Virgil Hancher
Around the Iowa City area, the name Hancher conjures images of one of University of Iowa’s best known and most beloved facilities: Hancher Auditorium.
The building honors Virgil Hancher’s contribution to the arts, but in some ways, tying him to one building underplays the broader impact of UI’s longest serving president.
Hancher, who was born on a farm near Rolfe, was UI’s 13th president, serving from 1940 to 1964.
Hancher received a Bachelor of Arts in 1919 and a degree of Juris Doctor in 1924 from UI. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in jurisprudence in 1922 and a Master of Arts in 1927 from Oxford University in England. He practiced law in Chicago from 1926 to 1940.
Hancher then presided over UI during a period of substantial growth for the campus, including the post-World War II enrollment surge, according to a profile in the Iowa Alumni Magazine.
Time magazine profiled Hancher in 1952 after he was tabbed to head an American Council on Education committee examining government scientific research grants to universities.
According to Time, Hancher remodeled the UI curriculum away from vocational training and toward a more well-rounded liberal arts education. He also supported fine arts, started a library for undergraduates, established a college of nursing, built a communications center and launched a hospital-school for handicapped children, according to the Time article.
Hancher married Susan Cannon in 1928, and they had three children, according to the Alumni Magazine. Hancher died at age 68 in New Delhi while serving as a consultant in higher education for the Ford Foundation, according to the Alumni Magazine.