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Colonel
Richard F. Rosser
Permanent Professor 1968–1973
B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University
M.P.A., Syracuse University
Ph.D., Syracuse University
Dick Rosser, the Academy’s 24th Permanent Professor, was born in 1929 in Arcanum, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH, with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1951. He completed two years of AFROTC his senior year at Ohio Wesleyan, his third-year ROTC studies during the summer of 1951, and his final year while earning a Master’s degree in Public Administration in 1952 at Syracuse University, NY. His first assignment was Russian language training at Syracuse University, graduating in 1953. After attending the AF Security Service Communications Intelligence School at Kelly AFB, TX, he was assigned in 1954 to the National Security Agency in Arlington Hall, VA, as a Communications Intelligence Officer. Dick returned to Syracuse University in 1958 to pursue his doctorate in Political Science on a university scholarship and with USAFA’s Department of Political Science sponsorship. On his way to Syracuse, he attended Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, AL, and was a Distinguished Graduate. Dick was assigned to the Political Science faculty at the AF Academy as an Instructor in 1959 without completing his dissertation. The Academy assigned him to AFIT for academic year 1960–1961 to complete his dissertation, and he received his PhD in Political Science in 1961. He returned to the Academy as an Assistant Professor and progressed to Associate Professor and then Tenure Associate Professor—among the first appointed. Dick chaired the committee whose recommendations resulted in the introduction of Area Studies into the curriculum. He was appointed Tenure Professor and Head, Department of Political Science in 1967. His book, Introduction to Soviet Foreign Policy, was published in 1968. That same year, Dick was appointed a Permanent Professor. From 1969 to 1971 he took sabbatical leave in London doing research at the International Institute of Strategic Studies and attending the British Imperial Defence College. Dick retired from the USAF in 1973.
Dick then became Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Political Science at Albion College in Albion, MI. In 1977 DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, appointed him their 17th President. Under Dick’s leadership, DePauw restored historic East College, renovated Asbury Hall and Roy O. West Library, and built the Lilly Physical Education and Recreation Center. The University’s endowment grew fourfold from $19.4 million to $83.2 million. From 1986 to 1993, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, an organization that lobbied on behalf of such institutions in Washington, DC. Until shortly before his death, he headed The Presidents Group, a consulting group of retired college and university presidents. Dick Rosser died in 2007 and is buried in the Air Force Academy Cemetery.