Howard R. Neville

Howard R. Neville, CMC's second president from 1969 to 1970.

Howard Ralph Neville was born in 1926 in Kankakee, Illinois. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Illinois, his M.B.A. from Louisiana State University in 1952, and his Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University in 1956. Neville worked as an assistant professor of economics at Michigan State University from 1955 to 1969, where he also served as the university’s provost from 1963 to 1969. 

Neville became the second president of Claremont Men’s College, succeeding founding president George C. S. Benson, who had left to accept a position in the Nixon Administration and the Department of Defense. Beginning his tenure in the fall of 1969, the 43-year-old Neville was selected by a trustee-faculty-student committee chaired by Donald McKenna and began his presidency with much optimism for CMC in the coming decade. Unfortunately, Neville’s difficult tenure at Claremont Men’s College was marked by on-going student protests against the Vietnam War and ROTC program—including a general strike—and disputes about the admission of minority students at the Claremont Colleges. On June 18, 1970, Neville announced his resignation as president of CMC, just a few days after commencement. 

Despite his short time at CMC, the Howard R. Neville Scholarship Fund continues to support new generations of CMC students.

Neville left Claremont to accept the position executive vice president for administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he worked from 1970 to 1973. From 1973 to 1979, Neville served as the president of the University of Maine. During Neville’s tenure, the University of Maine was designated a Sea Grant institution, several campus construction projects were completed, student enrollment increased substantially, and an academic building was named in his honor. In 1979, Neville became the 11th president of Alfred University, remaining there until an illness forced him to retire in 1981. Howard Neville died on December 24, 1981 at the age of 55 in Houston, Texas, of a brain tumor. Upon his death, Neville left a bequest to CMC of $50,000 to establish the Howard R. Neville Scholarship Fund, which has grown to more than $200,000 and to this day supports CMC students through financial aid.