Treasurer, The

Treasurer, The, occupies one of Princeton's oldest offices, the first incumbent having been appointed in 1748, a year after the election of the first president. In the eighteenth century and during most of the nineteenth, it was a part-time office, usually held by a trustee, occasionally by a member of the faculty. Beginning in 1885, the following served as treasurers full-time: Edwin C. Osborn, 1885-1901; Henry G. Duffield 1881, 1901-1930; George C. Wintringer 1894, 1930-1941. George A. Brakeley '07, who came to Princeton in 1939 as financial vice president, assumed the office of treasurer also in 1941. Ricardo A. Mestres '31 succeeded Brakeley as treasurer in 1953, and was financial vice president and treasurer from 1959 to 1972. Carl W. Schafer was treasurer from 1972 to 1976 (while Paul B. Firstenberg '55 was financial vice president) and became financial vice president and treasurer in 1976.

The financial vice president and treasurer has oversight, under the president, of the business operations of the University. He has charge, under the trustees committee on finance, of all the Corporation's assets -- funds, stocks, securities, real estate -- and is responsible for preparing the annual budget for approval by the trustees.

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