University of Cincinnati President Emeritus Henry R. Winkler, Ph.D.

A Brief Biography

As President of the University of Cincinnati from 1977 to 1984, Dr. Henry Winkler is widely recognized for leading UC through its historic transition from a city to a state university. As chair of its Advisory Board for more than twenty years and currently as vice-chairman, he has been a tireless advocate for the Center for the History of the Health Professions. His visionary leadership has advanced the Center’s mission in countless ways. In early 2009, he received an extraordinary honor from the UC Board of Trustees when it approved naming the Center the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions.

A native of Waterbury, Connecticut, Dr. Winkler began his career at UC in the 1930’s when he earned a BA in History in 1938 and a MA in History in 1940 from the College of Arts and Sciences, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1947. He taught at Cincinnati and at Roosevelt College before joining the faculty at Rutgers University where he moved through the faculty ranks and then into administration, first as Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, then as Vice President for Academic Affairs, and finally Executive Vice President. In 1976, during the illness of President Edward Blaustein, he served as Rutgers’ acting president.

A well-respected historian of 20th century Britain, Dr. Winkler is the author or editor of seven books, dozens of articles in scholarly journals and chapters of books, and over 200 reviews. In the 1960’s, he was the editor of the American Historical Review, one of the world’s leading historical journals. In 1980, he was the first sitting president of the University of Cincinnati to be made a member of the Fellows of the Graduate School, a group elected for life on the basis of their scholarly contributions. Over the years, Dr. Winkler was also a visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia, Bryn Mawr, and the London School of Economics.

Throughout his career in university administration, he considered himself primarily a teacher and insisted on teaching a course every year. Not surprisingly, he was judged by undergraduate and graduate students alike as a model and superior instructor. Dr. Winkler worked diligently to strengthen the connections between secondary and higher education. His prolific service on state and national committees and commissions included Chair of the College Board, a member of the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education, and a member of the Ohio selection committee for the Rhodes Scholarship.

Always a civic activist, Dr. Winkler was one of a group of American historians who were with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the group that marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. He was a member of the Board of the National Civic League and, in 1994-1995, he chaired the Charter Review Committee established by Cincinnati City Council to study the effectiveness of the system of city government.

Among his ten honorary degrees, Dr. Winkler received an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from UC in 1987. He has also received the William Howard Taft Medal of the UC Alumni Association, the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, and the UC Award for Excellence.