Robert W. MacVicar

Robert W. MacVicar was born in Princeton, Minnesota, on September 28, 1918. MacVicar studied chemistry at the University of Wyoming, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1939.[1] Upon graduation, MacVicar was awarded a Rhodes scholarship, but it proved impossible for him to attend due to the outbreak of World War II.[1]

MacVicar enrolled and Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, where he continued his chemistry studies.[1] MacVicar earned a Master of Science in 1940, authoring a thesis entitled "The Effect of Adrenaline Injections on the Chloride and Phosphorus Distribution of the Blood".[2]

MacVicar spent the duration of the war as an officer in the United States Army.[3] He left military service as a colonel in the United States Army Air Corps.[4]

Following the conclusion of the war, MacVicar moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he obtained a PhD in biochemistry in 1946.[1] MacVicar's dissertation was entitled "The Boron Metabolism of Plants" and included material which he had been able to publish in the American Potato Journal and Botanical Gazette.[5]

After earning his doctorate, MacVicar returned to Stillwater to take a position as an assistant professor of agricultural chemistry research and chemistry, later gaining promotion to a full professorship.[1] He remained at Oklahoma State until 1964.[1]

Concurrently with his professorship at Oklahoma State, MacVicar became involved in school administration, taking on the role of dean of the graduate school in 1953.[1] He continued to serve in that capacity until his departure from Stillwater in 1964.[1] From 1957 he also served as vice president for academic affairs.[1]

In 1968, MacVicar was named chancellor of Southern Illinois University, located in the town of Carbondale in the state's downstate coal mining country.[1] MacVicar remained there until 1970, when he came west to Corvallis, Oregon, to assume a post as the 15th president of Oregon State University.[1]

MacVicar remained as head of Oregon State until his retirement in 1984, during which time the campus was expanded with the addition of 23 new buildings.[6] Under MacVicar's watch the total number of faculty at OSU expanded from 1,766 to 2,247, while the school's budget tripled.[7]

After his retirement, he was named professor emeritus of chemistry and president emeritus, special assistant to the chancellor. He also served as acting president of the College of Ganado, a small college in Arizona, for seven months in 1985.[8]

MacVicar published over 135 papers, reports and articles.[3]

MacVicar died on December 26, 1998, in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 80.[9][10] His papers are archived in the Oregon State University library.

• Feeding Trials with Mineral and Protein Supplements for Two-and Three-Year-Old Steers Wintering on Dry Grass. With Oscar Burr Ross and D.F. Stephens. Stillwater, OK: Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, 1950.
• Science is Everybody's Business. Oklahoma City, OK: United Founders Life Insurance Co., n.d. [1960].
• Vitamin A Studies with Beef Cattle: A Summary of Experimental Studies Conducted at Oklahoma State University, 1946–1959. With L.S. Pope and Frank H. Baker. Stillwater, OK: Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, 1961.

• "Guide to the Robert W. MacVicar Papers 1942-1995," Oregon State University Archives, Valley Library, Corvallis, OR.
• "Guide to the President's Office Photographs, 1923-1998," Oregon State University Archives, Valley Library, Corvallis, OR.