Records of the President, William R. Ferrante Papers (Rcg. Gr. 1.12)

Biographical note

When the Board of Regents appointed William R. Ferrante acting president of the University of Rhode Island upon the resignation of President Werner Baum in the summer of 1973, it chose one of URI's own. Ferrante is a 1949 graduate of the University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and has had a long and distinguished career at this institution, both as a faculty member and as an administrator.

After serving briefly as an Instructor of Mathematics in 1949-50, Ferrante left URI to pursue graduate studies in engineering. He received an M.S. from Brown University in 1955 and Ph.D from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1962. He also began his professional academic career during this period, serving as an Assistant Professor of Mechanics at Lafayette University in Pennsylvania from 1952 to 1956.

Ferrante returned to the University of Rhode Island for good in the summer of 1956 with his appointment as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1962 and to Full Professor in 1968. In July of 1967, he began his administrative career with an appointment as Associate Dean of the Graduate School. Upon the departure of Graduate School Dean Robert Spencer two years later, Ferrante was named Acting Dean of the Graduate School on July 26, 1969. After a nationwide search, Ferrante's appointment became permanent on November 6, 1969.

After just over two years as the Graduate School Dean, Ferrante was once again called upon to assume greater responsibility. When James Archer resigned as Vice-President for Academic Affairs in the fall of 1971, Dean Ferrante was appointed Acting Vice-President on October fifth of that year. Again, after a nationwide search, the"acting"was dropped from his title and he became the continuing Vice-President for Academic Affairs on April 6, 1972.

Vice-President Ferrante was barely able to get acclimated to his new job when President Werner Baum resigned in August, 1973 and he was immediately appointed Acting President. When the Board of Regents formed a search committee to pick a successor to Baum, Ferrante became a candidate for the permanent job. The search committee, apparently believing that an outsider could bring a fresh perspective to the administration of the University, chose Frank Newman, the then Director of University Relations at Stanford University. Ferrante returned to his post as Academic Vice-President and, except for another two month stint as Acting President in August and September of 1983, remains in that position at this writing.