1 | Name: | Dr. David Pierpont Gardner | |
Institution: | University of Utah & University of California, Berkeley | ||
Year Elected: | 1989 | ||
Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | ||
Subdivision: | 503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors | ||
Residency: | Resident | ||
Living? : | Deceased | ||
Birth Date: | 1933 | ||
Death Date: | January 2, 2024 | ||
For more than 40 years, David Pierpont Gardner has set a standard of excellence for higher education leadership. Nationally recognized as a visionary for his work throughout America's higher education structure, he was most recently Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah, President Emeritus of the University of California and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1983-92, Dr. Gardner served as the 15th president of the now 10-campus University of California system, one of the world's most distinguished centers of higher learning, and during his presidency, he successfully led the university through periods of intense controversy over affirmative action, animal rights, AIDS research, weapons labs and divestment in South Africa. In 1992, he was named president emeritus of the University of California. While serving as president of the University of Utah from 1973-83, Dr. Gardner chaired the U.S. Department of Education's Commission on Excellence in Education, which helped spark a national effort to improve and reform United States schools through its influential report "A Nation at Risk". Prior to his tenure at the University of Utah, Dr. Gardner spent seven years as a faculty member and vice chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara, during a tumultuous era of culture wars, ethnic division and anti-Vietnam-war protests. He is the author of many articles and books on educational policy reform. The latter include The California Oath Controversy; Higher Education and Government: An Uneasy Alliance; and Earning My Degree: Memoirs of an American University President. Dr. Gardner has earned numerous awards for his work, including the California School Board's Research Foundation Hall of Fame Award, the James Bryan Conant Award, and the Fulbright 40th Anniversary Distinguished Fellow Award. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a member of the National Academy of Education, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Gardner received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966. |