Dr. Charles Chester McCracken, 6th President of the University of Connecticut

On September 1, 1930, Connecticut Agricultural College welcomed Dr. Charles Chester McCracken as President.  A former professor of school administration at Ohio State University, McCracken led the small agricultural institution through the tumultous early years of the Great Depression.  Although he was not a successful administrator, McCracken presided over the accreditation of the college in 1930 by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the introduction of courses of study leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree (1933), and the renaming of the institution to Connecticut State College (1933).  McCracken resigned in 1935 to accept the position of educational counselor for the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church.  In accepting McCracken’s resignation, Governor Wilbur Cross stated that McCracken “will now be able to devote his whole attention to educational problems without the worry of finances or the details in the administration of a college.”  Additional information regarding Dr. McCracken’s tenure as President is available in the University Archives and in Red Brick in the Land of Steady Habits, a narrative history of the University of Connecticut by Dr. Bruce Stave published in 2006.