President's Office, University of Maryland

From its founding in 1856 as the Maryland Agricultural College to the creation of the current system of thirteen campuses in 1988, numerous presidents oversaw the operation of the College Park campus. These men made policy and personnel decisions; directed building campaigns and the creation of new academic programs; raised funds; monitored student, faculty, and staff conduct and performance; lobbied the legislature; touted the university's academic and athletic accomplishments; and guided the campus to its place among major American research universities.

On March 6 1856, the Maryland General Assembly chartered the Maryland Agricultural College (MAC). The MAC Board of Trustees announced the appointment of the first President, Benjamin Hallowell, on October 5, 1859, the day of the college's formal dedication and opening. Hallowell served for only one month, resigning for reasons or ill health. In the early years, the President set the admission policies and curriculum, established moral guidelines, hired the faculty, administered the budget, lobbied for funds, and frequently taught classes.

In 1916, the state took full control of the college and changed its name to the Maryland State College of Agriculture. After the college merged with the Baltimore professional schools in 1920, the name of the institution changed again to the University of Maryland. The president of the College Park campus simultaneously held the position of president of all of the University of Maryland campuses. The university grew rapidly and many activities that had been carried out by the President's Office were delegated to the expanding administrative staff. Increasingly, the President's Office came to focus on establishing the mission and long-range goals of the university and raising the funds needed to accomplish those goals. In addition to negotiating with individual and corporate donors, the president also lobbied at both the state and federal level for appropriations for higher education.

Beginning in 1970, two administrative positions were created to perform the duties of what had been previously been handled by one administrative officer. The administrator of the College Park campus became known as the chancellor and the administrator of what had become known as the University of Maryland System, now the University System of Maryland (USM), became known as the president.

As part of the reorganization of Maryland's higher education system, the President's Office was retitled the Chancellor's Office in July 1988, while the individual campus chancellors again became presidents.

Adminstrators, College Park Campus

Administrators, multi-campus

Biographies of Presidents and Chancellors (1859-1988)

Benjamin Hallowell (1799-1877), 1859. Hallowell, a Quaker schoolmaster, noted scientist, and practical farmer, was appointed president in October 1859, assuming his duties in November. He had been in close consultation with the trustees since the college was chartered in 1856, but the board did not notify him of his appointment until after they had announced it. Hallowell accepted on condition that the college farm not use slave labor and that he serve without salary. He helped develop the curriculum--ancient and modern languages, natural sciences, English, and mathematics--as well as strict standards for discipline, religion, and physical training. Hallowell resigned due to illness after one month of service.

Charles Benedict Calvert (1808-1864), Acting, 1860. Calvert, founder of the Maryland Agricultural College, president of the Board of Trustees, and well-known philanthropist, planter, and congressman, served as acting president following Hallowell's resignation. Enrollment increased under his brief administration, from thirty-five to sixty-eight students. He established a non-credit preparatory program for applicants who could not meet the college's academic requirements. He also hired a prominent Washington scientist, Townend Glover, as professor of botany and entomology.

John Work Scott (1807-1879), 1860. Scott was a former president of Washington College, PA. Although officially elected, he never came to campus.

John M. Colby, 1860-1861. Colby had been principal of a local academy. The college's enrollment peaked at seventy-eight during his tenure, but dropped off sharply with the approach of war. Only seventeen students and three professors stayed through the July commencement. Colby resigned during the academic year to become an officer in the Union army

Henry Onderdonk (d. 1895), 1861-1864. Onderdonk was a Quaker schoolmaster from Washington County. During his three-year tenure, eight students received degrees. Onderdonk resigned under accusations, never substantiated, that he willingly harbored and entertained Confederate troops under the command of General Bradley T. Johnson who had encamped on the college grounds. He opened a private academy in Baltimore after resigning..

Nicholas B. Worthington, Acting, 1864-1867. Worthington, a magazine editor and professor, opened the college as a preparatory school for literate boys over twelve. The college continued as a prep school until June 1866 and did not open at all in 1867. Worthington also sold 205 acres of the original 428-acre campus to meet outstanding bills.

George Washington Custis Lee (1832-1913), 1867. The son of Robert E. Lee and a former major general on Jefferson Davis's personal staff, Lee was appointed president in 1867. Following criticism of the appointment in the Unionist newspapers, however, Lee reconsidered and declined the position.

Charles L. C. Minor (1835-1903), 1867-1868. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Minor had been a successful planter and a captain in the Confederate army. He abolished the preparatory school and instituted a classical and scientific curriculum, intending that the emphasis would gradually shift to the sciences. Due to small enrollment, however, he had to dismiss both scientific professors at mid-year. Upon resigning, he returned to Virginia and assumed the presidency of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Franklin Buchanan (1800-1874), 1868-1869. Buchanan, a native of Baltimore, had been the first superintendent of the United States Naval Academy and the highest-ranking admiral in the Confederate navy. He reinstituted the preparatory school, reduced tuition, and rehired a science professor. Enrollment rose to almost one hundred students. Buchanan, however, neglected to file the annual report required by law. Subsequent inquiries by the trustees revealed that Buchanan had committed the institution to approximately $6,000 in debts. Shortly thereafter, he resigned and moved to Alabama to serve as head of an insurance company.

Samuel Regester, 1869-1873. Regester, a Methodist minister and graduate of St. John's College, eliminated the Bachelor of Science degree and exercised rigid religious discipline. He maintained enrollment at approximately 100 students and paid off Buchanan's debt. A high rate of expulsions and drop-outs, however, characterized his tenure. His religiosity and elimination of much of the technical farm training led the trustees to request his resignation.

Samuel Jones (1820-1887), 1873-1875. Jones, a graduate of West Point and former Confederate major general, restructured the curriculum and the overall focus of the college. He established seven departments--languages, mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, civil engineering, and agriculture--with emphasis on the sciences rather than the classics. He also added military training and continued the preparatory school, advertising it as a preparatory course for West Point and the Naval Academy. The Board requested his resignation because of controversy over his change in emphasis from agriculture to militarism.

William H. Parker (1826-1896), 1875-1882. Parker was a New Yorker who had been first in his class at the Naval Academy, served as a captain in the Confederate navy, and founded the Confederate Naval Academy in Richmond. He came to the college as professor of engineering at the same time that Jones came as president, and the two worked closely together until Jones's departure. Parker then continued a program virtually identical to that of Jones which was equally unpopular. The state legislature pressured him by denying state aid in 1882. Parker responded by resigning and subsequently went to Korea as the United States consul.

Augustine J. Smith, 1882-1887. A former sugar factor from Virginia, Smith focused on public relations activities, trying to build support and loyalty among farmers, students, and the members of the state legislature. Enrollment continually declined due to a lack of financial support. Smith accumulated a debt of over $15,000. Pleading ill-health, he resigned.

Allen Dodge, Acting, 1887-1888. Dodge, a local planter, served briefly as president following Smith's resignation.

Henry E. Alvord (1844-1904), 1888-1892. The Trustees hired Alvord as both director of the new, federally funded Agricultural Experiment Station and as the college president. A native of Massachusetts, he had served as a major in the Confederate army. He did not attend college but was a widely-respected dairy scientist. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Agricultural College and chief founder of the American Association of Land Grant Colleges. In his new role at Maryland, he emphasized serving the farm population by restructuring the curriculum around agriculture. He eliminated the prep school and the engineering course and greatly reduced entrance requirements. He had the support of farmers as well as federal funding. The college experienced little growth, however, due to its narrow agricultural focus. The trustees pressured him to resign, and he subsequently served as president of the Oklahoma Agriculture and Mechanical College and as head of the dairy division of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Richard W. Silvester (b. 1857), 1892-1912. Silvester studied agriculture at the Virginia Military Institute and served as principal of the Charlotte Hall Academy in St. Mary's County, Maryland, transforming it into a practical farmers' school. He followed a program similar to Alvord's, emphasizing vocational education. He lowered costs and reinstituted pre-collegiate courses. He also established two short certificate courses, one ten weeks and the other two years. The curriculum contained two tracks, agriculture and engineering, eliminating liberal arts almost entirely. His tenure saw the addition of seven new buildings. In 1912, a fire destroyed the original college building, known as the barracks, and the new administration building. Silvester, discouraged by this loss, resigned.

Thomas H. Spence (1867-1937), Acting, 1912-1913. A professor of languages, Spence served briefly following Silvester's resignation.

Harry J. Patterson (1866-1948), 1913-1917. Patterson, a graduate of Pennsylvania State College, was director of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station before being appointed president. During his administration, he responded to faculty demands by establishing three years of high school as a pre-requisite for admission. Two buildings were completed, the military system gave way to a modern collegiate atmosphere, and the first women were admitted. Patterson resigned to return to the Agricultural Experiment Station.

Albert F. Woods (1866-1948), 1917-1926. A noted scholar, Woods served in the United States Department of Agriculture and advised international agricultural conferences. He was dean and acting president of the University of Minnesota when the trustees offered him the position as president of the Maryland State College of Agriculture. He came just as the United States entered World War I and, as a result, became the commandant of a military camp. The U. S. government established the Reserve Officer Training Corps and the Student Army Training Corps in the land grant colleges with the faculty and administration temporarily under Army command. Entrance requirements were raised, and both the liberal arts and engineering curricula were greatly improved. A new building, several temporary structures, and various improvements were also completed. Both enrollment and the budget increased following the war. Woods created seven schools, each with its own dean: agriculture, engineering and mechanic arts, liberal arts, chemistry, education, home economics, and the graduate school. The college merged with the University of Maryland professional schools in Baltimore in 1920. Woods oversaw the accreditation of the new university by the American Association of Universities in 1926. He resigned that same year, but remained with the school's agriculture department until 1948.

Raymond A. Pearson (1873-1939), 1926-1935. A native of Indiana, Pearson received the M.S. from Cornell and later became a professor of dairy science. He then served as New York Commissioner of Agriculture before going to Iowa State College as president. His main contribution to Maryland was a greatly expanded physical plant, both in Baltimore and College Park, with thirteen buildings constructed, as well as additional acreage. The Board of Regents (formerly the Board of Trustees) requested Pearson's resignation because of personality conflicts, his apparent over-emphasis on construction projects, accusations of neglect of the faculty, and two widely-publicized court cases.

Harry Clifton Byrd (1889-1970), 1935-1954. A 1908 graduate of Maryland Agricultural College, Byrd began his career as the university's football coach and later served as an assistant to Pearson. Under his leadership, the University of Maryland became one of the largest universities in the country as a result of New Deal construction projects, war-time training programs, and the post-war enrollment boom. Byrd's major accomplishments included the development of an educational extension program that became University College and included a full academic curriculum, partially funded by the Army and Air Force, for overseas military personnel. Byrd also took a personal interest in developing an American Studies program. In 1935, Maryland became the first southern state university in the twentieth century to accept African-Americans and, in 1951, the first to accept African-American undergraduates. Finally, the athletic program grew significantly under Byrd's guidance, and the physical plant was greatly expanded. Byrd retired to run, unsuccessfully, for governor.

Thomas B. Symons (1881-1970), Acting, 1954. Having retired as Dean of Agriculture and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1950, Symons agreed to serve as acting president in 1954. During his brief tenure, his major accomplishment was to remodel the Rossborough Inn into a faculty club.

Wilson Homer Elkins (1909-1994), 1954-1978. Elkins earned both an A.B. and an M.A. at the University of Texas in 1933. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he completed a doctorate. From 1938 to 1948, he served as president of San Angelo Junior College. He left San Angelo to become president of Texas Western College in El Paso, where he remained until 1954. At the University of Maryland, Elkins emphasized basic subjects and strict academic standards. He oversaw the establishment of a faculty government and administered a major expansion and improvement of the physical plant, including the construction of the McKeldin Library and the Computer Science Center. It was under Elkins's leadership that Phi Beta Kappa first established a chapter at the University in 1964.

Charles E. Bishop (b. 1921), 1970-1974. Bishop was chancellor of the university from July 1970 to July 1974. He received a B.S. in agricultural education at Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, in 1946; an M.S. in agricultural economics from the University of Kentucky in 1948; and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1952. Regarded as one of the leading educational authorities in the field of agricultural economics, Bishop spent 20 years as a faculty member at North Carolina State University. Before coming to campus, he was the vice president of the University of North Carolina for four years. He also participated in numerous assignments for the federal government and nationally based agricultural and educational organizations. During his tenure on campus, he oversaw a major academic reorganization. He left in 1974 to become the president of the University of Arkansas.

John W. Dorsey (b. 1936), Acting, 1974-1975. Dorsey was acting chancellor of the university from August 1974 to June 1975. A native Marylander, he attended the University of Maryland, graduating with a B.S. in economics in 1958. He continued his graduate education at the London School of Economics and Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. in economics in 1964. He began teaching at College Park in 1963 and in 1966 became the director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research. From 1970 to 1977, Dorsey was the vice chancellor for administrative affairs, after which he became the chancellor of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Robert L. Gluckstern (b. 1924), 1975-1982. Gluckstern was chancellor of the university from June 1975 to June 1982. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering at the City College of New York in 1944 and in 1948, he received a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to being named chancellor in 1975, Gluckstern was the vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he had been a professor since 1964. In his seven-year tenure as chancellor at the University of Maryland, Gluckstern worked to upgrade the academic quality of the campus by raising entrance standards. He also established scholarship programs that served as models elsewhere in the state, including the Banneker minority scholarship. He strong desire to return to full-time teaching and research as a physicist led to his resignation in 1982.

John B. Slaughter (b. 1934), 1982-1988. Slaughter was chancellor of the university from November 1982 to July 1988. He was also the first African-American chancellor. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Kansas State University in 1956, an M.S. in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1961, and a Ph.D. in engineering sciences from the University of California, San Diego in 1971. Slaughter, a native of Kansas, was the director of the National Science Foundation prior to becoming chancellor. During his tenure on campus, Slaughter made major advances in recruitment and retention of African-American students and faculty. He also acted to stabilize the university during the upheaval generated by the sudden death of Terrapin basketball star Len Bias in 1986. Slaughter resigned in 1988 to become president of Occidental College in Los Angeles.

John S. Toll (b. 1924), 1978-1989 (President of USM only). Upon Elkins's retirement, the Board of Regents named Toll as president. Toll earned a B.A. at Yale in 1944 and had completed an M.A. and Ph.D. in physics at Princeton by 1952. During his graduate studies, he worked as a theoretical physicist at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico. From 1953 to 1965, Toll headed the University of Maryland Physics Department. He then moved to the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he served as president until returning to the University of Maryland in 1978. Toll resigned in 1989 and later served as president of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, from 1995 to 2004.