Biography

A native of Chicago, George Dennis O'Brien is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in English of Yale University ('52) who earned the Ph.D. degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1961.

In 1958, he joined the philosophy faculty at Princeton University and in 1961 took on additional responsibilities as Assistant Dean of the College. Four years later, he was named to the faculty of Middlebury College, where he also served successively as Dean of Men, Dean of the College, and Dean of the Faculty.

He became twelfth President of Bucknell University in 1976 serving until 1984. He was appointed as the eighth president of the University of Rochester effective July 1, 1984. He retired on July 1, 1994.

His academic honors include a Camegie Research Fellowship in University teaching, awarded during his studies at Chicago, and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, awarded in 1971. He has been awarded honorary degrees by St. John Fisher, Hobart and William Smith, Middlebury College, Wilkes College, and Siena College.

Mr. OBrien is the author of Hegel on Reason in History: A Contemporary Interpretation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975; paperback edition, 1976); God and the New Haven Railway—and Why Neither One is Doing Very Well, (Beacon, Fall 1986); and "What to Expect From College (St. Martin's Press, Fall 1991); All the Essential Half-Truths about Higher Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997) He is the author of many articles in professional and popular publications on wide-ranging aspects of philosophy, religion, and modern art.

He was appointed Vice President for the Commonweal Foundation in March 1994 and is on the Board of LaSalle University in Philadelphia and the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies. In April of 1995 and July 2000 he moderated international seminars in Salzburg on Higher Education Institutions in the 21st Century. He has chaired review and accreditation efforts at many higher education institutions from the U.S. Naval Academy to the American University in Cairo, Yale to the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. In 1996-97 Mr. O'Brien was a national Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.

During his years at Bucknell, Mr. O'Brien continued to teach and maintained that practice at Rochester. He retired as President of the University of Rochester on June 30, 1994 and now lives in Middlebury, Vermont, with his wife, Judith. The O'Briens have three daughters.