WESLEY W. POSVAR, THE 15TH CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, DIES AT AGE 75

July 28, 2001

PITTSBURGH—Wesley Wentz Posvar—who, as the 15th Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, has been credited with bringing Pitt from the brink of financial collapse to renown as one of the nation's leading academic research institutions—was stricken while swimming in Ligonier, Pa., yesterday, and died shortly thereafter of sudden cardiac death enroute to Latrobe (Pa.) Hospital, outside of Pittsburgh. Also a Brigadier General in the United States Air Force, he was 75.

Posvar was named Pitt's Chancellor in 1967, inheriting a university significantly in debt; by 1976 he had retired the debt and took the University to greater heights than it had ever known before. By the time of his retirement, in 1991, the University's operating funds increased seven-fold, from $90 million in FY1968 to $630 million in FY1990; the University's endowment increased three-fold, from $81 million to $257 million; and Pitt was elected to membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU), a select group of the top research universities in the nation.

A number of new academic units were created during Posvar's tenure, including the Honors College, the School of Health-Related Professions, the University Center for International Studies, the Center for Philosophy of Science, and the University Center for Social and Urban Research. At the time of his retirement, he was the longest continuously serving president among the AAU member institutions.

"Wes Posvar was an extraordinary university leader, an absolutely devoted champion of Western Pennsylvania, and a warm and caring human being," said current Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. "He will be sorely missed by his many friends and admirers all over the world. But his passing will be marked with particular sorrow within the University of Pittsburgh family.

"During his tenure as Pitt's Chancellor, Dr. Posvar took an institution on the verge of

bankruptcy and led it to a position of leadership among American universities," Chancellor Nordenberg continued. " Among other things, he always will be remembered for his contributions to the advancement of medical research and for his early recognition of the importance of international studies. He was known, more broadly, for his overarching commitment to excellence in all academic disciplines.

"Wes Posvar also believed in this region and worked effectively to advance it through a period of difficult economic transformation," Chancellor Nordenberg added. "His leadership as an educator, his visionary investments in the research enterprise, and his support of the arts all contributed to a better, stronger, more vibrant Western Pennsylvania."

Posvar also was the founding chairman both of the Federal Emergency Management Advisory Board, where he served for 12 years, and the National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology, where he served as a principal advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He headed a special commission on the West Point Honor Code, and he served as an advisor to the government on foreign intelligence, civil aviation, and national emergency telecommunications, for each of which he led special analytical studies and reports.

Posvar had been president of the World Society for Ekistics (the study of human settlements), headquartered in Athens, Greece. He was the initiator, founding chairman, and a trustee of the Prague-based Czech Management Center, a postgraduate business school. He was a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the U.S. Space Foundation, and he was one of the founders and president of the International Studies Association, made up of university professors worldwide. In addition, he was an advisor and director of many mutual funds associated with Federated Investors, Inc., as well as an advisory trustee of the Rand Corporation, a director of Eastern Air Lines, and an advisory director of Volvo AG. He had long served on the boards of various cultural and economic development organizations.

Wesley Wentz Posvar, the son of a newspaperman, was born in Topeka, Kansas, on September 14, 1925, and reared in Cleveland, Ohio. He was graduated first in his class from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1946, achieving one of the highest averages in the academy's history in the largest class (875 men) ever graduated from that institution. His B.S. degree in engineering was the first of five academic degrees he was to earn.

Posvar was an aircraft project officer and fighter aircraft test pilot at the Air Force Proving Grounds in Florida from 1946 to 1948 and became a command pilot

licensed to fly 27 different types of aircraft. He was the first Air Force officer to win a Rhodes Scholarship, earning the B.A. and M.A. degrees at Oxford University (1948-51) in philosophy, politics, and economics. He spent a midterm two-week vacation as co-pilot of a C-54 in the Berlin Airlift.

Posvar's first teaching post was as an assistant professor of social sciences at West Point from 1951 to 1954, and he served as a member of the Long-Range Objectives and Program Group for the Directorate of Plans at Air Force headquarters in Washington. He became a professor of political science at the Air Force Academy in 1957 at age 32—the youngest full professor at any of the service academies—and was later appointed chairman of the Division of Social Sciences, the youngest division head in the history of the Academy. He still held these positions in December 1966, shortly before he was to become Chancellor of Pitt. In 1980, an endowed chair was established in his name at the Air Force Academy.

Posvar was a Littauer Fellow in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Harvard University from 1962 to 1964, earning the M.P.A. degree and a Ph.D. in political science. His doctoral dissertation was on the effect of military expertise on national defense policy in the United States. He then served a tour of duty in the Southeast Asian Theater in 1965 as a consultant to various government planning agencies in the areas of political-military relations and economic development. He was editor of the book "American Defense Policy" (1964) and a contributor to numerous journals, among them Orbis, Worldview, and Public Policy.

In May 2000, Pitt named its largest campus classroom building Wesley Posvar Hall, which houses the School of Education, the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, the University Center for International Studies, the Social Sciences departments, and the undergraduate College of Business Administration.

At the time of the dedication of Posvar Hall, J.W. Connolly, then chair of Pitt's Board of Trustees, said that it would be hard to identify many individuals who had had a greater positive impact on the University than Posvar. "His talent and vision contributed in large measure to the development of the University into one of the world's preeminent centers of academic medicine and research," Connolly said.

Posvar is survived by his wife of 51 years, internationally renowned opera and concert mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller, formerly a starring artist at the Metropolitan, Vienna State, Berlin, Stuttgart, and San Francisco opera houses, whom he met when both were students at West High School in Cleveland; their three children, Wesley William Posvar, Marina Green, and Lisa Rossi, all of the greater Pittsburgh area; seven grandsons, Wesley Fishwick Posvar, Winston Blair Posvar, Brian Benjamin Green, Derek Wentz Green, Christopher Posvar Rossi, Nicholas William Rossi, and Gian Marco Rossi; and a half-brother, Jan Posvar, of New York City.

Visitation hours will be 7-9 p.m. Sunday and 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Monday at Samson Funeral Home, 537 N. Neville St., in Oakland. A funeral service will take place at

11 a.m. Tuesday at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave., in Shadyside. Telephone 412/621-2800 for further information on visitation hours.

A Pitt campus memorial service will be held at a date and location to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made either to the University of Pittsburgh Honors College or the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

NOTE: The biographical section on Pages 2 and 3 of this release was taken from "Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh, 1787-1987," by Robert C. Alberts, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

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