President Pitzer resigns

August 1968

Kenneth Pitzer left Rice University in August 1968 to become president of Stanford University. Formerly a chemistry professor and Dean of the College of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, Pitzer had been at Rice since 1962. 

Pitzer was popular with Rice faculty and had a clear vision for the future of the university. A distinguished chemist, he envisioned Rice becoming an institution that was recognized nationally for its research and its high-quality undergraduate and graduate education.