Ransom, Harry Huntt, 1908-1976

Harry Huntt Ransom (1908-1976) served as professor, dean, vice president, provost, president, and chancellor (1961-1971) of the University of Texas. A champion of library development, Ransom promoted the concept and construction of UT's Undergraduate Library and Academic Center and of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, a renowned collection which includes rare books, literary manuscripts, and theater arts, film, and photography archives.

Harry Huntt Ransom (1908-1976) served as professor, dean, vice-president, provost, president, and chancellor (1961-1971) of the University of Texas.

American educator and university administrator.

University chancellor, bibliophile.

Harry Huntt Ransom, the most significant library builder and educator of the University of Texas' last half century, was born in Galveston on 22 November 1908. From his parents, Harry H. and Marion G. Cunningham Ransom, he early formed habits of public-spiritedness and diligence that characterized his entire life. After graduating from the University of the South in 1928, Harry Ransom received the master's and doctoral degrees in English from Yale. Ransom arrived on the University of Texas campus in 1935 as an instructor in the English Department and continued his association with the university until his death in 1976.

Harry Ransom was made an assistant professor in 1938, and upon his return from military service--he left the Army Air Forces in 1946 with the rank of major--he became an associate professor. Marriage to Hazel Louise Harrod in 1951 and increasingly responsible administrative posts followed, and by 1961 Harry Ransom had been named chancellor of the University of Texas system. He held that post until 1971.

It was during the middle 1950s that Harry Ransom first articulated his desire to "make a good library better." He succeeded in convincing the University's Board of Regents of the need for improved library facilities, leading directly to the 1958 establishment of the Humanities Research Center and, in 1963, to the opening of the Undergraduate Library and Academic Center. The revolution Harry Ransom wrought on the libraries of the UT Austin campus, together with his advocacy of the individual student, are his enduring legacies.