Francis Sheldon Hackney

President (1981-1993)

Born 1933 in Birmingham, Alabama
Died in 2013 on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

B.A., Vanderbilt University
M.A., Yale University, 1955
Ph.D., Yale University, 1963
Hon. LL.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1966

Assistant Professor, Princeton University, 1965-1969
Associate Professor, Princeton University, 1969-1972
Professor and Provost, Princeton University, 1972-1975
President, Tulane University, 1975-1980
Author, From Populism to Progressivism in Alabama, 1969
Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, 1981-2013
Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1993-1997
President Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, 1999-2013

Official University portrait of President Sheldon Hackney

University history during the Hackney administration

1982	The Wharton School's Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall completed and occupied.
1983	"Choosing Penn's Future" was formally adopted as the strategic plan of the Hackney administration. It established a framework of four priorities and three "special challenges" for the decade that followed. The priorities were: a) the University's quality is the strength of its faculty; b) the University must conserve its resources and protect its financial integrity; c) the University's special character is reflected in the diversity of interest and people it attracts to its community; and d) the University's scale must ensure the highest academic quality of its students and research efforts. The special challenges were: a) undergraduate education; b) research excellence; and c) student financial assistance.
1985	Michael S. Brown (B.A. 1962; M.D. 1966) awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine
1986	Seeley G. Mudd Biological Sciences Building completed and occupied.
1987	3401 Walnut Street building completed and occupied.
1989	Campaign for Penn launched.

Penn Presidents

Biographical sketches of Penn Presidents (including Interim Presidents) and historically significant aspects of University history during each administration.