Hutchins, Robert Maynard, 1899–1977, American educator, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied at Oberlin College, grad. Yale, 1921, taught in the Yale law school (1925–27), and served as dean (1927–29). He became president of the Univ. of Chicago in 1929 at the age of 30 and held that position until 1945; he served as chancellor there from 1945 until 1951. After 1943 he was chairman of the board of editors for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. An enthusiast for adult education, he received in 1946 a year's leave of absence to promote the “great books” program. He was associate director of the Ford Foundation from 1951 to 1954, when he became president of the Fund for the Republic, and later founder and president of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Calif. From 1969 to 1974 he was chairman of the board. His books include The Higher Learning in America (1936), Education for Freedom (1943), The Conflict in Education in a Democratic Society (1953), and The Learning Society (1968).
See biography by H. S. Ashmore (1989).
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