Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates will be the next chancellor of the College of William and Mary, replacing retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Gates is an undergraduate alumnus of William and Mary from the Class of 1965. He’ll replace O’Connor in February.
The chancellor’s job at William and Mary deserves some explanation. The post dates to the 1693 origins of the nation’s second-oldest college. The position originally went to an English subject, usually the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London, who served as the school’s “advocate to the crown” while the president oversaw day-to-day operations, according to a backgrounder from the Williamsburg school.
George Washington has held the post, along with former President John Tyler, former Chief Justice Warren Burger, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and, not least, O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the high court.
Read the full story at the Washington Post.
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