List of University of Texas at Austin presidents

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The complete list of University of Texas at Austin presidents officially includes 28 individuals in the history of the University. The office of the president was originally established in 1895.

The position did not exist when the University was established in 1883. The founders of the University had decided to follow the example of University of Virginia^[1], where Thomas Jefferson, a skeptic of central authority and bureaucracy, had prevented the establishment of such an office years before. The faculty would retain control, under the regents, through an annually selected chairman.

John William Mallet, a professor of physics, served as the first chairman of the faculty for one year, starting in 1883. Mallet was followed by William LeRoy Broun, who served only briefly. Leslie Waggener received the position in 1884, and served until 1894. Waggener subsequently served as president ad interim until his death in 1896.^[2] George Tayloe Winston, who took over in 1896, is officially considered the first president of The University of Texas.

President Logan Wilson concurrently served as acting chancellor in 1954, until the chancellorship was abolished in September of that year. The position was re-instated in 1960, upon which Wilson left the presidency to become chancellor. In 1963, the office of the president itself was abolished. The chancellor of The University of Texas System, Harry Ransom, assumed the duties of the presidency until the position's re-establishment in 1967.^[3]

[edit] Presidents

Dates of office	President		Notes
1895 – 1896	Leslie Waggener		President ad interim
1896 – 1899	George Tayloe Winston		First president of The University of Texas
1899 – 1905	William Lambdin Prather
1905 – 1908	David Franklin Houston
1908 – 1914	Sidney Edward Mezes
1914 – 1916	William James Battle		President ad interim
1916 – 1923	Robert Ernest Vinson
1923 – 1924	William Seneca Sutton		President ad interim
1924 – 1927	Walter Marshall William Splawn
1927 – 1937	Harry Yandell Benedict
1937 – 1939	John William Calhoun		President ad interim
1939 – 1944	Homer Price Rainey		Fired by the Board of Regents over a dispute regarding academic freedom
1944 – 1946	Theophilus Shickel Painter		Acting president
1946 – 1952	Theophilus Shickel Painter
1952	James Clay Dolley		Acting president
1953 – 1960	Logan Wilson		Served concurrently as acting chancellor in 1954 until the office was abolished on September 30
1960 – 1961	Harry Huntt Ransom
1961	Harry Huntt Ransom		Acting president
1961 – 1963	Joseph Royall Smiley
1963 – 1967			Chancellor Harry Ransom assumed the duties of the office of the president
1967 – 1970	Norman Hackerman
1970 – 1971	Bryce Jordan
1971 – 1974	Stephen Hopkins Spurr		Fired by the Board of Regents and Chancellor Charles LeMaistre
1974 – 1975	Lorene Lane Rogers		President ad interim
1975 – 1979	Lorene Lane Rogers
1979 – 1985	Peter Tyrrell Flawn
1985 – 1992	William H. Cunningham
1992 – 1993	William S. Livingston		Acting president
1993 – 1997	Robert M. Berdahl
1997 – 1998	Peter Tyrrell Flawn		President ad interim
1998 – 2006	Larry R. Faulkner
2006 – present	William Powers, Jr.

[edit] References

1. ^ Berry, Margaret C. University of Texas at Austin from the Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed 19 March 2006.
2. ^ Past Presidents. Office of the President. The University of Texas at Austin. Accessed 19 March 2006.
3. ^ Berry, Margaret C. The University of Texas: A Pictorial Account of its First Century. University of Texas Press, 1980.