Robert Hess (college president)

Robert Lee Hess (December 18, 1932 – January 12, 1992) was an American scholar of African history, and the sixth President of Brooklyn College.[1][2]

Robert Lee Hess
Born	(1932-12-18)December 18, 1932 Asbury Park, New Jersey, US
Died	January 12, 1992(1992-01-12) (aged 59) Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York City, US
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Yale University (B.A., 1954, M.A., 1955, and Ph.D., 1960) University of Rome
Known for	sixth President of Brooklyn College
Notable work	Italian Colonialism in Somalia Ethiopia: the Modernization of Autocracy
Term	1979–1992
Predecessor	John Kneller
Successor	Vernon Lattin
Spouse(s)	Frances H. Aaron ( m. 1960)
Children	4
Parents	Henry Hess (father) Ada Davis (mother)

Personal life

Hess was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, to Henry and Ada (Davis) Hess.[1][3] He attended Yale University, where he earned his B.A. (1954, magna cum laude), M.A. (1955), and Ph.D. (1960) degrees, studying African history.[4][5][1]

He was a resident of Brooklyn.[5] Hess was married to Frances H. Aaron in 1960, and had four children.[1][5] Hess died January 12, 1992, in Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York of lymphoma.[5]

Academic career

He taught from 1958 to 1961 at Carnegie Institute of Technology, from 1961–62 and 1963–64 at Mount Holyoke College, from 1962–63 at Boston University, and from 1961 to 1964 at Northwestern University.[5][1]

From 1966 to 1979, Hess taught history at the University of Illinois at Chicago.[5][1] In 1966, he was appointed an associate professor and promoted to full professor in 1971.[1] At Chicago he served as Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and, beginning in 1972 Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.[4][5][1]

Hess was the sixth president of Brooklyn College, from 1979 until 1992.[4][5][1] In a 1988 survey of thousands of academic deans, the college ranked 5th in the United States in providing students with a strong general education.[5] Brooklyn College was the only college in the top five in the survey that was a public institution.[5][1] While Brooklyn College was referred to as “the poor man’s Harvard,” Hess quipped: “I like to think of Harvard as the rich man’s Brooklyn College.”[6]

The Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program was established by Brooklyn College, and is supported by the Robert L. Hess Fund.[7] I Scholars in residence have included Vartan Gregorian, James S. Langer, Daniel Miller, Robin D. G. Kelley, Agnieszka Holland, Marc Shell, Sean Wilentz, Thomas Frank, and Edwidge Danticat.[7]

Hess wrote several books and many articles on 19th century Africa, the Horn of Africa, and colonialism.[4][5] Among them were Ethiopia: the Modernization of Autocracy (considered by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries to be one of the ten best books on Africa), A bibliography of the primary sources for nineteenth century tropical African history, as recorded by explorers, missionaries, traders, travelers, administrators, military men, and adventurers (1965), Italian Colonialism in Somalia (1966), Patrick Gilkes, the Dying Lion: Feudalism and Modernization in Ethiopia (1977), and Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa (1978).[8][4][1][9][10][11][12]

Honors

He received both a Fulbright Fellowship (1956–1958 at the University of Rome in Italy) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1968–69).[4][5][1] He received honorary degrees from: .[4]

References

1. Ohles, Frederik; Ohles, Shirley G.; Ohles, Shirley M.; Ramsay, John G. (1997). Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 157 – via Internet Archive. robert hess brooklyn college.
2. LaBatto, Marianne. "LibGuides Home: Exhibitions: On Display". libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu.
3. Davis, Tina; Resnick-Ault, Jessica (2015). Hess: The Last Oil Baron. John Wiley & Sons – via Google Books.
4. "Obituaries".
5. Heise, Kenan. "EDUCATOR ROBERT HESS; GUIDED BROOKLYN COLLEGE". Chicago Tribune.
6. "Brooklyn College". www.collegeatlas.org.
7. "Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program - Brooklyn College". www.brooklyn.cuny.edu.
8. Hess, Robert L. (1966). Italian Colonialism in Somalia. University of Chicago Press – via Google Books.
9. Hess, Robert L. (1965). A bibliography of the primary sources for nineteenth century tropical African history, as recorded by explorers, missionaries, traders, travelers, administrators, military men, and adventurers – via Google Books.
10. Hess, Robert L. (1978). Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Hess – via Google Books.
11. Hess, Robert L. (1966). Italian Colonialism in Somalia. University of Chicago Press – via Google Books.
12. Hess, Robert L. (1977). Patrick Gilkes, the Dying Lion: Feudalism and Modernization in Ethiopia. Africana Publishing Company; New York, St. Martin's Press: London, Julian Friedman: Xix, 307 Pp – via Google Books.

Preceded by John Kneller	President of Brooklyn College 1979–1992	Succeeded by Vernon Lattin