Rutgers University Provost and Vice President (Richard Schlatter)

The Office of the Provost was created in 1949 to take on responsibilities delegated by the President. In a statement of appointment that appeared in the July 1949 faculty newsletter, President Robert C. Clothier wrote that Rutgers had become larger in terms of size, complexity and public recognition, and that it had "a special obligation to meet in view of its debt to the returning veterans and its designation as the State University of New Jersey." Clothier stated that the administration had not grown at the same rate as the university, and therefore, new positions needed to accompany the new duties its members found themselves taking on. The Presidency had become "a two-man" job, and it would be the Provost's duty to be this "second man." (1)

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, who had served as a professor of history since coming to Rutgers in 1946. When Schlatter took over the position, the title was amended to Provost and Vice-President.

...