Rutgers University. Office of the President (Mason Welch Gross), 1936, 1945-1971.

Mason Welch Gross was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on June 3, 1911. He received an A.B. and M.A. in Classics from Cambridge University in 1934 and 1936, respectively. Gross earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard in 1938. On September 6, 1940, he married Julia Kernan with whom he had four children.

Dr. Gross began his career at Rutgers University in 1946 as assistant professor of philosophy and assistant to the dean of the College of Arts and Science. In 1949 he was made a full professor and took on the newly-created position of provost under the ailing president, Robert Clothier. When Clothier took an extended leave of absence because of his health, Provost Gross took over his duties as President of Rutgers. Clothier resigned in 1951 and Dr. Gross continued as provost under President Lewis Webster Jones. He was given the additional title of vice president in 1958. President Jones resigned the presidency in August, 1958, and in February, 1959, Gross was chosen as his successor. On May 6, 1959, Mason W. Gross became the sixteenth president of Rutgers University.

Dr. Gross was active in a variety of professional, civic and charitable activities during his presidency. He served as trustee or member of the board of directors for Vassar College, the Taft School and Middlesex General Hospital. He was also involved with the American Cancer Society, the Mediation Board of New Jersey and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.

In 1971, after 25 years of service to Rutgers, the last 12 as President, Mason Gross retired. He became director of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and served in this position until his death on October 11, 1977.

Mason Gross presided over a time of great change at Rutgers. During his tenure, the university's enrollment doubled from 18,000 to 35,000 and the annual budget of the institution rose from $18 million to $68 million. There was also great physical growth which included additions to the Douglass Campus, the purchase and development of Camp Kilmer into Livingston College as well as additions to the Newark and Camden campuses.

There was also expansion and diversification of academic programs at Rutgers during the Gross administration. The Medical School was founded in 1961; the Graduate School increased its doctoral programs from 29 to 50; the Eagleton Institute of Politics was founded as well as the Urban Studies Program.