Robert William MacVicar (1918–1998) was a professor of chemistry, the Chancellor of Southern Illinois University, and the President of Oregon State University between 1970 and 1984.
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Robert W. MacVicar was born in Princeton, Minnesota on September 28, 1918.
MacVicar was a student of chemistry at the University of Wyoming, graduating from there in 1939.[1] Upon graduation, MacVicar was awarded a Rhodes scholarship, but it proved impossible for him to attend due to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.[1]
Instead, MacVicar enrolled and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he continued his chemistry studies.[1] MacVicar obtained his Masters of Science in 1940 from Oklahoma State, authoring a thesis entitled "The Effect of Adrenaline Injections on the Chloride and Phosphorus Distribution of the Blood" en route to obtaining his degree.[2]
MacVicar spent the duration of the war as an officer in the United States Army.[3] He left military service as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps.[4]
Following the conclusion of the war, MacVicar moved to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he obtained a PhD in biochemistry in 1946.[1] MacVicar's dissertation was entitled "The Boron Metabolism of Plants" and included material which he had been able to publish in the American Potato Journal and Botanical Gazette.[5]
With degree in hand, MacVicar returned to Stillwater to take a position as an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Chemistry Research and Chemistry, later gaining promotion to a full professorship.[1] He remained at Oklahoma State until 1964.[1]
Concurrently with his professorship at Oklahoma State, MacVicar became involved in school administration, taking on the role of Dean of the Graduate School in 1953.[1] He continued to serve in that capacity until his departure from Stillwater in 1964.[1] From 1957 he also served as Vice President for Academic Affairs.[1]
In 1968, MacVicar was named Chancellor of Southern Illinois University, located in the town of Carbondale in the state's downstate coal mining country.[1] MacVicar remained there until 1970, when he came west to Corvallis, Oregon to assume a post as the 15th President of Oregon State University.[1]
MacVicar remained as head of Oregon State until his retirement in 1984, during which time the campus was expanded with the addition of 23 new buildings.[6] Under MacVicar's watch the total number of faculty at OSU expanded from 1,766 to 2,247, while the school's budget tripled.[7]
Following his retirement, MacVicar was awarded the title Professor Emeritus of Chemistry as well as President Emeritus and Special Assistant to the Chancellor.[1] MacVicar remained active in the Corvallis community and put his networking skills to use establishing a fund-raising program on behalf of the College of Ganado, located on a Navajo reservation in northeastern Arizona.[7]
Robert MacVicar died on December 26, 1998. He was 80 years old at the time of his death.[8]
Over the course of his career, MacVicar published over 135 papers, reports and articles.[3] His papers are held by Oregon State University Archives in Corvallis.