Deane Waldo Malott

The son of a banker, Malott was born in Abilene, Kansas and went on to study at the University of Kansas. While at school there, he wrote for the University Daily Kansan and was a brother in the Alpha Nu Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity. He graduated in 1921 with a degree in economics, and he went on to the Harvard Business School. After his 1923 graduation, he worked as an administrator at Harvard until 1929 when he was hired by the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. He returned to Harvard in 1933 as a Professor and then in 1939 he returned to his alma mater to become Chancellor of University of Kansas.^[1] While serving as Chancellor of the university, he helped oversee the transition of a peacetime campus to a wartime one, and enabled KU to train thousands of military personnel.

In 1951, Malott accepted the position of 6th president of Cornell University. His 12-year term as president brought about the era of 'Big Science' at Cornell: in 1961 sponsored research funding came to over $39 million. His term also saw the construction of new campuses for the School of Labor Relations and the Colleges of Engineering and Veterinary Medicine as well as other major facilities, including the Arecibo Observatory and Lynah Rink. Though a social conservative, Malott was publicly very critical of McCarthyism; he saw it as a major threat to academic freedom.

After his retirement from Cornell, he would go on to serve on the boards of B.F. Goodrich, Owens-Corning, and General Mills.

Archives and records

• Deane Waldo Malott papers at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.

• Cornell Presidency: Deane Waldo Malott
• Cornell University Library Presidents Exhibition: Deane Waldo Malott (Presidency; Inauguration)
• Obituary in the Cornell Chronicle

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