The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Management,
#101
Gary Giddins
#21105
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic and author. He wrote for The Village Voice from 1973; his "Weather Bird" column ended in 2003. In 1986 Gary Giddins and John Lewis created the American Jazz Orchestra which presented concerts using a jazz repertory with musicians such as Tony Bennett.
Go to Profile#102
David P. Norton
#107738
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
David P. Norton is an American business theorist, business executive and management consultant, known as co-creator, together with Robert S. Kaplan, of the Balanced Scorecard. David P. Norton co-founded Palladium Group, Inc. and served as its chief executive officer.
Go to Profile#103
Gil Amelio
#85820
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Gilbert Frank Amelio is an American technology executive. Amelio worked at Bell Labs, Fairchild Semiconductor, and the semiconductor division of Rockwell International, and was also the CEO of National Semiconductor and Apple Computer.
Go to Profile#104
James L. Voss
#50803
Overall Influence
1934 - 2013 (79 years)
James Leo Voss was an American veterinarian, equine specialist, and dean of Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Early years Born in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1934, Voss grew up on his family's farm in Orchard Mesa. Graduating from Grand Junction High School in 1952, he married Kathleen Alice "Kay" Claxton in 1954. He earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Colorado A&M in 1958 and later obtained a master's degree at CSU in 1966. He remained at CSU to teach in the Department of Clinical Sciences and work as an equine ambulatory cli...
Go to Profile#105
Sally Mason
#27244
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Sally Kay Mason is an American academic administrator. She became the 20th president of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, on August 1, 2007. She retired on August 1, 2015. Early life and education Mason was born Sally Viparina in New York and grew up in New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology, and as such was the first member of her family to graduate from college. She then earned a Master of Science from Purdue University in 1974, followed by a Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Arizona in cellular, molecular, a...
Go to Profile#106
Harlan M. Sands
#39002
Overall Influence
Harlan M. Sands is an American academic administrator and attorney who served as the 7th President of Cleveland State University from June 2018 to April 2022. Early life and education Sands is a native of Wantagh, New York. He earned a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Master of Business Administration with a focus in finance from George Washington University, and Juris Doctor from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Sands served as an active duty member of the United States Navy for eight years, including as an in...
Go to Profile#107
Debra Ringold
#83481
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Debra Jones Ringold is a professor at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University and is a marketing research consultant. She was selected to advise the U.S. Census Bureau on methods for improving Census participation, data collection methodology and communication of Census data to the public.
Go to Profile#108
Jackson Nickerson
#102757
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Jackson Nickerson is an American academic who studies leadership, organizations, and strategy. Nickerson was the Frahm Family Professor of Organization and Strategy in Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He also was the Associate Dean and Director of Brookings Executive Education from 2009-2017, was a non-resident Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution from 2010-2020, and is a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society.
Go to Profile#109
Marshall Goldsmith
#130341
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Marshall Goldsmith is an American executive leadership coach and author. Early life and education Goldsmith was born in Valley Station, Kentucky, and received a degree in mathematical economics from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1970; where he was also a brother of the Theta Xi Kappa Chapter Fraternity. He then earned an MBA from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business in 1972, and a PhD from UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles, California in 1977.
Go to Profile#110
James J. Stukel
#85451
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
James J. Stukel is an American former educator who served as the 15th president of the University of Illinois system. Early life James Stukel was born on March 30, 1937, in Joliet, Illinois, to Philip and Julia Stukel. James and his sole sibling, a sister 13 years older than he was, had a modest upbringing. His father, a pulp mill worker, and his mother, a homemaker, maintained a small, clapboard house. While neither of his parents had more than an eighth grade education, Stukel would say of them, "my father had a real gift for numbers. He could do things in his head that were remarkable,...
Go to Profile#111
Robert R. Davila
#21607
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Dr. Robert Davila served as the ninth president of Gallaudet University, the world's only university in which all programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students. His appointment came after the wake of the Unity for Gallaudet Movement protests of 2006, when many students, staff, and alumni objected to the initial choice of Jane Fernandes as the intended next president. It was originally intended that he serve only 18–24 months as an interim president, but the Board dropped the interim designation and then extended his contract to 36 months.
Go to Profile#112
Terri Goss Kinzy
#50932
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Terri Goss Kinzy is an American biochemist, educator and academic administrator. Life Kinzy was born in Canton, Ohio. Kinzy was partly inspired by a high school physics teacher to pursue a career in science. She completed a B.S. in chemistry, magna cum laude, at the University of Akron in 1985. She was a chemist at BP America in Warrensville Heights, Ohio from 1985 to 1987, focusing on biofuel development. Kinzy completed a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Case Western Reserve University. Her 1991 dissertation was titled Characterization of GTP and aminoacyl-tRNA binding to eukaryotic initiation factor 2 and elongation factor 1.
Go to Profile#113
Diether Haenicke
#50956
Overall Influence
1935 - 2009 (74 years)
Diether H. Haenicke was president of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan from 1985 to 1998, and again from 2006 to 2007. A large building on campus, Haenicke Hall, is named for him. In 1962, Haenicke received his doctorate, magna cum laude, from the University of Munich.
Go to Profile#114
Sheryl Sandberg
#89256
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Sheryl Kara Sandberg is an American technology executive, philanthropist, and writer. Sandberg served as chief operating officer of Meta Platforms, a position from which she stepped down in August 2022. She is also the founder of LeanIn.Org. In 2008, she was made COO at Facebook, becoming the company's second-highest ranking official. In June 2012, she was elected to Facebook's board of directors, becoming the first woman to serve on its board. As head of the company's advertising business, Sandberg was credited for making the company profitable. Prior to joining Facebook as its COO, Sandber...
Go to Profile#115
Franklin M. Loew
#61302
Overall Influence
1939 - 2003 (64 years)
Franklin Martin Loew, was president of Becker College, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University and dean of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine . Early career Loew grew up in Syracuse, New York. He received his undergraduate degree and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell and a doctorate in nutrition from the University of Saskatchewan. During the 1970s, Loew was one of the many members of the research team that developed canola oil. In 1977, the Governor-General of Canada awarded Loew a Queen's Jubilee Medal. In the same year, he became the head o...
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Tom Ruegger
#5933
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Tom Ruegger is an American animator and songwriter. Ruegger is known for his association with Disney Television Animation and Warner Bros. Animation. He also created Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and Histeria!.
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Ginni Rometty
#108353
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Virginia Marie "Ginni" Rometty is an American business executive who was executive chairman of IBM after stepping down as CEO on April 1, 2020. She was previously chairman, president and CEO of IBM, becoming the first woman to head the company. She retired from IBM on December 31, 2020, after a near-40 year career there. Before becoming president and CEO in January 2012, she first joined IBM as a systems engineer in 1981 and subsequently headed global sales, marketing, and strategy. While general manager of IBM's global services division, in 2002 she helped negotiate IBM's purchase of PricewaterhouseCoopers' IT consulting business, becoming known for her work integrating the two companies.
Go to Profile#118
Scott Wittman
#26559
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Scott Wittman is an American director, lyricist, composer and writer for Broadway, concerts, and television. Life and career Wittman was raised in Nanuet, New York, graduated from Nanuet Senior High School in 1972 and attended Emerson College in Boston for two years before leaving to pursue a career in musical theatre in New York City. While directing a show for a Greenwich Village club he met songwriter and composer Marc Shaiman, and the two became collaborators and professional partners. While Shaiman wrote for television shows, including Saturday Night Live, Wittman directed concerts for su...
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Barbara W. Newell
#28834
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (95 years)
Barbara Warne Newell is an economist, career professor, and higher education administrator. Notably, she served as the tenth President of Wellesley College from 1972 to 1980 and was the first female chancellor of the State University System of Florida from 1981 to 1985.
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Robert McNamara
#106029
Overall Influence
1916 - 2009 (93 years)
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth United States secretary of defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the longest-serving secretary of defense, having remained in office over seven years. He played a major role in promoting the U.S.'s involvement in the Vietnam War. McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis.
Go to Profile#121
Sharon Matusik
#156597
Overall Influence
Sharon F. Matusik is an American business strategy scholar, currently serving as dean of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. She is the Edward J. Frey Dean of Business and a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan. Matusik's research focuses on understanding the knowledge-intensive firm and the contribution of firm knowledge to competitive advantage in strategic management entrepreneurship.
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Mark Nordenberg
#45564
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Mark A. Nordenberg is the chancellor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh and chair of the university's Institute of Politics. A professor of law and university administrator, Nordenberg served as the seventeenth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh from 1996 to 2014. Nordenberg served as the Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law between 1985 and 1993 and other various administrative positions before becoming interim Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh in 1995, a position which became permanent the following year. He became known as Nordy to many Pitt students, ...
Go to Profile#123
Janet Dudley-Eshbach
#51150
Overall Influence
Janet Dudley-Eshbach, Ph.D. became president of Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland in June 2000. She is the eighth president and the first woman to hold that office in the seventy-five year history of the university. In 2005, she was named one of Maryland's Top 100 Women in 2005 by the Maryland Daily Record. She retired in June 2018.
Go to Profile#124
Everett Lee
#50845
Overall Influence
1916 - 2022 (106 years)
Everett Astor Lee was an American symphonic conductor, opera music director, violinist and music scholar. He was the first African American to conduct a Broadway musical, the first to "conduct an established symphony orchestra below the Mason–Dixon line", and the first to conduct a performance by a major American opera company.
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Martin J. Fettman
#23589
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Martin Joseph Fettman is an American pathologist and researcher who flew on NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-58 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia as a Payload Specialist. Personal data Born December 31, 1956, Brooklyn, New York. Married to Heather Connally DVM MS DACVECC. Recreational interests include scuba diving, amateur radio, flying, bicycling, pistol marksmanship, camping and mountain hiking, photography, travel, reading , and music . His mother, Mrs. Elaine Fettman Peck, resides in Brooklyn, New York, with his stepfather, Mr. Harold Peck. His father, Mr. Bernard P. Fettman, is deceased.
Go to Profile#126
Mitt Romney
#99650
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Willard Mitt Romney is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer who has served as the junior United States senator from Utah since 2019. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and was the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2012 election, losing to incumbent Barack Obama.
Go to Profile#127
John H. Garvey
#14306
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
John Hugh Garvey was the 15th president of the Catholic University of America. Trained as a lawyer, Garvey assumed this position in 2010. Education John H. Garvey attended the University of Notre Dame where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970. He was candidate for a Master of Theological Studies degree at Harvard Divinity School , and then entered the Harvard Law School, where he earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1974.
Go to Profile#128
Benno C. Schmidt Jr.
#52336
Overall Influence
1942 - 2023 (81 years)
Benno Charles Schmidt Jr. was an American academic and education executive. From 1986 to 1992, he was 20th president of Yale University. Prior, Schmidt was Dean of the Columbia Law School, Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law, and chairman of Edison Schools . He lastly served as the chairman of Avenues: The World School, a for-profit, private K-12 school, and as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York from 2003 to 2016.
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Leonard M. Pike
#133456
Overall Influence
1940 - 2019 (79 years)
Leonard M. Pike was an American agricultural scientist who established the Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center at Texas A&M University in 1992 and created the 1015 sweet onion and the BetaSweet maroon carrot.
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Joseph I. Castro
#80343
Overall Influence
Joseph I. Castro is an American academic and was the eighth chancellor of the California State University. Before that, Castro was the eighth president of California State University, Fresno, and the first California native and first Mexican-American to hold the position. In 2016, he received the Ohtli Award from the Mexican government. He resigned in 2022 as CSU chancellor after accusations of mishandling sexual harassment claims against a fellow administrator.
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Ilkka Ronkainen
#75377
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Ilkka A. Ronkainen is a Finnish/American organizational theorist and Emeritus Professor at the Georgetown University, known for his work on international marketing and international business. Life and work Ronkainen studied at the Helsinki School of Economics, where he obtained his BS in Marketing, and his MS in Marketing and English. He then moved to the University of South Carolina, where he obtained his MBA and his PhD.
Go to Profile#132
Peter Matz
#91596
Overall Influence
1928 - 2002 (74 years)
Peter Matz was an American musician, composer, arranger and conductor. His musical career in film, theater, television and studio recording spanned fifty years, and he worked with a number of prominent artists, including Marlene Dietrich, Noël Coward and Barbra Streisand. Matz won three Emmys and a Grammy Award and is best known for his work on Streisand's early albums as well as for his work as the orchestral conductor and musical director for The Carol Burnett Show.
Go to Profile#133
Safra Catz
#123936
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Safra Ada Catz is an American billionaire banker and technology executive. She is the CEO of Oracle Corporation. She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 2001. In April 2011, she was named co-president and chief financial officer , reporting to founder Larry Ellison. In September 2014, Oracle announced that Ellison would step down as CEO and that Mark Hurd and Catz had been named as joint CEOs. In September 2019, Catz became the sole CEO after Hurd resigned due to health issues.
Go to Profile#134
Robert Huttenback
#101457
Overall Influence
1928 - 2012 (84 years)
Robert Arthur Huttenback was the third Chancellor of UC Santa Barbara from 1977 to 1986. He was ousted from the post in July 1986 after allegations that he and his wife Freda had embezzled more than $170,000 from the university to perform renovations on their home. After two UC presidents testified against him, Huttenback and his wife were convicted by a Santa Maria jury in July 1988.
Go to Profile#135
Janet Bercovitz
#124110
Overall Influence
Janet Bercovitz is an American entrepreneurship scholar and the Deming Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder in strategy, entrepreneurship, and operations.
Go to Profile#136
Dorian Shainin
#162744
Overall Influence
1914 - 2000 (86 years)
Dorian Shainin was an American quality consultant, aeronautics engineer, author, and college professor most notable for his contributions in the fields of industrial problem solving, product reliability, and quality engineering, particularly the creation and development of the "Red X" concept.
Go to Profile#137
Joanne V. Creighton
#25338
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Joanne Vanish Creighton is an American academic who served as the 16th President of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from 1996 to 2010. On August 10, 2011, the Haverford College Board of Managers named her interim President of Haverford College, replacing Stephen G. Emerson, who resigned.
Go to Profile#138
William Rea Keast
#43994
Overall Influence
1914 - 1998 (84 years)
William Rea Keast was an American scholar and academic administrator who served as president of Wayne State University from 1965 to 1971. Biography Education Keast was born on November 1, 1914, in Malta, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago and received his Bachelor's in 1936. He continued his doctoral studies at Chicago but World War II forced him to serve in the United States Armed Forces from 1941 to 1946. He rose to the rank of major. Returning to the University of Chicago on a Rockefeller Postwar Fellowship, he earned his doctorate in 1947.
Go to Profile#139
Darren Woods
#167951
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Darren W. Woods is an American businessman who is the chief executive officer and chairman of ExxonMobil since January 1, 2017. His salary exceeds $20,000,000 per year. Early life and education Woods was born in Wichita, Kansas. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, followed by an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Go to Profile#140
Nicholas S. Zeppos
#23483
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Nicholas S. Zeppos is an American lawyer and university administrator. He was the eighth chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. On April 2, 2019, Zeppos announced that he would be stepping down from the position on August 15 of the same year.
Go to Profile#141
Muriel A. Howard
#40559
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Muriel A. Howard is the former president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C., and served as the seventh president of Buffalo State College at the State University of New York system from 1996 to 2009. Prior to her presidency at Buffalo State College, she was the vice president for public services and urban affairs at the SUNY educational institution, the University at Buffalo, where she worked for 23 years. Howard was educated at public universities in New York State, as well as at Harvard University, where she graduated from the University's Institute of Management.
Go to Profile#142
Gordon Guyer
#70813
Overall Influence
1926 - 2016 (90 years)
Gordon Earl Guyer was president of Michigan State University from 1992 to 1993. He died on March 30, 2016, aged 89. Biography Guyer attended Michigan State University beginning in 1947 where he first studied fisheries and wildlife, later switching to entomology and receiving his bachelor's degree in 1950. Two years later, he earned his master's degree, and his doctorate in 1954, both in entomology. He joined the MSU faculty in 1953 and held many leadership roles on campus. Gordon was a professor and chairperson for the entomology department, the director of MSU's Pesticide Research Center - ...
Go to Profile#143
Roger H. Brown
#176751
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Roger H. Brown is an American businessman, philanthropist, and academic administrator and former president of Berklee College of Music. Brown is also the co-founder of Bright Horizons and founder and chairman of the Salt Lick Incubator.
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Clark Gilbert
#177295
Overall Influence
Clark G. Gilbert has been a general authority seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 2021 and the Church Commissioner of Education since August of that year. He was the president of BYU–Pathway Worldwide , an online higher education organization, from its creation in 2017 until August 2021. He was serving as the sixteenth president of Brigham Young University–Idaho when he was appointed inaugural president of BYU–PW. Previously, Gilbert served as president and CEO of both the Deseret News and Deseret Digital Media, having also served as an executive vice pres...
Go to Profile#145
Jane Buckingham
#168813
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Jane Ruth Buckingham is an American author and businesswoman who founded the consumer insights firm Trendera. She is known for writing "The Modern Girl's Guide to Life" book series, which spawned the television series of the same name. She was convicted in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.
Go to Profile#146
L. Randolph Lowry III
#38536
Overall Influence
L. Randolph Lowry III, also known as Randy Lowry, is an American academic administrator. He was the President of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee from 2005 to 2021. Early life Lowry was born in Oregon and grew up in Long Beach, California. He graduated with a B.A. in political science and an M.A. in public administration from Pepperdine University. He obtained his J.D. from Hamline University.
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Vivek Wadhwa
#174716
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Vivek Wadhwa is an Indian-American technology entrepreneur and academic. He is Distinguished Fellow & Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon's School of Engineering at Silicon Valley and Distinguished Fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. He is also author of books Your Happiness Was Hacked: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain—and How to Fight Back, Driver in the Driverless Car, Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology, and Immigrant Exodus.
Go to Profile#148
Jacqueline Grennan Wexler
#69811
Overall Influence
1926 - 2012 (86 years)
Jacqueline Grennan Wexler , commonly known as Sister J, was an American Catholic religious sister who rose to prominence when she, as President of Webster College, strove to convince the Holy See allow the transferral of the college's ownership to a lay board of trustees. Webster College became the first Catholic university to legally split from the Catholic Church. She later left her religious order, the Sisters of Loretto, and was President of Hunter College in New York City from 1970 to 1980. She went on to serve as President of the National Conference of Christians and Jews from 1982 to 19...
Go to Profile#149
Bryan Coker
#75042
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
Bryan F. Coker is an American academic administrator, and the 12th president of Maryville College. Coker was vice president and dean of students at Goucher College from 2013 to 2020, where he served as acting president during the summer of 2019. Coker was the dean of students at Jacksonville University from 2003 to 2013. He is an advocate for diversity, inclusion, and liberal arts education.
Go to Profile#150
Juliet V. García
#82019
Overall Influence
Juliet Villarreal García is an American academic administrator. When she was named president of Texas Southmost College in 1986, she became the first Mexican-American female to head a U.S. college or university. After TSC merged with a four-year university in 1991, she served as president of the resulting University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College , then was president of the University of Texas at Brownsville when it became a separate institution.
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