HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Harvard Presidents Throughout History

1846-present

Edward Everett (1794-1865) Term of office: 1846-1849. Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1811; A.M. 1814); University of Göttingen, Germany (Ph.D. 1817) Professional background: Clergyman, orator, government official (with service in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Massachusetts governorship). Immediate past position: U.S. Minister to Great Britain.	A(bbott) Lawrence Lowell (1856-1943) Term of office: 1909-1933. Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1877). Professional background: Harvard government professor. Immediate past position: Eaton Professor of the Science of Government (Harvard).
Jared Sparks (1789-1866) Term of office: 1849-1853. Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1815; A.M. 1818), Harvard Divinity School (studies, 1818; HDS did not grant degrees at this time). Professional background: Clergyman, historian. Immediate past position: McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History (est. and first held [by Sparks] in 1838, Harvard).	James Bryant Conant (1893-1978) Term of office: 1933-1953. Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1913, as a member of the Class of 1914), Harvard University (Ph.D. 1916). Professional background: Chemist. Immediate past position: Sheldon Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry (Harvard).
James Walker (1794-1874) Term of office: 1853-1860. Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1814; A.M. 1817), Harvard Divinity School (studies, 1817; HDS did not grant degrees at this time). Professional background: Harvard professor. Immediate past position: Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity (Harvard).	Nathan Marsh Pusey (b. April 4, 1907) Term of office: 1953-1971. Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1928), Harvard University (A.M. 1932; Ph.D. 1937). Professional background: College president. Immediate past position: President of Lawrence College, Appleton, Wis.
Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-1862) Term of office: 1860-1862 (died in office on Feb. 26). Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1827; A.M. 1830). Professional background: Educator (with service on the Massachusetts Board of Education, as Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and as president of a Boston physical-education society). Immediate past position: Eliot Professor of Greek Literature (Harvard).	Derek Curtis Bok (b. March 22, 1930) Term of office: 1971-1991. Education: Stanford University (A.B. 1951), Harvard Law School (J.D. 1954), George Washington University (A.M. 1958). Professional background: Lawyer, Harvard law professor. Immediate past position: Dean of Harvard Law School.
Thomas Hill (1818-1891) Term of office: 1862-1868. Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1843; A.M. 1846), Harvard Divinity School (completed studies, 1845; HDS did not grant degrees at this time). Professional background: Clergyman, mathematician, educator. Immediate past position: President of Antioch College, Ohio.	Neil L. Rudenstine (b. Jan. 21, 1935) Term of office: 1991-2001. Education: Princeton University (B.A. 1956), Oxford University (B.A. 1959; M.A. 1963), Harvard University (Ph.D. 1964). Professional background: English and American literary scholar. Immediate past position: Executive Vice President, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York.
Charles William Eliot (1834-1926) Term of office: 1869-1909 (longest presidency in Harvard history). Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1853; A.M. 1856). Professional background: Chemist. Immediate past position: Professor of Analytical Chemistry (M.I.T.).	Lawrence H. Summers (b. Nov. 30, 1954) Term of office: 2001- Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. 1975), Harvard University (Ph.D. 1982). Professional background: Economics professor, served in a series of public-policy positions. Immediate past position: Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

Harvard Presidents 1640-1845

Copyright 2002 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College