{{Short description|American academic administrator (1898–1998)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Harlan Hatcher | image = Harlan Hatcher.png | caption = Hatcher c. 1962 | order = 8th | title = President of the<br />University of Michigan | term_start = 1951 | term_end = 1967 | predecessor = Alexander G. Ruthven | successor = Robben Wright Fleming | birth_date = {{birth date|1898|9|9}} | birth_place = Ironton, Ohio | death_date = {{death date and age|1998|2|25|1898|9|9}} | death_place = Ann Arbor, Michigan | profession = Professor of American Literature, University President | spouse = | children = | website = | footnotes = | education = Ohio State University (BA, MA, PhD) }}

'''Harlan Henthorne Hatcher''' (September 9, 1898 &ndash; February 25, 1998)<ref name="mt" /> was an American professor of literature who served as the eighth president of University of Michigan from 1951 to 1967, during the Civil rights movement and protests against the Vietnam War. His administration oversaw the establishment of the university's two branches, Flint Senior College and the Dearborn Center, both of which have since evolved into fully accredited universities. He began the implementation of affirmative action policies at the university in 1963.

==Early life==

Hatcher was born on September 9, 1898, in Ironton, Ohio.<ref name="mt">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ns.umich.edu/MT/98/Sum98/mt6sm98.html |title=Michigan Today |access-date=2010-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100817184341/http://www.ns.umich.edu/MT/98/Sum98/mt6sm98.html |archive-date=2010-08-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |title=Harlan Hatcher, 99, U. of Michigan President (Published 1998) |work=The New York Times |date=4 March 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200110185716/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/04/us/harlan-hatcher-99-u-of-michigan-president.html?pagewanted=1 |archive-date=2020-01-10 |url-status=live |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/04/us/harlan-hatcher-99-u-of-michigan-president.html?pagewanted=1 |last1=Honan |first1=William H. }}</ref> He received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Ohio State University, specializing in American literature.<ref name="nytimes"/> He did postgraduate work at the University of Chicago and in 1928 traveled throughout Europe to study Renaissance literature.<ref name="nytimes"/>

==Early career==

He worked as a professor of American literature at Ohio State University, then as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State in 1944, and as vice president in 1948.<ref name="mt"/><ref name="nytimes"/> He wrote three novels and several academic volumes.<ref name="nytimes"/>

==President of the University of Michigan==

In 1951, Hatcher became the eighth President of the University of Michigan.<ref name="mt"/> He led the post-war expansion of the university, overseeing the construction of the North Campus. He established Flint Senior College and the Dearborn Center with funding from the state's auto industry, which later developed into branch campuses.<ref name="mt"/><ref name="nytimes"/> He stepped down in 1967.<ref name="mt"/> In 1968, the university voted to rename the General Library to the Hatcher Graduate Library in honor of President Hatcher.<ref name="mt"/>

===Mccarthyism===

In 1954, Hatcher condoned the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee and fired two faculty members for suspicions of Communism.<ref name="nytimes"/>

==Bibliography== *''Tunnel Hill'' (Bobbs-Merrill, 1931) *''Patterns of Wolfpen (Johns Creek, Pike County, Kentucky)'' (Bobbs Merrill, 1934) *''Creating the Modern American Novel'' (1935) *''The Buckeye Country: A Pageant of Ohio'' (1940) *''The Ohio Guide'' (1940, editor) *''Modern American Dramas'' (1941) *"The Great Lakes" (Oxford University Press, 1944) *''Lake Erie'' (1945) *''A Century of Iron and Men'' (1950) *''A Modern Repertory'' (1953) *''Johnny Appleseed: A Voice in the Wilderness, The Story of the Pioneer John Chapman'' (1953) *''A Pictorial History of the Great Lakes'' (1963) *''Versification of Robert Browning'' (1969) *''The Western Reserve: The Story of New Connecticut in Ohio''

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{s-bef | before=Alexander Grant Ruthven}} {{s-ttl | title=President of the University of Michigan | order=8th | years=1951&ndash;1968}} {{s-aft | after=Robben Wright Fleming}} {{end}}

{{University of Michigan presidents}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatcher, Harlan Henthorne}} Category:1898 births Category:1998 deaths Category:People from Ironton, Ohio Category:20th-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:Ohio State University faculty Category:Presidents of the University of Michigan Category:Novelists from Ohio Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American academics