University of Richmond announces 10th president

The president elect brings with him an impressive list of educational and musical accolades.

February 23, 2015; 1:56 PM • by Trevor Dickerson

The Board of Trustees of the University of Richmond today announced the selection of its 10th president, Ronald Andrew Crutcher.

Crutcher will take office on July 1st, following the retirement of 9th president Edward L. Ayers.

Crutcher is President Emeritus of Wheaton College in Massachussetts. During his tenure as president from 2004-2014, he raised the institution’s profile, increased enrollment and diversity of the student body, created new interdisciplinary faculty positions and new programs in film and new media studies, bioinformatics, neuroscience and business and management and ensured the institution’s financial stability during a challenging economic period for all of higher education.

During that time, Wheaton students also garnered prestigious academic honors including four Truman Scholarships, three Marshall Scholarships, two Goldwater Scholarships and two Rhodes Scholarships. Wheaton also consistently ranked among the top Fulbright Scholarship producers among liberal arts colleges, winning 71 Fulbright scholarships in the 10-year period.

Crutcher’s election concludes an extensive national search. A presidential search committee, co-chaired by Allison P. Weinstein, board of trustees, and George W. Wellde Jr., B’74, trustee emeritus and past rector, included trustees, alumni, faculty, staff and student representatives.

“The Board is thrilled to have Ron Crutcher as the University’s next president,” said Patricia L. Rowland, rector of the board of trustees. “He embodies the excellence that defines the University and is deeply committed to the teacher-scholar model that allows Richmond to make a transformational difference in students’ lives. We believe he will provide outstanding leadership to continue the University’s strong trajectory and standing among the nation’s leading institutions.”

“It is an exceptional honor to be named president of the University of Richmond,” said Crutcher. “This has long been a place of academic excellence, and it is also a place of substantive progress on issues that all of American higher education is seeking to address such as ensuring access to educational opportunity to the most promising students of all backgrounds. Much that animates Richmond has animated my own work over decades, and I look forward to working with the University community to build on Richmond’s remarkable foundation.”

Crutcher will also will be a professor of music at Richmond. He is a former member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and several other symphonies and currently performs in the U.S. and Europe as a member of the Klemperer Trio with Erika Klemperer, violin, and Gordon Back, piano.

He serves or has served on the boards of the Berklee College of Music, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cincinnati Opera Association, the Austin Symphony Orchestra and the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble.

Crutcher, who began studying the cello at 14, became the first cellist to receive the doctor of musical arts degree from Yale, where he also earned his master’s. He earned his undergraduate degree from Miami University.

Crutcher is the recipient of honorary degrees from Wheaton College and Colgate University, the Presidential Medal of Honor from the University of Cordoba in Spain, the Yale School of Music’s Distinguished Alumni Award and the Ellen S. Jackson Award for Excellence in Education from the Freedom House in Boston.

The university will hold a welcoming reception on campus for Crutcher and his wife on February 27th in the Robins Center Arena, where the president elect will deliver remarks at 2:00 PM, followed by a reception. All students, faculty, staff and alumni are invited to the event.