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Leon Botstein, ca. late 1970s.
The year 2010 marks the happy coincidence of the 150th anniversary of the College and the 35th year it has been served by President Leon Botstein. In 1975, at the age of 27, President Botstein accepted the same challenge faced by most of his predecessors: to lead a small college with a strong academic record, but with fragile financial resources. Like his predecessors, he is an educational innovator with both the vision and practicality to put his ideas into effect. He has been an intuitive administrator and has taken care to cultivate and work with talented people both on the board of trustees and on the faculty and administration of the College. He has overseen the construction of bold new buildings, chief among which are the Olin Humanities building, the Stevenson Gymnasium, the Stevenson Library, several dormitories, the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Center, the Bertelsmann Campus Center, the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, and the Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation; and he has also expanded the Bard name to an array of innovative graduate programs, early colleges, and international institutions. President Botstein also maintains an active conducting schedule as the principal conductor of the Bard Conservatory Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra, and pursues his commitment to teaching, which he exercises annually in First Year Seminar.
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Reamer Kline, ca. 1960s.
Reamer Kline was President of Bard College from 1960 until 1974. An Episcopal priest, his presidency was marked by civility, even during this most turbulent time in the America’s social history. In 1963, the College purchased the Ward Manor property, substantially increasing housing capacity, which in turn helped to increase enrollment. He increased faculty salaries, and supported the founding of the nursery school. He and his wife Louise opened their home to students and Bard families for memorable holiday parties, helping to build a College community. He hosted a Bard Family Reunion, bringing Bard descendants back to campus, and reminding the College of its roots. Relationships with alumni/ae and the Episcopal Church were likewise reaffirmed, and the academic program was strengthened through hiring which emphasized the arts. New programs were introduced—including the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), the Independent Studies Program (ISP), and the Community Regional Environmental Studies program (CRES)—and buildings were constructed, among these Proctor Art Center (now Fisher Studio Arts), new dormitories called Ravine Houses, two additions to the library, and the Kline Commons dining hall. President Kline supported students during the drug raids of the late sixties. His final gift to Bard was the completion of his deeply human institutional history, Education for the Common Good: a History of Bard College the First 100 Years, 1860–1960, without which the College would be much poorer indeed.
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James H. Case, early 1950s.
James Herbert Case, Bard's 12th president, served the college during the 1950s for over 10 years, starting in July 1950. He assumed the challenge of leading the college with an energy that bred high expectations, many of which were met. In 1951, the 825 acre estate Blithewood was deeded to the college, ultimately fulfilling the wish of John Bard, who had lost the property to foreclosure a half century earlier. In 1952, the Common Course, now the Common Course First Year Seminar: was inaugurated and developed under the direction of Heinrich Bluecher. In 1957 Case opened the college for the Hungarian Student Program, the humanitarian impacts of which are still celebrated today. In 1959 "The New Dorm" (renamed Tewksbury Hall) was completed, further expanding the capacity for student enrollment. President Case resigned in 1960.
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Dr. Edward Fuller, ca. 1948.
Dr. Fuller replaced President Gray in October 1946. Fuller had taught chemistry at Bard since 1935, and, during the war, had worked on the Manhattan Project based at Columbia. As president, Fuller oversaw the development of an innovative integrated introductory course in the sciences (combining chemistry and physics), promoted Bard as a progressive college, and presided over events such as the international students’ conferences; the 1948 poetry conference; and student-led projects, including the organization of the Bard Fire Department and the founding of the campus radio station, WXBC. Coeducation and postwar educational subsidies ensured strong enrollment for a time, and the College prospered briefly. Dr. Fuller resigned in February of 1950 to resume a career in teaching.
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Charles Harold Gray, ca. 1945.
Appointed early in 1940, Charles Harold Gray, the college's 10th president, was a Rhodes scholar and former professor at Bennington College. Under Gray, students engaged in issues of campus governance, reflected seriously on the purpose of a Bard education, and on the nature of progressive education in general. Fraternities and intercollegiate athletics were phased out during his administration. Pearl Harbor and America's subsequent entry into WWII necessitated the hosting of a unit of the Army Specialized Training Program at the college, which Dr. Gray oversaw with care. With the closure of that program after the War, Bard College decided to accept women as students in 1944 to increase enrollment. This necessitated breaking from Columbia University, and Gray changed his title to president. President Gray resigned in the fall of 1946.
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Harold Mestre, ca. 1938.
Harold Mestre, who served as the 9th president of the college, was a distinguished biophysicist appointed to the position in January of 1938. The College was facing insolvency during this time, and almost closed its doors. Grass roots efforts on the part of the students, alumni, and even the local communities provided hope in the coming year, but Dr. Mestre died suddenly on the second day of the fall semester in 1939. His term was completed by Bennington President John Leigh, then on sabbatical. Dr. Leigh provided the trustees with a six-year plan to improve enrollment, modernize the campus, and balance the budget, with continued support from Columbia and the board of trustees. He nominated his fellow Bennington colleague Charles Harold Gray for the position of dean to implement the plan.
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Donald Tewksbury, ca. 1935.
Donald George Tewksbury was appointed dean of the college by Columbia's president, Nicholas Murray Butler in 1933.Tewksbury outlined a progressive new educational program for the College that was approved by the board of trustees. To signal these modern curricular changes while still honoring its roots, St. Stephen’s was renamed Bard College. Under this plan, sometimes called “the inverted pyramid,” teaching was personalized to the interests and abilities of the student, the classics requirements were eased, and the fine arts were promoted as a division of study equal to other branches of the curriculum. The concepts of what have become moderation and the senior project were also introduced at this time. Tewksbury resigned in 1937 as financial pressures mounted.
In a draft of his famous "An Educational Program for Bard College" written when Bard was still St. Stephen's College Tewksbury states: "These changes that are taking place are in part a function of a rapidly changing social order in this country, and in part a response to a widespread dissatisfaction with prevailing practice in the field of higher education itself. There is an insistent demand on the part of educators, parents, and young men alike that our colleges and universities provide among other things for a greater flexibility in the academic curriculum, for more adequate attention to individual need and abilities, for larger recognition of the arts in the instructional program, for a more realistic approach to the problems of contemporary life, and withal for an increasing emphasis on quality and distinction in the educational program.
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Nicholas Murray Butler, 1930.
As president of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler was the official president of St. Stephen’s, renamed Bard in 1934, while the three men who headed Bard between these years, 1928–1944, carried the title of dean. Dr. Butler was a strong supporter of Bard’s educational potential, and he worked closely with the College’s administrators and trustees to reach this potential, despite the intervening years of the Depression and WWII.