Robert Maynard Hutchins

Robert Maynard Hutchins
Hutchins at Yale in 1921
5th President of the University of Chicago
In office 1929–1945
Preceded by	Max Mason
Succeeded by	Lawrence A. Kimpton
4th Dean of Yale Law School
In office 1927–1929
Preceded by	Thomas Walter Swan
Succeeded by	Charles Edward Clark
Personal details
Born	(1899-01-17)January 17, 1899 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	May 14, 1977(1977-05-14) (aged 78) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Maude Hutchins Vesta Orlick Hutchins
Education	Yale University (BA, LLB)
Occupation	Educator

Robert Maynard Hutchins (January 17, 1899 – May 14, 1977) was an American educational philosopher. He was president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago, and earlier dean of Yale Law School (1927–1929).^[1] His first wife was the novelist Maude Hutchins. Although his father and grandfather were both Presbyterian ministers, Hutchins became one of the most influential members of the school of secular perennialism.

A graduate of Yale College and the law school of Yale University, Hutchins joined the law faculty and soon was named dean. While dean, he gained notice for Yale's development of the philosophy of legal realism. Hutchins was thirty years old when he became Chicago's president in 1929, and implemented wide-ranging and sometimes controversial reforms of the university, including the elimination of varsity football. He supported interdisciplinary programs, including during World War II, establishing the Metallurgical Laboratory.^[2] His most far-reaching academic reforms involved the undergraduate College of the University of Chicago, which was retooled into a novel pedagogical system built on Great Books, Socratic dialogue, comprehensive examinations and early entrance to college. Although parts of the Hutchins Plan were abandoned by the University shortly after Hutchins left in 1951, an adapted version of the program survived at Shimer College.

Hutchins left Chicago for the Ford Foundation, where he channeled resources into studying education. In 1954 he became president of a Ford Foundation spinoff devoted to civil liberties, the Fund for the Republic. In 1959, he founded the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, a think tank in Santa Barbara, California.