Dean, the office of

Dean, the office of, came into being in 1883. Since then deans have proliferated -- all told there have been ten kinds (eight of which have persisted):

Dean of the Faculty 1883
Dean of the Graduate School 1901
Dean of the Departments of Science 1909-1928
Dean of the College 1909
Dean of the School of Engineering 1922
Dean of Freshmen 1925-1943
Dean of the Chapel 1928
Dean of Students (later Dean of Student Affairs) 1954
Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School 1964
Dean of the School of Architecture 1965

The Chairman of the University Research Board (1959), while not called a dean, is accorded rank equivalent to a dean by the trustee bylaws.

The work of deans is arduous and sometimes invidious (President McCosh's word for it), but some forty persons who have been deans have generally shown staying power and devotion. Given their stature, it is remarkable that so few of them have gone on to college or university presidencies -- Luther P. Eisenhart received seven presidential calls during his several deanships, and it is probable that every dean has received at least one call.

Deans are generally held in high regard, and their title considered an honorable one, though Dean McClenahan once announced that he preferred to be called ``mister'' -- having just read in the Times that the police had picked up the dean of New York pickpockets.

To fill its deanships the University has raided the English and physics departments more frequently than any others. Longest terms have been completed by Andrew West (Graduate School), 27 years; Henry B. Fine (Faculty, Departments of Science), 25 years; Christian Gauss (College), 21 years; J. Douglas Brown (Faculty), 21 years; Luther P. Eisenhart (Faculty, Graduate School), 20 years; Arthur M. Greene, Jr. (School of Engineering), 19 years; Robert R. Wicks (Chapel), 19 years.

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From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton University Press (1978).