 Lewis M. Duncan (2004-present)
In March 2004, Lewis M. Duncan, formerly dean of Dartmouth College's
Thayer School and senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Tulsa, was elected as the fourteenth
president of the College. On his appointment, President Duncan
remarked that the coming years are certain to be ones of extraordinary
change, challenge, and opportunity in higher education. He has stated
that the world has never faced greater need for quality liberal
education for a rising generation of citizen leaders and that Rollins
College is exceptionally well positioned to answer this call. For more
about the Office of the President and President Duncan, please visit rollins.edu/president.
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 Rita Bornstein (1990-2004)
Under the leadership of Rita Bornstein, who was previously vice
president of the University of Miami, the College focused on
strengthening its commitment to excellence, innovation, and community. Standards were raised, innovative academic programs were introduced,
and co-curricular activities were developed around themes of leadership
education and civic engagement. In 1997, Rollins reaffirmed its role
as a leader in the national conversation on liberal education, hosting
leading educators for a conference entitled “The Rollins Colloquy –
Toward a Pragmatic Liberal Education: The Curriculum of the
Twenty-First Century.” President Bornstein also oversaw the largest
fundraising effort in Rollins’ history. Widely considered to have
transformed the College, The Campaign For Rollins secured $160.2
million, providing support for academic programs, scholarships, faculty
chairs, and facilities, and significantly strengthening the College’s
financial health. Thanks to the generosity of donors and astute
financial management, the College’s endowment more than quintupled
during Bornstein’s presidency. For more information about President Emerita Rita Bornstein, please visit rollins.edu/president/bornstein.
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 Thaddeus Seymour (1978-1990)
Thaddeus Seymour served previously as dean of Dartmouth College and
president of Wabash College in Indiana. As Rollins celebrated its
centennial, President Seymour defined its goal of providing superior
liberal arts education in a personal and caring environment. During
his administration, Rollins successfully completed a $43.9-million
fundraising campaign that provided facilities and endowment to support
quality improvement and enhanced reputation. During this time, the
faculty also completely reformulated the College’s curriculum, based on
the pioneering work of the well-known educator D.S. Bloom. Students
pursued courses that fulfilled general education requirements in skills
(composition, mathematics, foreign language, and decision-making), the
cognitive area (social, natural, and physical sciences), and the
affective area (arts and literature). The framework of this curriculum
remains in place to this day, although it continues to be refined.
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 Jack B. Critchfield (1969-1978)
Jack B. Critchfield, elected president of Rollins from a position at
the University of Pittsburgh, moved the College in new directions by
establishing programs in environmental and interdisciplinary studies,
graduate and undergraduate programs in criminal justice and
strengthening support from the business community.
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 Hugh F. McKean (1951-1969)
During the administration of Hugh F. McKean, the College developed
the honors degree program for exceptionally well-prepared and qualified
students. He also established graduate programs in education and
business, the former Brevard Campus, and the Hamilton Holt School,
providing evening education programs for nearly 2,000 adults annually. Although President McKean was a student and professor of art, his
administration brought significant advances and general strengthening
of the College programs in business administration, economics, and the
sciences.
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 Paul Wagner (1949-1951)
Paul Wagner’s presidency started off on a high note with the faculty,
students, and staff all approving of him and the energy he brought to
the presidency. As the youngest college president in the country at
the time, national news media embraced his charisma. Following some
difficult administrative decisions and a controversial time in Rollins’
history, Wagner left the presidency.
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 Hamilton Holt (1925-1949)
President Hamilton Holt, a nationally recognized journalist, editor,
and internationalist, brought national visibility to the College in its
middle years, and left a legacy that includes a distinguished tradition
of "experimental" education. During Holt's administration, Rollins
College established the conference plan, which emphasized close
teacher-student contact. Under this plan, teachers and students shared
the learning experience around a conference table, an activity that led
students to develop clear standards by which to judge their work. The
College retains aspects of this method, particularly in its program for
first-year students, but not to the exclusion of other significant
approaches to teaching.
The Holt years brought many national figures to campus including Nobel
Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings,
Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, Justice William O. Douglas, and Edward R.
Morrow. Perhaps most notably, in January 1931, Rollins hosted a
Curriculum Conference, with the distinguished educator John Dewey as chairman. The resulting recommendations–which emphasized
"Individualization in Education"–were implemented by Rollins in the
fall of 1931. So provocative were these innovations, that Sinclair
Lewis, in his Stockholm address accepting the Nobel Prize in
literature, listed Rollins as one of only four colleges in the United
States doing the most to encourage creative work in contemporary
literature.
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 William Weir (1924-1925)
William Weir served as president of Pacific College in Oregon from
1922-1925 and brought with him a surprising capacity for strong
leadership. Shortly thereafter, however, Weir fell ill and resigned.
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 Robert Sprague (1923-1924)
Prior to his appointment as president, Robert Sprague served as dean of the College.
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 Calvin H. French (1917-1919)
From 1898 to 1913, Reverend Calvin French served as president of Huron
College in South Dakota, where he practically built the institution
from scratch and secured a substantial endowment. His plan to save
Rollins from financial hardship, however, involved a multi-million
dollar campaign to turn the College into a major university; he
declared that he would resign if the Board rejected his proposal. The
Board accepted his resignation and continued the search for another
president.
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 William Blackman (1902-1915)
William Fremont Blackman was a faculty member at Yale University
when he was called to the Rollins presidency in 1902. During his term
in office, President Blackman faced a national depression and
diminishing enrollment, yet he substantially increased the College's
endowment, added to its facilities, and won the support of the Carnegie
Foundation.
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 George Morgan Ward (1896-1902)
President George Morgan Ward, who later served as pastor of
financier Henry Flagler's chapel in Palm Beach, Florida, guided the
College through the devastating financial times following the citrus
freeze of 1894-1895.
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 Charles Fairchild (1893-1895)
Charles Fairchild was a science professor at both Berea and Oberlin
colleges prior to becoming president of Rollins. Perhaps more
importantly, however, he had served as part-time financial agent at
both colleges. At this time, Rollins was struggling financially to
survive and needed a strong leader who could decrease the deficit and
secure the College’s future.
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 Edward P. Hooker (1885-1892)
The Reverend Edward Payson Hooker arrived in Winter Park in 1883 with
the charge of founding a Congregational Church in the new town.
Following Lucy Cross’ presentation of the need to found a college in
Florida to the Congregational Association, the committee persuaded
Hooker to prepare a paper on the subject of Florida education for the
1884 annual meeting. Following the acceptance of his proposal, the
Reverend became one of five committee members to receive inducements
for the location of the College. When Winter Park won the bid, Reverend
Hooker was named Rollins’ first president.
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