Past Presidents & Principals of the University
This comprehensive list of the University past presidents/principals dates back to our time as the Brockport Collegiate Institute—a normal school that focused on teacher education—to SUNY Brockport as we know it today.
Brockport Collegiate Institute
- Julius Bates (1841 - 1845)
- Oliver Morehouse (1845 - 1846)
- Jacob C. Tooker (1846 - 1848)
- John G.K. Truair (1848 - 1853)
- N.P. Stanton (1853 - 1856)
- David Burbank (1856 - 1861)
- Reverend P.J. Williams (1861 - 1863)
- Malcolm MacVicar (1863 - 1867)
Brockport State Normal School
- Charles McLean (1867 - 1898)
- David Eugene Smith (1898 - 1901)
- Charles T. McFarlene (1901 - 1910)
- Alfred Thompson (1910 - 1936)
- Ernest Hartwell (1936 - 1944)
SUNY Brockport
- Donald Tower (1944 - 1964)
- Albert Brown (1965 - 1981)
- John E. Van de Wetering (1981 - 1997)
- Paul Yu (1997 - 2004)
- John B. Clark (2004 - 2005)
- John R. Halstead (2005 - 2015)
- Heidi Macpherson (2015 - Current)
For more on the history of the university and it’s leadership up to through the early years of Brown’s presidency, see Cherishing This Heritage, a 1969 history.