Gray, Hanna Holborn (1930—)

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Gray, Hanna Holborn (1930—)

American educator and president of the University of Chicago from 1978 to 1993. Born Hanna Holborn in Heidelberg, Germany, on October 25, 1930; second child and only daughter of Hajo Holborn (a European historian and educator) and Annemarie (Bettmann) Holborn; immigrated to the United States, 1934; naturalized citizen, 1940; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, A.B., 1950; attended St. Anne's College, Oxford University, as a Fulbright Scholar, 1950–51; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1957; married Charles Montgomery Gray (an educator), on June 19, 1954; no children.

By her own account an "independent, stubborn, and bad-tempered" child, Hanna Holborn Gray was born into a distinguished academic family in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1930. In 1934, after her father was dismissed from his academic post because of his opposition to the Nazi party, the family made their way to the United States, settling in New Haven, Connecticut, where Professor Holborn became a member of the Yale University faculty. As youngsters, Gray and her older brother were strictly disciplined. "We were brought up under all kinds of German theories," she said in an interview with People magazine (October 30, 1978). "We weren't allowed to use pillows, and we had to eat rye bread. White American bread was some kind of unhealthy thing." Although much of Gray's life was restricted, her intellectual pursuits were not, and she took full advantage of the educational opportunities that were offered. At age 15, she entered Bryn Mawr, graduating summa cum laude in 1950. After attending Oxford on a Fulbright scholarship, she entered Radcliffe College to work on her Ph.D, which, after a brief hiatus to teach history at Bryn Mawr (1953–54), she received in 1957. Meanwhile on June 19, 1954, she had married Charles Montgomery Gray, a fellow Harvard graduate student.

Gray's teaching career began at Harvard University, where she was a popular history instructor before quickly advancing to the rank of assistant professor. In 1960, she moved with her husband to Chicago, where he was an associate professor at the University of Chicago. After a year as a research fellow at the Newberry Library, she

also joined the university faculty as an assistant professor of history. By 1964, she had obtained tenure and been promoted to associate professor. During the latter 1960s, in addition to heading up the history department, Gray worked with her husband editing the Journal of Modern History.

In 1972, Gray left the University of Chicago to become the first woman dean of arts and sciences at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a post she held until July 1974, when she returned to New Haven to become the Provost of Yale. She was not only the first woman in that post, but one of only a handful of non-Yale graduates so appointed. Gray brought the university through a major fiscal deficit by judiciously cutting nonessential programs without sacrificing educational excellence. In 1977, when Yale's president Kingman Brewster, Jr. stepped down to become U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, Gray became acting president, and ultimately one of the prime candidates for the presidency. Quite unexpectedly, however, in July 1977, she withdrew from contention to accept the "irresistible invitation" to succeed John T. Wilson as the tenth president of the University of Chicago. The first woman to serve as chief executive officer of a major American coeducational institution, Gray candidly admitted having some qualms about accepting the position, but also felt that her history with the institution would be an invaluable asset.

Gray's major objective was to maintain the university's academic integrity within the framework of the recession-inflation cycle of the 1970s, a goal she achieved through rigorous belt-tightening and sound planning for the future. Part of her strategy was to make the undergraduate college "more visible" and to revise the student-loan program, allowing students to repay their loans over a longer period of time. During her 15-year tenure, Gray, who called herself an "old-fashioned Bryn Mawr feminist," also expanded teaching and administrative opportunities for women. "I'm interested in the goals of equal opportunity in general," she told Paul Galloway in an interview for the Chicago Sun-Times (July 16, 1978). "That includes equal opportunity for women. I'm interested in being sure that people are able, through their own competence, to develop their own independence. These are goals for women, but they are also goals for people. I find it hard to make the distinction."

Gray, who resigned from her position at Chicago in 1993 and returned to a teaching position in the history department, is described by friends and colleagues as a warm and unfailingly cheerful woman who is an avid baseball and football fan. She also has a reputation as an accomplished mimic, and at one time was known for a particularly adept imitation of Henry Kissinger.