Charles C. McCracken

Charles Chester McCracken (1882–1957) was an American academic administrator who served as the sixth president of the University of Connecticut (1930–1935).

Life and career
Born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, in 1882, McCracken graduated high school in 1899, received his bachelor's degree from Monmouth College in 1908, and taught in public schools for several years in Illinois and Ohio. He earned his master's degree from Harvard University in 1911, served three years as dean of the normal college at Ohio Northern University, and then returned to Harvard on a fellowship and received his PhD in 1916, soon after taking charge of the Department of Psychology and Education at Western College for Women. He was a professor of school administration at Ohio State University from 1917 to 1930. In 1927 and 1928, he served on a commission of the United States Bureau of Education to survey historically black colleges and universities. In 1928, he took a lengthy leave of absence from his Ohio State University professorship to consult for the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church on college education initiatives. McCracken served on the board of the American Council on Education and was a member of Pi Kappa Delta and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

UConn presidency
Appointed president of Connecticut Agricultural College in 1930, McCracken oversaw an institutional name change to Connecticut State College in 1933, following a long campaign by students, faculty, and alumni. During McCracken's tenure, the state college shifted toward a more comprehensive liberal arts curriculum, doubling the number of graduate programs and establishing new departments of music, government, philosophy, agricultural engineering, and psychology. The college joined the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the Association of State Universities in 1930 and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1931. Enrollment grew and finances improved despite the economic impact of the Great Depression. Despite these accomplishments, McCracken proved unpopular with faculty and eventually lost the trust of the college's trustees and state legislators. He resigned in 1935 to become director of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.

Later life and death
McCracken died at home in 1957, after a long illness. He was survived by his wife, Cleo, and their four children.