | ![]() | David H. Wheeler | 1867 | 1869 | |
3 | ![]() | Erastus Otis Haven | 1869 | 1872 | |
4 | ![]() | Charles Henry Fowler | 1872 | 1876 | |
acting | ![]() | Oliver Marcy | 1876 | 1881 | |
5 | Joseph Cummings | 1881 | 1890 | ||
acting | ![]() | Oliver Marcy | 1890 | 1890 | |
6 | ![]() | Henry Wade Rogers | 1890 | 1900 | |
interim | Daniel Bonbright | 1900 | 1902 | ||
7 | ![]() | Edmund J. James | 1902 | 1904 | |
interim | ![]() | Thomas F. Holgate | 1904 | 1906 | |
8 | ![]() | Abram W. Harris | 1906 | 1916 | |
interim | ![]() | Thomas F. Holgate | 1916 | 1919 | |
9 | Lynn H. Hough | September 1, 1919 | October 1920 | [6] [7] | |
10 | ![]() | Walter Dill Scott | October 1920 | August 31, 1939 | [8] [9] |
11 | Franklyn Bliss Snyder | September 1, 1939 | August 31, 1949 | [10] [11] | |
12 | J. Roscoe Miller | September 1, 1949 | July 19, 1970 | [12] [13] | |
13 | Robert H. Strotz | July 20, 1970 | February 3, 1985 | [14] [15] | |
14 | Arnold Weber | February 4, 1985 | December 31, 1994 | [16] [17] [18] [19] | |
15 | Henry Bienen | January 1, 1995 | August 31, 2009 | [20] [21] [22] | |
16 | ![]() | Morton Schapiro | September 1, 2009 | September 11, 2022 | [23] [24] [25] |
17 | Michael Schill | September 12, 2022 | present | [26] [27] | |
In October 2021, Northwestern's Board of Trustees announced that Rebecca Blank was their choice to succeed Morton Schapiro as the 17th president of Northwestern University. [28] Nine months later, Blank announced in July 2022 that she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and will not be able to fulfill her role as the 17th president of Northwestern University. [29] She ultimately succumb to the disease in February 2023. [30]
Dr. Lynn Harold Hough yesterday afternoon was elected president of Northwestern university... He becomes president of Northwestern university on July 1, but will not assume active duties until Sept. 1, when he returns from London.
Dr. Lynn Harold Hough resigned from the presidency of Northwestern university yesterday in a letter written from Chautauqua, N.Y. on the eve of his departure for England. He gave ill health as the reason. The resignation, which is to take effect Oct. 1, will undoubtedly be accepted, Oliver T. Wilson, president of the board of trustees, said last night.
Prof. Walter Dill Scott, head of the department of psychology at Northwestern university since 1905, was unanimously elected president of the university yesterday by the trustees. He succeeds Dr. Lynn Harold Hough, who was compelled to surrender his duties because of ill health, and is the first alumnus of Northwestern to hold the office of president.
President Walter Dill Scott, who will retire Sept 1, gave the commencement address.
Franklyn Bliss Snyder, who will become the eleventh president of Northwestern university next Sept. 1, yesterday told his hopes for the university's future. He returned to his desk as vice president and dean of faculties for the first time since it was announced last week that he had been selected to succeed President Walter Dill Scott.
Mr. Snyder (he prefers mister to doctor, although he is a PhD and has numerous honorary doctorates) will leave the campus next Friday for a holiday in Europe. His retirement officially starts Aug. 31, when he will be succeeded by Dr. James Roscoe Miller, now dean of the university medical school.
Snyder's official retirement date was set by the board for Sept 1, 1949.
The trustees of Northwestern university announced a major change in the administration of the school last night, including moving Dr. J. Roscoe Miller from the office of president to the newly created post of chancellor. The trustees are to begin a search for a new president. Under the reorganization, Miller, 63, is to be chiefly concerned with fund raising and external relations. The new president is to supervise internal university administration... both Wild and Miller will fill both their present positions and their new assignments.
The board of trustees of Northwestern University last night elected Dean Robert H. Strotz, 47, as the university's 13th president, effective immediately. The election by the board, which met in Hardin Hall on the Evanston campus, ended a 15-month search for a successor to Dr. J. Roscoe Miller, who was promoted from president to chancellor.
Monday, Northwestern University officials announced that Weber, now president of the University of Colorado would replace Robert H. Strotz as university president shortly after Jan. 1.
On Monday, Weber, impeccably tailored and with a voice that sounds like gravel pouring into a cake pan, takes over as president of Northwestern University in Evanston.