Hanna Holborn Gray
Encyclopedia
Hanna Holborn Gray is a historian of political thought in the area of the Renaissance
and Reformation
, and an emerita professor and former President of the University of Chicago
.
, a professor of European history who fled to America from Nazi Germany
, and Annemarie Bettmann, a philologist. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College
and traveled to Oxford as a Fulbright Scholar. She met and married Charles Montgomery Gray in 1954 while both were graduate students at Harvard University
, earned a Ph.D.
from Harvard in 1957, and taught there, becoming an assistant professor in 1959.
She moved to Chicago when her husband obtained a position at the University of Chicago
and she herself obtained a position there, becoming a tenured faculty member in 1964. From 1966-1970, she served as a co-editor of the Journal of Modern History with her husband Charles.
Gray rose to prominence as an administrator when she was appointed to a committee to investigate whether a sociology professor had been denied tenure because of her gender and political sympathies.
She was named Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University
in 1972, and became professor of history at, and Provost of, Yale University
in 1974. She served as acting President of Yale University for fourteen months after President Kingman Brewster accepted an unanticipated appointment as United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.
Gray then returned to the University of Chicago
, serving as president from 1978 to 1993, and, in that capacity, was the first female (full) president of a major university in the United States.
She retired in June 1993, but remains Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emerita and continues to offer advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in history. Her husband Charles Gray died in April 2011.
She has also served as a Director, Board Member or Trustee of various institutions, including the Harvard Corporation, the Yale Corporation
, the Smithsonian Institution
, JP Morgan Chase, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
, the Marlboro School of Music, the Council on Foreign Relations
, the Concord Coalition
, the Mayo Clinic
, the Brookings Institution
, and Bryn Mawr
.
She is a recipient of over 60 honorary degrees, from schools such as the University of Chicago
, The College of William and Mary, Harvard
, Oxford
, Yale University
, Brown
, Columbia
, Princeton
, and Duke
.
Gray served as Chairman of the Board of the second largest foundation in America, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
until 2010.
A portrait of Hanna Gray hanging at the University of Chicago has infamously been stolen on more than one occasion as a prank.
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
and Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, and an emerita professor and former President of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
Biography
Gray was born in Heidelberg, Germany, the daughter of Hajo HolbornHajo Holborn
Hajo Holborn was a German-American historian and specialist in modern German history.- Life :...
, a professor of European history who fled to America from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, and Annemarie Bettmann, a philologist. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
and traveled to Oxford as a Fulbright Scholar. She met and married Charles Montgomery Gray in 1954 while both were graduate students at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, earned a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from Harvard in 1957, and taught there, becoming an assistant professor in 1959.
She moved to Chicago when her husband obtained a position at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and she herself obtained a position there, becoming a tenured faculty member in 1964. From 1966-1970, she served as a co-editor of the Journal of Modern History with her husband Charles.
Gray rose to prominence as an administrator when she was appointed to a committee to investigate whether a sociology professor had been denied tenure because of her gender and political sympathies.
She was named Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in 1972, and became professor of history at, and Provost of, Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1974. She served as acting President of Yale University for fourteen months after President Kingman Brewster accepted an unanticipated appointment as United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.
Gray then returned to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, serving as president from 1978 to 1993, and, in that capacity, was the first female (full) president of a major university in the United States.
She retired in June 1993, but remains Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emerita and continues to offer advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in history. Her husband Charles Gray died in April 2011.
She has also served as a Director, Board Member or Trustee of various institutions, including the Harvard Corporation, the Yale Corporation
Yale Corporation
The Yale Corporation, sometimes, and more formally, known as The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.The Corporation comprises 19 members:...
, the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, JP Morgan Chase, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
, the Marlboro School of Music, the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
, the Concord Coalition
Concord Coalition
The Concord Coalition is a political advocacy group in the United States, formed in 1992. A bipartisan organization, it was founded by former U.S. Senator Warren Rudman, former Secretary of Commerce Peter George Peterson, and the late U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas. The Concord Coalition's advocacy...
, the Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
, the Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
, and Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
.
She is a recipient of over 60 honorary degrees, from schools such as the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, The College of William and Mary, Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Brown
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, and Duke
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
.
Gray served as Chairman of the Board of the second largest foundation in America, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a United States non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded by the American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the United...
until 2010.
A portrait of Hanna Gray hanging at the University of Chicago has infamously been stolen on more than one occasion as a prank.
Chronology
- Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, 1955–1957
- Instructor, Harvard University, 1957–1959
- Assistant Professor, Harvard University, 1959–1960
- Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago 1961-1964
- Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago 1964-1972
- Professor of History at Yale University 1974-1978
- Provost of Yale University 1974-1978
- Acting President of Yale University 1977-1978
- Professor of History at the University of Chicago 1978
- President of the University of Chicago 1978-1993
- Appointed to the Harvard Corporation, 1997
External links
- Dan David Prize (includes photo)