Charles Seymour

Charles Seymour (January 1, 1885 - August 11, 1963) was an American historian and President of Yale University from 1937 to 1951.

He was born in New Haven, Connecticut to Thomas Day Seymour. His grandparents Nathan Perkins Seymour was the great-great grandson of Yale President Thomas Clap, and Elizabeth Day was the niece of Yale President Jeremiah Day.

He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cambridge in 1904, and a separate B.A. from Yale in 1908, where he became a member of Skull and Bones. He went on to earn a Masters of Arts from Cambridge in 1909, and a Ph.D. from Yale in 1911. He served as the provost of the University, where in 1908 he helped expand and protect the Yale Residential Colleges, and later became master of Berkeley College. He taught history at Yale from 1911 to 1937, when he became president of the university. While president, he inaugurated several interdepartmental majors such as American Studies--promoted by another Bonesman F. O. Matthiessen. Additionally, Seymour served as the chief of the Austro-Hungarian Division of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, and as the U.S. delegate on the Romanian, Yugoslavian, and Czechoslovakian Territorial Commissions in 1919.

Seymour was a close personal friend of gray eminence 'Colonel' Edward M. House.

He died in Chatham, Massachusetts on August 11, 1963. His son, Charles Seymour, Jr., became a professor of art history at Yale.

Quote: "We seek the truth and will endure the consequences."

Academic Offices
Preceded by James Rowland Angell	President of Yale University 1937–1951	Succeeded by Alfred Whitney Griswold