In honor of Duke’s Centennial, The Chronicle is highlighting pivotal figures and events throughout the University’s history. Here, we take a look at Duke’s presidents:
From long before its founding in 1924, Duke’s administrative policies and sense of collective identity have been powerfully shaped by the vision of its many leaders over the years.
To commemorate the University’s hundred-year milestone, The Chronicle is looking back on Duke’s presidents — each of whom guided the Blue Devil community through times of crisis and celebration, charting a distinct course toward the internationally acclaimed institution that stands today.
In the third installment, we review the final five presidents who have shaped the modern institution’s educational trajectory and global reputation, taking the University into a new age of innovation and international prestige.
Terry Sanford, 1970-1985
Following President Douglas Knight’s resignation in 1969, the University was led for a year by Provost Marcus Hobbs, Chancellor Barnes Woodhall and Charles Huestis, vice president for business and finance.
On Dec. 13, 1969, James Terry Sanford was elected Duke’s sixth president. He officially began his term as the school’s eleventh leader in April 1970 and was inaugurated in October of the same year.
A lifelong North Carolinian, Sanford was born around 100 miles south of Durham in the city of Laurinburg in 1917. He attended Laurinburg High School, Presbyterian Junior College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1939.
Sanford then enrolled in UNC’s School of Law, taking a hiatus shortly after in December 1941 to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
On the first anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Sanford enlisted in the Army. He served as a first lieutenant in the 501st and 517th Parachute Infantry Regiments during World War II and saw combat in Italy, France and Belgium. He later received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his bravery.
Returning to North Carolina, he became president of the Young Democratic Club and was later elected to the North Carolina state Senate in 1953, serving a two-year term representing the 10th district. He also acted as campaign manager for former governor W. Kerr Scott’s successful U.S. Senate bid in 1954.
After his stint in the state Senate, Sanford set his sights on the governorship, being elected to in 1960 and serving a single term from 1961 to 1965.
Sanford was a strong advocate for education during his time in office. He unveiled plans for a “Quality Education Program” soon after being inaugurated, which increased teacher salaries and appropriated funds for building new schools, but also faced backlash for raising taxes. Sanford is credited with the establishment of several UNC system schools, the North Carolina Community College System and the North Carolina School of the Arts.
He also secured $70 million in funds for the Research Triangle Park — which became a major stimulant for the state’s economy — and established the North Carolina Fund, an antipoverty program that provided job training and other employment support through volunteer initiatives and millions of dollars in funding.
Sanford was viewed as a strong proponent of racial justice, appointing several Black government officials, directing the State Highway Patrol to track Freedom Rider buses and protect their occupants, and becoming the first Southern governor to call for an end to discrimination in hiring practices.
After his gubernatorial term concluded, Sanford returned to his legal practice for a few years before being appointed president of Duke.
Sanford assumed the role at a tumultuous time in the nation’s history, as racial tensions were at a high following the Allen Building Takeover that prompted his predecessor’s resignation and the Vietnam War that sparked discontent among students and faculty. The University also faced a federal lawsuit for underpaying employees, various union threats and accusations of being “a slumlord” after accepting a gift of “substandard” housing — all the while suffering from its first budget deficit.
But Sanford took these challenges in stride, and his tenure was ultimately viewed as one of the most successful in University history.
The new president immediately worked to make a favorable impression on the student body, proposing to raise $1 million for the construction of a student union and later supporting the institution of a regular election process for the Young Trustee position.
As opposition to the Vietnam War grew on campus, Sanford was outspoken in his support of the students’ right to demonstrate but took a personal role in mediating campus disputes.
“I’m going to be a strong president, not high-handed, arbitrary or dictatorial, but I’m going to have to be the final referee between all points of view,” he said. “… I did not come here to have any part in the downfall of Duke University, and I don’t intend to let the University be torn apart.”
In 1971, he named Joel Fleishman the inaugural director of the new Institute for Policy Sciences and Public Affairs. The Institute was named after Sanford in 1992 and later became the Sanford School of Public Policy in 2009.
Sanford oversaw the merger of Trinity College and the Women’s College in 1972, as well as the opening of the Graduate School of Business Administration in 1970 and its renaming to the Fuqua School of Business in 1980.
He also spearheaded two major fundraising efforts: the Epoch Campaign, which launched in 1972 with a goal of $162 million, and the $200 million Capital Campaign for the Arts & Sciences in 1984.
In 1984, Sanford sent his infamous “Avuncular Letter” to Duke’s undergraduates gently chiding them for “resorting to the use of obscenities in cheers and chants” at men’s basketball games after the Cameron Crazies were reviled in the national press for reportedly taking their taunts too far.
“I don’t think we need to be crude and obscene to be effectively enthusiastic. We can cheer and taunt with style; that should be the Duke trademark … I hate for us to have the reputation of being stupid,” Sanford wrote, signing the missive “Uncle Terry.”
Sanford famously ran for U.S. president twice during his tenure as Duke’s leader, first in 1972 and again in 1976, but did not receive the Democratic nomination either time.
Sanford retired as scheduled in the summer of 1985. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, where he represented North Carolina until 1993.
Sanford returned to Duke to teach until his death in 1998. Upon learning about his death, President Bill Clinton released a statement lauding his distinguished career and commitment to service.
“He stood for civil rights, education for all and progressive economic development,” Clinton said. “His work and his influence literally changed the face and future of the South, making him one of the most influential Americans of the last 50 years.”
Sanford was interred in the Duke Chapel, and his body lies in its Memorial Chapel and Crypt.
H. Keith Brodie, 1985-1993
Keith Brodie, the University’s seventh president, is often credited with overseeing Duke’s “rise to national recognition and reputation” during his eight years at the University’s helm.
Brodie was born Aug. 24, 1939, in Stamford, Connecticut. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Princeton University and a medical degree from Columbia University before completing his residency in New Orleans and accepting a teaching position at Stanford University.
In 1974, Brodie moved to Durham to become chair of Duke’s department of psychiatry and James B. Duke professor of psychiatry. Eight years later, he became chancellor of the University while also serving as president of the American Psychiatric Association in his first year.
Brodie was selected by the Board of Trustees to become president in December 1984, assuming the position July 1 of the following year. He was formally inaugurated Sept. 28, 1985.
In 1988, Brodie supported the Academic Council vote in favor of the Black Faculty Initiative, which was designed to increase the number of Black faculty members at the University, as well as a new Program for Preparing Minorities for Academic Careers.
Duke saw a significant increase in applications to its undergraduate and graduate schools during Brodie’s years in office, during which he promoted increased faculty participation in University governance by establishing the President’s Advisory Council on Resources.
Throughout his tenure, the University opened several new research centers and medical facilities, including the School of the Environment in 1991 — which combined the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with the Duke University Marine Lab — and the Levine Science Research Center, completed in 1994.
The Blue Devils also rose to national acclaim outside of the classroom, with men’s soccer securing its first national championship in 1986 and men’s basketball winning its first two in 1991 and 1992.
Brodie left office in 1993, remaining at Duke to teach and continue his clinical practice. He received numerous accolades for his contributions to the field of psychiatry, including the Society of Biological Psychiatry’s A.E. Bennett Research Award, the psychopharmacology prize of the American Psychological Association and the Edward A. Streck Award of the Pennsylvania Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Brodie died Dec. 2, 2016 at age 77. He was remembered by many for his “guidance, wisdom, compassion and, most importantly, his deeply felt friendship” and was celebrated by then-men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski as “the best man [he’s] ever known at Duke.”
Nannerl Keohane, 1993-2004
Nannerl “Nan” Keohane succeeded Brodie in 1993 as the University’s eighth and only female president to date.
Keohane was born in 1940 in Blytheville, Arkansas. She received a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College in 1961, a master’s degree from Oxford University in 1963 and a Doctor of Political Science from Yale University in 1967.
Keohane held teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College and Stanford before returning to Wellesley in 1981 as both a professor of political science and president of the college. There, she led “the largest fundraising drive in the history of American private colleges” and oversaw increased minority faculty hiring and student enrollment.
She left Wellesley after 12 years as president, coming to Duke in 1993. The Board’s selection of Keohane raised eyebrows, as she would be only the third woman in the nation to lead a major research university. Nevertheless, she assumed the position July 1.
Keohane made waves early on with a plan to revolutionize housing and residential life at Duke, proposing in 1994 that all first-years be housed on East Campus. The change was adopted in fall 1995 and soon became a model for other campuses.
Keohane continued to demonstrate her fundraising prowess, spearheading a $2.36 billion campaign from June 1995 to 2003 that became the fifth-largest in the history of American higher education.
Keohane oversaw the creation of a number of initiatives directed at expanding educational opportunities and the University’s positive impact on the surrounding community, including the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, the Bass Society professorships, the University Scholars Program and the Robertson Scholars Program between Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Duke explored “what it means to be an international university” under Keohane’s leadership, with the creation of new study abroad opportunities and increased international applicants to all its undergraduate and professional schools.
Notably, Keohane oversaw the creation of the Duke University Health System in 1998, which increased Duke’s footprint in the Triangle through partnerships between the Durham Regional Hospital, Raleigh Community Hospital and other regional health care centers. Duke also established the Duke Clinical Research Institute in 1996 and the Children’s Health Center in 2000.
Keohane also spearheaded numerous policy changes to improve inclusivity on campus.
In 1995, she directed the University’s human resources department to offer same-sex partner benefits, making Duke the first major university in the South to do so. Duke Chapel later hosted its first same-sex marriage in 2000. That same year, Keohane established the Office of the Vice President for Institutional Equity, now the Office for Institutional Equity.
In 2002, she formed the Steering Committee of the Women’s Initiative to investigate the experiences of female faculty, staff, students, alumni and trustees. The initiative issued its final report in August 2003, which identified a widely felt pressure to live up to standards of “effortless perfection.” The report’s findings led to new efforts to support women on campus, including the establishment of the Alice M. Baldwin Scholars Program in 2004.
Keohane completed her term in 2004 after two decades of service to the University.
The Nannerl Keohane Visiting Professorship was established in 2004 in honor of the “unprecedented level of collaboration she and former UNC Chancellor James Moeser facilitated” between the two institutions. Recipients teach at both institutions for a one-year period.
Keohane was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1995 and has received numerous other accolades, including the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement and the Marshall Medal, presented by then-Prince Charles.
She currently serves on the board of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and chairs the Visiting Committee for Harvard College.
Richard Brodhead, 2004-2017
Keohane’s successor, Richard Brodhead, was born April 17, 1947, in Dayton, Ohio. He moved to Connecticut with his parents at age 6 but left at age 13 to attend Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
At age 15, Brodhead decided he wanted to become a teacher. He enrolled in Yale University as an undergraduate and remained there to receive his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate.
Upon graduation, Brodhead joined Yale’s faculty as the A. Bartlett Giametti professor of English and American studies. He eventually assumed the position of dean of Yale College, which he held for 11 years.
He left Yale in 2004 after four decades to accept Duke’s presidency, beginning July 1 and being formally inaugurated Sept. 18.
One of Brodhead’s first major acts as president was to establish the Financial Aid Initiative in 2005, which aimed to raise $300 million over three years to strengthen Duke’s financial aid programs, including $245 million for undergraduates and $55 million for graduate and professional students. The program ultimately raised over $308 million.
Less than two years after Brodhead assumed office, the University was thrust into the national spotlight when three members of the men’s lacrosse team were accused of sexual assault in spring 2006. Though they were ultimately all found innocent in an April 2007 decision from then-N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, the case rocked the nation and made Duke’s campus a hotbed of largely negative media attention.
Before the legal verdict was reached, Brodhead released a number of statements to the Duke community and broader interest groups addressing the scandal. In April 2006, he announced a number of action steps, including an investigation of the men’s lacrosse team, a presidential council to review administrative response and an initiative to improve campus culture, among others.
In a legal conference months after the ultimate ruling, Brodhead apologized to the accused students and their families for not “reach[ing] out … in this time of extraordinary peril.”
“When I think back through the whole complex history of this episode, the scariest thing, to me, is that actual human lives were at the mercy of so much instant moral certainty, before the facts had been established,” Brodhead said. “If there's one lesson the world should take from the Duke lacrosse case, it's the danger of prejudgment and our need to defend against it at every turn.”
Much of Brodhead’s tenure was dedicated to growing the University’s global impact, and he pursued a number of initiatives to expand Duke’s international footprint.
In 2005, he oversaw a partnership between Duke and the National University of Singapore to establish the Duke-NUS Medical School, the only graduate-entry medical school in Singapore. In fall 2014, Duke Kunshan University opened its doors in Jiangsu, China, as the result of a 2013 partnership between Duke and Wuhan University.
DukeEngage also launched during Brodhead’s time in office, accepting its first cohort of 89 students in 2007 to serve communities in the U.S., Kenya, Yemen, Tanzania and India. The program continues to offer international service opportunities to Duke undergraduates today.
The former president led the University through health care research advances, with the establishment of the Duke Global Health Institute in 2006 and the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy in 2016. He also prioritized interdisciplinary studies, overseeing the creation of the Bass Connections research program in 2013 through the support of a $50 million gift from Anne and Robert Bass, Fuqua ‘99.
In July 2010, Brodhead announced the Duke Forward fundraising campaign, which raised more than $3.85 billion for the University over seven years.
Duke also dedicated over $1 billion to campus construction during Brodhead’s tenure, including renovations to Baldwin and Page Auditoriums, the Chapel, Rubenstein Library and the West Union, which was renamed the Richard H. Brodhead Center for Campus Life in 2016 in his honor.
He also invested in the University’s relationship with its home city of Durham, creating the Office of Durham and Regional Affairs — now the Office of Durham and Community Affairs — to support economic development, affordable homeownership and education in the area.
In 2013, he received the Carnegie Corporation’s Academic Leadership Award, which included a $500,000 prize to be invested in academic initiatives on Duke’s campus.
Brodhead stepped down from the presidency in 2017 after 13 years at the University’s helm.
“When I first came to Duke, I encountered a school that was clearly in the top rank of universities but that had a distinctive spirit within this group,” Brodhead wrote in a message to the Duke community following the announcement. “Duke has an unusually strong sense of community, and what binds people together is a vision that Duke is still being created, still reaching for the further thing it could become … It is Duke’s nature to keep pressing to live up to its highest potential, and we have made striking progress in the past 12 years.”
He taught as the William Preston Few professor of English throughout his time in office, and he remains on faculty as the William Preston Few distinguished professor emeritus.
Vincent Price, 2017 to present
Vincent Price became Duke’s tenth president and 15th leader in 2017 following a long career as a communications scholar and university administrator.
Hailing from southern California, Price graduated from Santa Clara University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, later serving as assistant director of admissions and adjunct lecturer at his alma mater. He then attended Stanford, where he received his master’s degree and doctorate in communication in 1985 and 1987, respectively.
Upon graduating, Price taught communication at the University of Michigan, progressing from assistant professor in 1987 to associate chair in 1991 and finally chair of the department in 1995.
In 1992, he published “Public Opinion,” which was praised for its insightful summary of much of the existing literature in the discipline. The book has since been translated into five other languages and incorporated into communications curricula worldwide.
Price left UMich in 1998, joining the University of Pennsylvania as an associate professor in the Annenberg School for Communication. He later received a secondary appointment in the School of Arts of Sciences’ political science department. He took on the position of associate dean for undergraduate studies for the Annenberg School in 2005, remaining in the role for two years.
He continued his research at UPenn, which largely focused on how online discussion, political polls and TV news coverage have shaped public knowledge and political opinions. He has also edited for multiple academic publications, most notably serving as editor-in-chief of Public Opinion Quarterly from 1998 to 2002.
Meanwhile, Price rose in the administrative ranks, becoming associate provost for faculty affairs in 2007, then interim provost in 2009. He was named provost later that year, holding the title until he left the university in 2017. He continued to teach, serving as Steven H. Chaffee professor of communication and political science from 2004 to 2017.
Price was elected to Duke’s presidency by the Board of Trustees in December 2016, lauded by Vice-Chair Jack Bovender as “a transformative scholar, a dedicated educator and an experienced executive.”
Price officially assumed the position in July 2017 and was inaugurated Oct. 5, also becoming the Walter Hines Page professor of public policy and political science.
His strategic vision for the University is built on five pillars: empowering thinkers, transforming teaching and learning, strengthening campus community, forging partnerships and engaging a global network.
Price oversaw the launch of DKU’s undergraduate program, which welcomed its inaugural class of 262 students in 2018.
He saw the University through the COVID-19 pandemic, ending in person classes March 10, 2020, and moving instruction online beginning March 23. Students were compelled to leave residential facilities by March 15, though some requested to remain on campus for “personal health and safety” reasons.
Fall 2020 classes were offered as a mix of in person, hybrid and virtual models, a practice that continued through spring 2021. Many campus facilities were modified to promote social distancing, with campus dining halls closed for months and plexiglass barriers installed in Marketplace.
In person classes resumed fully in fall 2021, though University administration received backlash from workers who claimed they were not consulted in the decision to reopen campus and raised concerns about being “forced back to work with little concern for their health and safety.” DKU held online classes as late as fall 2023 despite all students having returned to campus.
Price also saw an overhaul of the University’s housing system, launching the QuadEx residential model in fall 2022. The new program connects first-year dorms on East Campus with West Campus quads to provide students with a continuous residential experience and strengthen community.
Duke is celebrating its Centennial year under Price’s leadership in 2024, and the University received a $100 million gift from the Duke Endowment and a Congressional Resolution to mark the occasion. Duke is holding a series of events throughout the year which include lectures, concerts, sporting events and more.
To read about the University’s first 10 leaders, see the first and second installments of The Chronicle’s Centennial Presidents series.
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Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.