Former Rice leader Frank Vandiver dies

Former Rice leader Frank Vandiver dies

BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News staff

Military historian and former interim president of Rice University Frank Vandiver died Jan. 7. He was 79.

Vandiver

Vandiver was one of the foremost authorities on the South and the Civil War and authored more than 20 books and 100 scholarly articles on the subject, including “Mighty Stonewall” and “Their Tattered Flags: The Epic of the Confederacy.” His 1977 book, “Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing,” was a finalist for the National Book Award.

During his 24 years at Rice, which spanned from 1955 to 1979, Vandiver was a professor of history, chair of the history and political science departments and master of Brown College. He also was instrumental in bringing the editorial project “The Papers of Jefferson Davis” to Rice. In 1969, following the resignation of Rice President Kenneth Pitzer, Vandiver was appointed interim president when the board of governor’s initial presidential appointment, William Masterson, caused a controversy on campus. Masterson withdrew and Vandiver served until a search committee of board members, faculty and student representatives selected Norman Hackerman as Rice’s fourth president. Vandiver continued his service at Rice as provost and academic vice president in 1970. In 1979, Vandiver was named president of North Texas State University (now University of North Texas) and from 1981 to 1988 served as president of Texas A&M University.

Vandiver was born in Austin, the son of a mathematician who worked at The University of Texas. He left formal school in seventh grade to pursue independent study with tutors, eventually becoming interested in the Civil War. He studied the topic extensively and by 16 was editing and publishing articles about it. In his late teens, he continued his writing as a historian for the Army during World War II.

In 1946, Vandiver earned a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to continue his Civil War studies and research, but he hit a snag when it came time to renew the grant. The foundation required him to enroll in graduate school.

A 1971 Houston Chronicle article explained, “This posed a problem, since Vandiver had not been in any school since seventh grade. The dean of the graduate school at The University of Texas read the fine print in the catalog, though, and noticed that it said admission to graduate school required a bachelor of arts degree ‘or its equivalent.’ He said he’d let Vandiver in if he could make a decent score on the Graduate Record Exam. He did.”

Vandiver earned his master’s degree from UT in 1949 and a Ph.D. from Tulane University in 1951. In 1963, he was awarded an honorary master’s degree from Oxford University, where he was a visiting professor. Vandiver was granted an honorary high school diploma in 1969 by the Houston Independent School District school board.

Among Vandiver’s many awards and honors were a Guggenheim Fellowship, Rice’s George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching in 1975 and 1978 and the Carr P. Collin’s Prize for the best book of the year. He served as president or chairman of the Southern Historical Association, the Texas Institute of Letters, the Philosophical Society of Texas, the Association of American Colleges, the White House Historical Society, the American Council on Education and numerous other organizations.

Vandiver’s funeral in College Station was Jan. 10 and a memorial service was held at Rice Jan. 11. Memorials may be made to The Jefferson Davis Project at Rice, the Texas A&M University Libraries, American University at Cairo Library or the University of North Texas Library.