leadership timeline

Leadership Prior to Consolidation as a System

  • Joseph Caldwell1, 1804-12 and 1817-35
  • Robert H. Chapman, 1812-16
  • David L. Swain, 1835-68
  • Soloman S. Pool2, 1868-70
  • Kemp B. Battle, 1876-91
  • George T. Winston, 1891-96
  • Edwin A. Alderman, 1896-1900
  • Francis P. Venable3, 1900-14
  • Edward K. Graham3, 1914-18
  • Harry W. Chase, 1919-30
  • Frank P. Graham3, 1930-49
  • Gordon Gray3, 1950-55

Presidents Emerti

  1. William C. Friday, 1956-86
  2. C.D. Spangler, Jr., 1986-97
  3. Molly Corbett Broad, 1997-2005
  4. Erskine Bowles, 2006-2010
  5. Thomas W. Ross, 2011-2016
  6. Margaret Spellings, 2016-2019*
  7. Peter Hans, 2020-present

    *William L. Roper, Interim, 2019-2020

Footnotes

1 Before 1804, the University was headed by “presiding professors.”
2 The University was closed by the reconstruction government in 1870 and reopened in September of 1875.
3 Followed briefly by an acting president.