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.

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