Oct. 10, 2008
GREENCASTLE, Ind. – A new chapter in the 172-year history of DePauw University was celebrated on Friday with the inauguration of the institution’s nineteenth president, Brian W. Casey. At the small, 2,400-student campus about an hour west of Indianapolis, Casey will oversee one of the nation’s leading liberal arts institutions.
Casey, a former member of the Notre Dame men’s swimming team and captain in 1985, was previously the associate dean for academic affairs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Casey earned degrees in philosophy and economics at Notre Dame, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude. He received the Economics Award for achieving the highest grade point average in that subject. Casey was also captain of Notre Dame’s varsity swim team and was the University’s “Scholar-Athlete of the Year” in 1985.
Casey went on to earn his J.D. from Stanford University Law School in 1988, graduating with honors. He was a member and article editor of the Stanford Law Review.
After pursuing a career in law, Casey earned his Ph.D. in the history of American civilization from Harvard University. His field of specialization was the history of American higher education and American intellectual history. Dr. Casey’s dissertation examined “Nostalgia and the Campus: Emotion and American Higher Education, 1880-1940.”
At Harvard, Casey has had responsibility for faculty appointments, recruitment and development as well as strategic academic planning across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Casey joined the Harvard administration in 2005 and previously served as assistant provost at Brown University. He has taught at both Brown and Harvard. Casey began his career as an attorney with the Wall Street law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell.
His DePauw appointment was announced in February after a nine-month international search.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ken Owen, media relations director at DePauw University, contributed to this release.