Nils Y. Wessell
President, 1953 - 1966
"Our ideals and their realizations will be unfolded in the steady march forward from day to day."
– Nils Wessell, inaugural speech, December 9, 1953
Known as the “boy dean,” Nils Wessell started at Tufts at only 25 years old as a professor of Psychology and dean of Liberal Arts in 1939, later serving as Vice President to his mentor and predecessor, Leonard Carmichael. After he took office in 1953, Wessell carried forward Carmichael’s efforts to modernize Tufts. His inaugural speech remembered the air of hope and apprehension at the very first inauguration, mirrored in his own— with the beginning of Tufts’ next hundred years came new beginnings in many other areas, including a turn toward research and physical expansion. Following the announcement of his inauguration, an editorial in the Tufts Weekly reaffirmed that:
"President Wessell has assumed a tremendous responsibility. If the expansion program is a great success, as it promises to be, — most of us will consider that President Wessell deserves a great deal of the credit, but, if for some reason, the program should not be as successful as it might be, many of us will blame President Wessell alone!"
Wessell kicked off this new era by changing the name of Tufts College to Tufts University, and throughout his tenure oversaw the construction of new residential and lab space as well as the Wessell (now Tisch) Library, the growth of graduate programs, and the founding of the Lincoln Filene Center for Public Service and the Experimental College. He also ended the admissions quotas put in place during the Cousens presidency.
After 12 years in office, Wessell resigned from the presidency in 1966 according to his belief that a new president every 10-15 years fostered “balanced and significant qualitative growth in a college or university.”