Chancellors

The Chancellors of the University have been a distinguished line of men. The first, Stephen Hopkins (1764-1785) was one of the original incorporators of the College, several times Governor of Rhode Island, a delegate to the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Jabez Bowen (1785-1815) was a Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Alexander Viets Griswold (1815-1828) was Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Eastern Massachusetts. Samuel Willard Bridgham 1794 (1828-1840) was the first graduate to be named Chancellor. He was also the first Mayor of Providence. John Brown Francis 1818 (1841-1854) was Governor of Rhode Island and a United States Senator. Samuel Boyd Tobey (1854-1867) was a physician and a Quaker. William Patten 1818 (1867-1873), Benjamin F. Thomas 1830 (1874-1878) and Thomas Durfee 1846 (1879-1888) were all lawyers. Colonel William Goddard 1846 (1888-1907) was a Providence manufacturer and merchant and an officer in the Civil War. Arnold Buffum Chace 1866 (1907-1932) was a cotton manufacturer and Henry D. Sharpe 1894 (1932-1952) was president of Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Company. Harold B. Tanner ’09 (1952-1964) was a lawyer, H. Stanford McLeod ’16 (1964-1968) an investment banker, and Charles C. Tillinghast, Jr. ’32 (1968-1979) among other things president of Trans World Airlines. Richard Salomon ’32 (1979-1988) was chief executive officer of Lanvin-Charles of the Ritz from 1936 to 1971 and chairman of the board of the New York Public Library from 1977 to 1988. Alva O. Way ’51, chancellor since 1988, is chairman of IBJ Schroder Bank and Trust Company.

The Vice-Chancellors of the University have been Donald G. Millar ’19 (1964-1968), Alfred H. Joslin ’35 (1968-1969), Foster B. Davis ’39 (1969-1979), Thomas J. Watson, Jr. ’37 (1979-1985), Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. ’45 (1985-1988) and Artemis A. W. Joukowsky ’55, since 1988.