William Harding Mayes was Lieutenant Governor of the U.S. state of Texas (1913-1914), a newspaperman who published the Brownwood Bulletin and founder of the University of Texas journalism school.

Charles Boynton “Chuck” Knapp was President of the University of Georgia from 1987 until 1997. He then served on the Board of Trustees and is as the Dean of the Universities College of Business.

Upon leaving UGA, Knapp became president of the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. and joined Heidrick & Struggles as a partner in their higher education practice. He also was appointed to the American Council on Education and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

Construction projects totaling more than $400 million were started during his administration, including the Biological Sciences Complex (1992), Ramsey Student Center for Physical Activities (1995), the Performing Arts Center, Hodgson Hall (1996), the music building (1996), the Georgia Museum of Art (1996), Rusk Hall (1996), and the UGA Welcome Center (1996).

Knapp was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award by the Iowa State University Alumni Association in 1994. In 2004, Knapp was named president emeritus of UGA by the Georgia Board of Regents.

In 2005, Knapp joined UGA’s Institute of Higher Education as a part-time Distinguished Public Service Fellow and professor of economics in The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

Knapp currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia

Robert Conrad Khayat was the 15th Chancellor of the University of Mississippi. He was appointed in 1995. Khayat, a former student of the University of Mississippi, is the only Chancellor of the university to be a member of the Student Hall of Fame there. He has B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Mississippi and a LL.M. degree from Yale University. Khayat played American football in the National Football League as a kicker for the Washington Redskins.

In one of his first acts as chancellor, Dr. Khayat arranged for a $5.4 million gift from Jim and Sally Barksdale to establish an honors college at the university.

In 1996, with enrollment declining, Chancellor Khayat retained the public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, to conduct a survey of public perception – including university symbols. When The New York Times reported on the review, which included the Confederate Flag and other Old South symbols, a media frenzy ensued.

On January 6, 2009, Dr. Khayat announced his retirement effective June 30, 2009. He was succeeded by Dr. Daniel “Dan” Jones on June 15, 2009. Chancellor Khayat’s memoir, The Education of a Lifetime, was published on September 10, 2013.

Vernon Lyman Kellogg was a U.S. entomologist, evolutionary biologist, and science administrator. His father was Lyman Beecher Kellogg, first president of the Kansas State Normal School (now known as Emporia State University), and former Kansas Attorney General. He studied under Francis Snow at the University of Kansas, under John Henry Comstock at Stanford University, and under Rudolf Leuckart at the University of Leipzig in Germany.

From 1894 to 1920 Kellogg was professor of entomology at Stanford University Kellogg specialized in insect taxonomy and economic entomology. Herbert Hoover was among his students, and Florence E. Bemis worked in his lab.

His academic career was interrupted by two years (1915 and 1916) spent in Brussels as director of Hoover’s humanitarian American Commission for Relief in Belgium. Initially a pacifist, Kellogg dined with the officers of the German Supreme Command. He became shocked by the grotesque Social Darwinist motivation for the German war machine – the creed of survival of the fittest based on violent and fatal competitive struggle is the Gospel of the German intellectuals. Kellogg decided these ideas could only be beaten by force and, using his connections with America’s political elite, began to campaign for American intervention in the war. He published an account of his conversations in the book Headquarters Nights.

After the war, he served as the first permanent secretary of the National Research Council in Washington, D.C.. He served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1921-1933. A cargo ship built in the United States during World War II was named SS Vernon L. Kellogg.

Marc Johnson was appointed the 16th president of the University of Nevada, Reno in April 2012.

In April 2011, Johnson, executive vice president and provost of the University of Nevada, Reno since 2008, abruptly became interim president because of the sudden death of the current president.

Johnson effectively led the University through a final series of budget reductions, while helping the university continue to excel at record levels. Milestones during that year included: Record enrollment of 18,004 students in fall 2011; record number of National Merit Scholars on campus; record graduate rate, record faculty productivity levels, and being classified among the nation’s top 100 public universities as a “Tier I” institution by U.S. News & World Report.

At a time when the wheels could have easily come off the 138-year-old institution, Johnson provided continuity and stability.

Johnson grew up on a farm/orchard south of Wichita, Kansas, where he, along with his brother, Scott, were in charge of operations related to the family’s business. Operations included growing everything from wheat, sorghum and soybeans, to peaches, apples, pears, cherries, strawberries, sometimes sweet corn and tomatoes, as well as selling local produce from neighboring farms from the Johnson family country store.

Frederick Hovde was elected to a Rhodes Scholarship and spent three years at Oxford University where he received two degrees in chemistry. While at Oxford, he was a member of the varsity rugby football team and in 1931 he became the third American in history to win his Oxford blue in the annual Oxford-Cambridge rugby union match. Frederick Hovde became the President of Purdue University in 1946 and remained President until his retirement in 1971. While Frederick was President the student body quadrupled and over 80,000 students graduated.

It was also during this time that Purdue established the schools of industrial engineering, materials engineering, technology, and veterinary medicine.

While at Purdue, he served on numerous government boards on scientific research, including military research. He also served as a member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy, Board of Visitors to the Air University, Air Training Command Advisory Board, Board of Consultants to the National War College, and Board of Visitors to the United States Air Force Academy. In 1961, he served as chairman of the President-Elect’s Task Force Committee on Education. From 1970 to 1973, he served on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Hovde served as President of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (1953-1954), as vice chairman of the American Council on Education (1955-1956), and a member of the President’s Committee on Education Beyond High School (1956-1957).

After his retirement in, Frederick was named President Emeritus of Purdue.

Joel Henry Hildebrand was an American educator and a pioneer chemist. He was a major figure in chemistry research specializing in liquids and nonelectrolyte solutions.

The Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, SJ, PhD, is the 25th president of Creighton University. A Nebraska native, Fr. Hendrickson earned his BA in psychology and theology from Marquette University in 1993 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1994. He received his MA in philosophical resources from Fordham University, a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, and MA and PhD degrees from Columbia University.

Fr. Hendrickson’s first contact with Creighton was as a student in the Jesuit Humanities Program in 1996. He returned as an adjunct instructor of philosophy from 2000 to 2003. He also served as an adjunct professor with Creighton’s Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC) program in Santiago, Dominican Republic, in 2002. Fr. Hendrickson was a visiting instructor at Jordan University College in Morogoro, Tanzania, and an adjunct professor of philosophy at Fordham University.

In 2012, he returned to Marquette University as associate vice president in the Office of the Executive Vice President, working closely with the president, provost and academic deans. He then became an associate provost for academic initiatives at Marquette. He was elected to the Creighton Board of Trustees in 2013 and also serves on the boards of Boston College and Xavier University.

Fr. Hendrickson has a special interest in education with a global perspective. His international travel and immersion experiences have taken him to some 23 countries on nearly every continent.

Fr. Hendrickson, who grew up in Fremont, Neb., and graduated from Mount Michael Benedictine High School in Elkhorn, Neb., comes from a family of educators. His identical twin, the Rev. D. Scott Hendrickson, SJ, DPhil, is an assistant professor of modern languages at Loyola University Chicago, while his older brother, Ryan Hendrickson, PhD, is a political science professor and interim dean of the Graduate School at Eastern Illinois University.

Steve H. Hanke is a Professor of Applied Economics and Founder and Co-Director of The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. He is a contributor at National Review, a well-known currency reformer, and a currency and commodity trader.

Prof. Hanke served on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, has been an adviser to five foreign heads of state and five foreign cabinet ministers, and held a cabinet-level rank in both Lithuania and Montenegro. He has been awarded seven honorary doctorate degrees and is an Honorary Professor at four foreign institutions. He was President of Toronto Trust Argentina in Buenos Aires in 1995, when it was the world’s best-performing mutual fund. In 1998, he was named one of the twenty-five most influential people in the world by World Trade Magazine. In 2020, Prof. Hanke was named a “Knight of the Order of the Flag” by Albanian President Ilir Meta.

Dr. Thomas Frist, along with his father and friend Jack C. Massey, is the Founder and Chairman of the Hospital Corporation of America. In 1977, he became President of HCA and, in 1987, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. He served as Chairman of the Board in 1994, after the merger with Columbia, and after the merger with HealthTrust Inc. in April 1995, as Vice Chairman. Dr. Frist returned as Chairman and CEO in 1997.

Dr. Frist is a recipient of the Distinguished Graduates of Vanderbilt University Award and in 2012, Dr. Frist was the recipient of the United Way Lifetime Achievement Award.