University of Pittsburgh. Chancellor

Dr. David H. Kurtzman came to the University of Pittsburgh as its Vice Chancellor for Finance in July of 1965. He assumed his new duties at the height of a financial crisis at the University. Seven months later, the institution faced another crisis, the death of Acting Chancellor Stanton C. Crawford in 1966. Dr. Kurtzman was asked to serve as the Chancellor until the University named a permanent Chancellor. In his capacity as Acting Chancellor, Kurtzman guided the University through the transition to a state-related institution.

The University of Pittsburgh is subject to periodic review by the Middle States Association, Commission on Higher Education to maintain its accreditation status as required by several state and national government entities.

Stanton Chapman Crawford was associated with the University of Pittsburgh for 43 years, most of them as Professor of Biology and Dean of the College (of Arts and Sciences). He was named as Acting Chancellor on June 18, 1965 when Chancellor Litchfield fell ill, a time when the University was in the midst of its severest financial difficulties. Litchfield resigned as Chancellor on July 26, 1965 and Crawford continued in his role. He shepherded the University's association with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, making significant structural changes to the Administration. He died of a heart attack on January 26, 1966 after having been in office for only seven months.

Charles B. Nutting came to the University in 1946 as a Professor of Law. He was made Vice Dean of the Law School in November of that year and was made Dean in August 1949. He was made Vice Chancellor of the University in January 1952 and appointed Acting Chancellor on July 1, 1955 upon the retirement of Rufus Fitzgerald. He served as Acting Chancellor for one year until Edward H. Litchfield was appointed Chancellor on July 1, 1956.

John Gabbert Bowman became University of Pittsburgh's tenth Chancellor in 1921 and served for 24 years. Prior to coming to the University, he was the president of the State University of Iowa. During his tenure at Pitt, he oversaw the construction of several architecturally beautiful buildings as well as bringing the University into fiscal and academic health. In spite of opposition from the Board of Trustees and the onset of the Great Depression, he succeeded in securing the resources for the construction of the Cathedral of Learning as well as the Heinz Chapel and the Stephen Foster Memorial. One particular source of support was the construction of the Cathedral's Nationality Rooms by committees comprised of various local ethnic groups from the Pittsburgh area. In addition he toiled to make the Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Social Work, Business and the College academically strong and accredited. The Medical Center came to include eight hospitals and clinics. He built the university from a school of 2300 students to one of 23,000 by the time of his retirement in 1945. The Trustees dedicated the Cathedral of Learning to Bowman on March 9, 1956, the thirtieth anniversary of the breaking of ground for the building. Upon his retirement, he became the first President and President Honorarius. He died on December 2, 1962 on his farm in Bedford, Pennsylvaina.

Edward H. Litchfield, formerly the Dean of the School of Business and Public Administration at Cornell University, assumed the role of Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh on July 1, 1956. In addition to his new position as Chancellor, Litchfield maintained several connections to the business world, including committee memberships and directorships with corporations such as Smith-Corona, Avco, and Studebaker-Packard. Litchfield orchestrated many changes at the University of Pittsburgh such as a reorganization of the administrative structure, salary increases for employees, and pension increases for retired professors. He focused many of his early activities on improving faculty conditions, reducing teaching loads, and implementing sabbatical leaves and the formation of the Senate Council. A second focus was on improving and developing the academic programs by limiting entrance to professional schools to graduate students and by improving the quality of the professors. One of Litchfield's most important contributions was physically expanding the campus through the addition of dormitories, the purchase of the Schenley Hotel and the acquisition or construction of several additional buildings. Financial problems, due to overspending and unforeseen problems, characterized the later part of Litchfield's chancellorship, until his resignation in July, 1965. He, along with his wife, his two youngest children, and his mother, were killed in a private airplane crash on March 8, 1968 over Lake Michigan near Meigs Field. The Litchfield Towers (dormitories) on Pitt's main campus were named in his honor.

Rufus Henry Fitzgerald was the Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh from 1945 until his retirement in July of 1955. He previously held the positions of Provost (1938-1942) and Vice-Chancellor (1942-1945). He came to Pittsburgh after having been a director and professor of the Fine Arts Department at the State University of Iowa. During his tenure, he guided the construction projects of the Nurses Residence, the Fitzgerald Field House, Clapp Hall, Engineering Building, and the groundbreaking for the School of Health Professions. He integrated the Schools of Pharmacy, Retailing and Public Health into the University and grew the endowment from $3.5 million to $29 million. Fitzgerald, a native of Pelham, North Carolina, received his Bachelors degree from Guilford College in 1911 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee in 1919. He was married to Damie Cornell until her death in 1963, then married Elizabeth Hays, who was his wife at the time of his death on April 11, 1966. He and Damie had two daughters, Helen Bethel and Mildred Brownlee.

Samuel Black McCormick accepted the position of Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh on June 16, 1904, and was inaugurated on February 22, 1905. He was born in Irwin, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on May 6, 1858 to James Irwin McCormick and Rachel Long Black. A graduate of Washington and Jefferson College, he was admitted to the bar of Allegheny County in 1882. For several years he practiced law but then took Minister's Training at the Western Theological Seminary, graduating in 1890. He accepted a position at the First Presbyterian Church of Omaha, Nebraska, and later became president of Coe College, Iowa. His most notable achievements were in acquiring the Dental College, the West Penn Medical College and establishing the Schools of Economics (later Business) and Education. In 1909, he moved the campus of the University from Observatory Hill on the Northside to Oakland, and changed its name from Western University of Pennsylvania to the University of Pittsburgh. He presided as Chancellor during the First World War when he and 524 other college presidents were told that the U.S. government was taking over their institutions for the training of officers and technical specialists in the Student Army Training Corps. Shortly after the close of WWI, the 1918 Influenza pandemic descended on cities throughout the United States. McCormick resigned as Chancellor in 1920, but continued to have an office in State Hall. He died on April 18, 1928 from pneumonia.

William Jacob Holland was the eighth Chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh, serving from 1891 to 1901. Holland was born on August 16, 1848 in Jamaica, West Indies, to Francis Raymond and Eliza Augusta (Wolle) Holland. His father was a Moravian missionary to the West Indies and Holland spent the first few years of his life on those islands. His father returned to this country 1852, and Holland spent the remainder of his early life in Ohio and later in North Carolina (1857-1863). In 1863 he attended Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., and then the Theological Seminary at Amherst College receiving his A.B. in 1869. He was the principal of Amherst High School for one year and then attended the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1874. n 1874 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pa., to become pastor of the Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Oakland. Holland was also a trustee of the Pennsylvania College for Women, now Chatham College, where he taught Latin, Greek and other ancient languages. He was elected to the Chancellorship of the Western University of Pennsylvania in 1891 and was elected Director of the Carnegie Museum in 1898. He served those two posts concurrently for three years. During his administration, the Schools of Law, Medicine, Mines, Pharmacy and Dentistry were established. The University of Pittsburgh's Holland Hall residence is named in his honor. In 1879 Holland married Carrie T. Moorhead, daughter of John and Annie C. (Turner) Moorhead. They had two sons, Moorhead Benezet and Francis Raymond Holland. Holland died on December 13, 1932.

The University of Pittsburgh traces its origins to the Pittsburgh Academy, established in 1787 and headed by a principal.

The Pittsburgh Academy became the Western University of Pennsylvania in 1819; the title "principal" was changed to "president" in 1835. In 1858, the title was changed to that of "chancellor." In 1908 W.U.P. became the University of Pittsburgh. In 1984, at the request of then-chancellor Wesley W. Posvar, the Board of Trustees changed his title to "president." Upon becoming president in 1991, J. Dennis O'Connor requested that his title be changed to "chancellor;" the Board complied.