Rutgers University. Office of the Provost and Vice President.

The Office of the Provost was created in 1949 to take on responsibilities delegated by the President. Rutgers University's first Provost was Mason Welch Gross, who held the position until 1959, when he was elected Rutgers' President. The position of Provost remained vacant until 1962, with the appointment of Richard Schlatter. When Schlatter took over the position, the title was amended to Provost and Vice-President. Richard Schlatter and President Gross are credited for establishing Rutgers as a major university. In 1971, Schlatter resigned his position as Provost and Vice-President but continued to teach as a professor of history. At that time, the newly appointed President of Rutgers, Edward J. Bloustein, reorganized the administrative structure and the position of Provost and Vice-President ceased to exist. Instead a Provost was designated for each of the Rutgers campuses. Kenneth Wheeler became New Brunswick Provost in July 1972, James E. Young became Newark Provost in 1973 and Russell Fairbanks became Camden Provost in 1974.

Richard Schlatter was born in Ohio on March 3, 1912. He received his BA from Harvard in 1934 and won a Rhodes scholarship, graduating from Oxford with a doctorate of philosophy degree in 1938. He then taught at Harvard until 1946 when he became professor of history at Rutgers. While at Rutgers, Schlatter received a Fulbright Award, served as chair of the history department, and became Provost in 1962. Richard Schlatter retired in 1982.