President of Harvard University

The president plays an important part in university-wide planning and strategy. Each names a faculty's dean (and, since the foundation of the office in 1994, the university's provost), and grants tenure to recommended professors. However, the president is expected to make such decisions after extensive consultation with faculty members.

Recently, however, the job has become increasingly administrative, especially as fund-raising campaigns have taken on central importance in large institutions such as Harvard. Some have criticized this trend to the extent it has prevented the president from focusing on substantive issues in higher education.^[3]

Each president is professor in some department of the university and teaches from time to time.

The university maintains an official residence for the president's use, which from 1912 until 1971, was President's House, and since then has been Elmwood.^[4]

Harvard presidents have traditionally influenced educational practices nationwide. Charles W. Eliot, for example, originated America's familiar system of a smorgasbord of elective courses available to each student; James B. Conant worked to introduce standardized testing; Derek Bok and Neil L. Rudenstine argued for the continued importance of diversity in higher education.

At Harvard's founding it was headed by a "schoolmaster", Nathaniel Eaton. In 1640, when Henry Dunster was brought in, he adopted the title of president. Since Harvard was founded for the training of Puritan clergy, and even though its mission was soon broadened, nearly all presidents through the end of the 18th century were in holy orders.

All presidents from Leonard Hoar in 1672 through Nathan Pusey in 1971 were graduates of Harvard College. Of the presidents since Pusey, nearly all earned a graduate degree at Harvard. The only exception has been Drew Gilpin Faust, who was the first president since the seventeenth century with no earned Harvard degree.

The following persons have served as president of Harvard University:^[5]

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No.	Image	Presidents	Term start	Term end	Length	Ref.
Headmaster of the New College (1637–1639)
–		Nathaniel Eaton[a]	1637	1639	2 years	[6]
Presidents of Harvard College (1639–1780)
1		Henry Dunster[b]	August 27, 1640	October 24, 1654	14 years, 1 month and 27 days	[7]
2		Charles Chauncy	November 2, 1654	February 19, 1672[c]	17 years, 3 months and 17 days	[8]
3		Leonard Hoar[d]	December 10, 1672	March 15, 1675	2 years, 3 months and 5 days	[9]
acting		Urian Oakes	April 7, 1675	February 2, 1680	4 years, 9 months and 26 days
4			February 2, 1680	July 25, 1681[c]	1 year, 5 months and 23 days	[10][8]
5		John Rogers	April 10, 1682	July 12, 1684[c]	2 years, 3 months and 2 days	[11][12][8]
acting		Increase Mather[e]	June 11, 1685	June 23, 1686	1 year and 12 days
rector			June 23, 1686	June 27, 1692	6 years and 4 days
6			June 27, 1692	June 29, 1701	9 years and 2 days	[13][8]
acting		Samuel Willard[f]	September 6, 1701	September 12, 1707	6 years and 6 days	[14]
7		John Leverett[g]	January 14, 1708	May 3, 1724[c]	16 years, 3 months and 19 days	[8][15]
8		Benjamin Wadsworth	July 7, 1725	March 16, 1737[c]	11 years, 8 months and 9 days	[12][8]
9		Edward Holyoke[h]	1737	1769[c]	32 years	[12][8]
acting		John Winthrop[i]	1769	1769		[16]
10		Samuel Locke[j]	May 21, 1770	December 1, 1773	3 years, 6 months and 10 days	[17][18]
acting		John Winthrop[k]	1773	1774		[19]
11		Samuel Langdon[l]	July 18, 1774	August 30, 1780	6 years, 1 month and 12 days	[8][20]
Presidents of Harvard University (1780–present)
acting		Edward Wigglesworth	1780	1781		[21]
12		Joseph Willard	September 5, 1781	September 25, 1804[c]	23 years and 20 days	[22]
acting		Eliphalet Pearson	1804	1806
13		Samuel Webber	May 6, 1806	July 17, 1810[c]	4 years, 2 months and 11 days	[23]
acting		Henry Ware	1810	1810		[24]
14		John Thornton Kirkland[m]	November 14, 1810	April 2, 1828	17 years, 4 months and 19 days	[25]
acting		Henry Ware	1828	1829
15		Josiah Quincy III	January 29, 1829	August 27, 1845	16 years, 6 months and 29 days	[26]
16		Edward Everett[n]	February 5, 1846	February 1, 1848	2 years, 11 months and 27 days	[27]
17		Jared Sparks	February 1, 1849	February 10, 1853	4 years and 9 days	[28]
18		James Walker	February 10, 1853	January 26, 1860	6 years, 11 months and 16 days	[29]
19		Cornelius Conway Felton	February 16, 1860	February 26, 1862[c]	2 years and 10 days	[30]
acting		Andrew Preston Peabody	1862	1862
20		Thomas Hill	October 6, 1862	September 30, 1868	5 years, 11 months and 24 days	[31]
acting		Andrew Preston Peabody	1868	1869		[32]
21		Charles William Eliot[o]	March 12, 1869	May 19, 1909	40 years, 2 months and 7 days	[33][34][35][36]
acting		Henry Pickering Walcott[p]	1900	1901		[37]
			1905	1905
22		A. Lawrence Lowell	May 19, 1909	June 21, 1933	24 years, 1 month and 2 days	[38][39]
23		James B. Conant[q]	1933	1953	19 years, 6 months and 22 days	[40]
24		Nathan Pusey[r]	June 1, 1953	June 30, 1971	18 years and 29 days	[41][42]
25		Derek Bok	July 1, 1971	June 30, 1991	19 years, 11 months and 29 days	[43]
acting		Henry Rosovsky[s]	1984	1984		[44]
			1987	1987		[45][46]
26		Neil Rudenstine	July 1, 1991	June 30, 2001	9 years, 11 months and 29 days	[47][48]
acting		Albert Carnesale[t]	November 29, 1994	February 1995		[49][50][51][52]
27		Lawrence Summers[u]	July 1, 2001	June 30, 2006	4 years, 11 months and 29 days	[53][54][55][56][57]
interim		Derek Bok	July 1, 2006	June 30, 2007	11 months and 29 days	[58][8]
28		Drew Gilpin Faust[v]	July 1, 2007	June 30, 2018	10 years, 11 months and 29 days	[8][59][60]
29		Lawrence Bacow	July 1, 2018	June 30, 2023	4 years, 11 months and 29 days	[8][61][62]
30		Claudine Gay[w]	July 1, 2023	January 2, 2024	6 months and 1 day	[63][64]
interim		Alan Garber	January 2, 2024	August 2, 2024	7 months	[65][66]
31			August 2, 2024	present	1 year, 7 months and 16 days	[67]

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