Cloyd H. Marvin

Cloyd Heck Marvin (August 22, 1889 – April 27, 1969) was the longest serving president of George Washington University, from 1927 to 1959, and the then-youngest American university president from 1922–7 at the University of Arizona. He was a freemason.

Career

Education and early career

Marvin graduated from Riverside High School and studied at Stanford University for two years from 1909 to 1911. He gained degrees from the University of Southern California (A.B.,1915), Harvard University (A.M, 1917, PhD 1920), and the University of New Mexico (honorary L.L.D., 1923). He was a Phi Delta Kappa member. He taught at the University of Southern California as Associate Professor of Commerce and then at the University of Arizona. He was dean at University of California at Los Angeles for three years.

University of Arizona

Marvin became president of the University of Arizona in 1922, at 32 being the youngest American university president. Choosing between building a student union building and a new library in 1924, he chose the latter (now the North Building of the Arizona State Museum). He resigned along with four members of the Board of Regents on January 19, 1927. The American Association of University Professors had criticised Marvin's presidency for the removal of three faculty members, and when one of the ousted men was elected to the Board of Regents, removing his majority on the board, he resigned.

George Washington University

He was elected to succeed William Mather Lewis as President of George Washington University in June 1927 and took office that September. He established a School of Government at the George Washington University in 1928 using $1 million donated by the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite Masons, Southern Jurisdiction, a Masonic lodge.

Cloyd Heck Marvin was the greatest and the worst thing that happened to GW. He built and destroyed; he mended and divided; he left a complicated legacy for his successors.

Andrew Novak, 2004

Under Marvin the number of students doubled and faculty tripled, though over 100 protests were lodged against perceived unfair dismissals. The Research Editor of the GW Hatchet, Andrew Novak, wrote of Marvin's "persecution of liberals among the faculty, his well-documented support of segregation and his constant disregard for the civil liberties of students". Marvin oversaw the admission of the first black students to George Washington University in 1954; he also oversaw the dismissal of an atheist in 1956, stating that "as a matter of policy, we do not have anyone teaching who does not have faith in God."

The Cloyd Heck Marvin Center at George Washington University was named after him in February 1970.

Other work

Marvin was President of the National Parks Association 1933–35, replacing Wallace Attwood and being replaced by William P. Wharton; John Miles wrote that "The record contains little evidence that President Marvin provided much leadership during his tenure".

Marvin was deputy director for research and development in the War Department from September 18, 1946 to August 31, 1947, serving under Major General Henry Aurand, and he was then a Special Advisor to the Secretary of War, September 1947-9. He received the Department of the Army's Award for Exceptional Achievement for this service.

Personal life

Marvin was born in Findlay, Ohio. His parents were Ezekiel Cloyd Marvin, a businessman, and Ida Gertrude Heck.

He initiated into a Masonic lodge in Portland Oregon in 1918. He became a Knight Commander in the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, in 1931. He was a Republican.

After Marvin died in 1969, his widow Dorothy Ellen Betts, who he had married in July 1917, donated $1 million (the result of her investing $20,000 over 13 years) in 1971 for the Cloyd Heck Marvin Student Center and theater. His son Cloyd, a mathematician at Johns Hopkins University, died in June 2011.

References

Further reading

• (Novak was historical research editor of The GW Hatchet, president of the George Washington University Historical Society, and assistant to the University Archivist).

External links

• Marvin, Cloyd Heck and GW Campus and Cloyd Heck Marvin, The George Washington University and Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia
• Cloyd Heck Marvin, Past Presidents, Office of the President, University of Arizona