Graham Spanier papers

Graham Spanier was born July 18, 1948 in Cape Town, South Africa, where his father had escaped from Nazi Germany. He grew up on the south side of Chicago, graduated from Iowa State University (B. A., sociology with minor in psychology and mathematics, 1969; M.A. sociology, 1971) and Northwestern University (Ph.D., sociology,1973). He worked as a journalist during his education, as well as working as an instructor and research assistant at Iowa State from 1969 to 1971. At Northwestern, he was an instructor in sociology (1971-1973) and assistant professor of human development and sociology (1973-1977). He came to Penn State as the divisional professor-in-charge and professor-in-charge of the undergraduate program in the division of individual and family studies (1977-1979), moving to the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he served as vice provost for undergraduate studies (1982-1986). He then served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Oregon State University (1986-1991), and chancellor of University of Nebraska at Lincoln (1991-1995) before returning to the Pennsylvania State University as becoming the 16th president on September 1, 1995.