Name Robert MacVicar | Died December 26, 1998 | |
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Education University of Wyoming, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Oklahoma State University–Stillwater | ||
Robert William MacVicar (1918–1998) was a professor of chemistry, the Chancellor of Southern Illinois University, and the President of Oregon State University between 1970 and 1984.
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Early years
Robert W. MacVicar was born in Princeton, Minnesota on September 28, 1918.
Academic career
MacVicar was a student of chemistry at the University of Wyoming, graduating from there in 1939. Upon graduation, MacVicar was awarded a Rhodes scholarship, but it proved impossible for him to attend due to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.
Instead, MacVicar enrolled and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he continued his chemistry studies. MacVicar obtained his Master of Science in 1940 from Oklahoma State, authoring a thesis entitled "The Effect of Adrenaline Injections on the Chloride and Phosphorus Distribution of the Blood" en route to obtaining his degree.
MacVicar spent the duration of the war as an officer in the United States Army. He left military service as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Following the conclusion of the war, MacVicar moved to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he obtained a PhD in biochemistry in 1946. MacVicar's dissertation was entitled "The Boron Metabolism of Plants" and included material which he had been able to publish in the American Potato Journal and Botanical Gazette.
With degree in hand, MacVicar returned to Stillwater to take a position as an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Chemistry Research and Chemistry, later gaining promotion to a full professorship. He remained at Oklahoma State until 1964.
Administrative career
Concurrently with his professorship at Oklahoma State, MacVicar became involved in school administration, taking on the role of Dean of the Graduate School in 1953. He continued to serve in that capacity until his departure from Stillwater in 1964. From 1957 he also served as Vice President for Academic Affairs.
In 1968, MacVicar was named Chancellor of Southern Illinois University, located in the town of Carbondale in the state's downstate coal mining country. MacVicar remained there until 1970, when he came west to Corvallis, Oregon to assume a post as the 15th President of Oregon State University.
MacVicar remained as head of Oregon State until his retirement in 1984, during which time the campus was expanded with the addition of 23 new buildings. Under MacVicar's watch the total number of faculty at OSU expanded from 1,766 to 2,247, while the school's budget tripled.
After his retirement, he was named Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and President Emeritus, Special Assistant to the Chancellor. He also served as Acting President of the College of Ganado, a small college in Arizona, for seven months in 1985.
Death and legacy
Following his retirement, MacVicar was awarded the title Professor Emeritus of Chemistry as well as President Emeritus and Special Assistant to the Chancellor. MacVicar remained active in the Corvallis community and put his networking skills to use establishing a fund-raising program on behalf of the College of Ganado, located on a Navajo reservation in northeastern Arizona.
Robert MacVicar died on December 26, 1998. He was 80 years old at the time of his death.
Over the course of his career, MacVicar published over 135 papers, reports and articles. His papers are held by Oregon State University Archives in Corvallis.