Home Index
Brigadier General
Wesley W. Posvar
Permanent Professor 1960–1967
B.S., US Military Academy
B.A., Oxford University
M.A., Oxford University
Ph.D., Harvard University
Wes Posvar, the Academy’s 7th Permanent Professor, was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1925. He graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree and his commission as a second lieutenant in the US Army Air Forces in 1946. His first assignment after pilot training was as Aircraft Project Officer and Fighter Test Pilot in the 3200th Fighter Test Squadron, Air Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, FL. Wes was the first Air Force officer awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, earning both Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics while at Oxford University, England, from 1948 to 1951. While at Oxford in 1949, he served with the forces supporting the Berlin Airlift. Wes next became an Instructor and Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the US Military Academy from 1951 to 1954. From 1954 to 1957 he served in the Long-Range Objectives and Programs Group, Directorate of Plans, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, HQ USAF, Washington, DC. In 1957 he was named Head of the Department of Political Science of the Air Force Academy at its interim facility, Lowry AFB, CO. In 1960 Wes was appointed a Permanent Professor, continued as Department Head, and was the Chairman of the Social Sciences Division as an additional duty. In 1962 he began sabbatical graduate studies at Harvard University as a Littauer Fellow, graduating with a PhD in International Relations in 1964. From 1963 to 1964 he was also a Research Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was editor of the 1st edition of American Defense Policy (1964) and a contributor to numerous journals including Orbus, Worldview, and Public Policy. Wes served in the Southeast-Asia Theater in 1965. Returning to his previous posts at the Academy in 1966, he retired in 1967. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1991.
After his retirement, Wes immediately became the 15th Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, inheriting a university significantly in debt. He retired this debt by 1976. While at Pittsburgh, he was the founding Chairman in 1988 of the Federal Emergency Management Advisory Board and the National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology. During 1988 and 1989 Wes chaired a special commission on the West Point Honor Code. When he retired as Chancellor in 1991, he was credited with increasing the university’s operating budget by sevenfold, its endowment by threefold, and significantly improving the university’s programs and prestige. The Wesley W. Posvar Hall at the University of Pittsburgh was renamed in his honor in 2000. The Academy Research and Development Institute supports The Wesley W. Posvar Chair in Political Science at USAFA. Wes Posvar died in 2001 and is buried in the United States Military Academy Cemetery.