Prof. Gray has retired and no longer directs BA theses or accepts new graduate students.

Harvard University, PhD '57

BIOGRAPHY

Hanna Holborn Gray Mrs. Gray is a historian with special interests in the history of humanism,  political and historical thought, and church history and politics in the Renaissance and the Reformation. She was president of the University of Chicago from July 1, 1978, through June 30, 1993.

Mrs. Gray is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Renaissance Society of America, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Education, and the Council on Foreign Relations of New York. She holds honorary degrees from over sixty colleges and universities, including Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Michigan, Oxford, Princeton, Rockefeller, Toronto, and Yale.

Mrs. Gray currently serves as a trustee of the Newberry Library, the Marlboro School of Music, the Dan David Prize, and several other nonprofit institutions. She has served on the boards of Bryn Mawr College, Harvard University, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and Yale University, and among others.

Mrs. Gray was one of twelve distinguished foreign-born Americans to receive the Medal of Liberty from President Reagan at ceremonies marking the rekindling of the Statue of Liberty's lamp in 1986. In 1991 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, from President Bush. Among a number of other awards she has received the Jefferson Medal of the American Philosophical Society and the National Humanities Award in 1993. In 1996 Mrs. Gray received the University of Chicago's Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and in 2006 the Newberry Library Award. In 2008 she received the Chicago History Maker Award of the Chicago History Museum.

Mrs. Gray’s most recent publications are Searching for Utopia: Universities and Their Histories (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011) and An Academic Life: A Memoir (Princeton, 2018).

Curriculum Vitae

Born

October 25, 1930, Heidelberg, Germany

Married

Charles M. Gray (1928–2011)
AB'59 Harvard University
PhD'56 Harvard University

Education

BA'50 Bryn Mawr College
Fulbright Scholarship, Oxford University (1950–51)
PhD'57 Harvard University

Academic and Administrative Appointments

• 1953–54 Instructor, Bryn Mawr College

• 1955–57 Teaching Fellow, Harvard University

• 1957–59 Instructor, Harvard University

• 1959–60 Assistant Professor, Harvard University; Head Tutor, Committee on Degrees in History and Literature

• 1961–64 Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

• 1963–64 Visiting Lecturer, Harvard University

• 1964–72 Associate Professor, University of Chicago

• 1970–71 Visiting Professor, University of California at Berkeley

• 1972–74 Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of History, Northwestern University

• 1974–78 Provost, Yale University; Professor of History

• 1977–78 President, Yale University

• 1978–93 President of the University of Chicago

• 1993–2000 Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor of History, Department of History, University of Chicago

Fellowships, etc.

• 1960–61 Fellow, Newberry Library

• 1966–67 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

• 1970–71 Visiting Scholar, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

• 1971–72 Visiting Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa

• 1978– Honorary Fellow, St. Anne’s College, Oxford University

Current Trusteeships (nonprofit boards)

• The Newberry Library

• Marlboro School of Music

• Emeriti Retirement Health Solutions

• Dan David Prize

Former Boards (selected)

• Ameritech

• Atlantic Richfield Corporation

• Bryn Mawr College Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

• The Cummins Company

• The University of Chicago

• Council on Foreign Relations

• Harvard University Corporation

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute

• J.P. Morgan and Company/Morgan Guaranty Trust Co.

• Mayo Foundation

• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

• National Council on the Humanities

• National Humanities Center          

• Pulitzer Prize Board          

• Smithsonian Institution, Board of Regents

• Yale University Corporation

Selected Honors, Awards, etc.

• Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

• Member, American Philosophical Society

• Member, National Academy of Education

• Phi Beta Kappa

• Radcliffe Graduate Medal (1976)

• Yale Medal (1978)

• Medal of Liberty (1986)

• Laureate, Lincoln Academy of Illinois (1989)

• Grosse Verdienstkreuz, Republic of Germany (1990)

• Sara Lee Frontrunner Award (1991)

• National Medal of Freedom (1991)

• Jefferson Medal, American Philosophical Society (1993)

• National Humanities Medal (1993)

• Centennial Medal, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1994)

• Distinguished Service Award, International Institute of Education (1994)

• Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, The University of Chicago (1996)

• M. Carey Thomas Award, Bryn Mawr College (1997)

• Medal of Distinction, Barnard College (2000)

• Fritz Redlich Distinguished Alumni Award, International Institute of Education (2004)

• Newberry Library Award (2006)

• Gold Medal, National Institute of Social Sciences (2006)          

• Chicago History Maker Award, Chicago History Museum (2008)

Selected Honorary Degrees

• LLD 1978 Dartmouth College

• LLD 1978 Yale University

• LLD 1979 Brown University

• DLitt Hum 1979 Oxford University

• LLD 1980 University of Notre Dame

• LLD 1980 University of Southern California

• LLD 1981 University of Michigan

• LHD 1982 Duke University

• LLD 1982 Princeton University

• LHD 1983 Brandeis University

• LLD 1983 Georgetown University

• DLitt 1985 Washington University

• LHD 1995 City University of New York

• LLD 1987 Columbia University

• LHD1988 New York University

• LLD 1991 University of Toronto

• LHD 1993 McGill University

• LHD 1994 Indiana University

• LLD 1995 Harvard University

• LHD 1996 The University of Chicago

• DLMS 2005 Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies

• DrSc 2010 The Rockefeller University