UNH President Emeritus Mark Huddleston Named Perkins Bass Distinguished Visitor

Dr. Mark W. Huddleston, whose decades-long career in higher education has culminated in a tenure as the longest-running President of the University of New Hampshire, has been selected as the 2020 Perkins Bass Distinguished Visitor for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. Huddleston began his time in higher education as a faculty member at SUNY Buffalo and the University of Delaware before serving as the Dean of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware, and later as the President of Ohio Wesleyan University and UNH. He has also contributed significantly to the field of public administration, having consulted on administration and financial reform for several domestic and international agencies including the World Bank and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Today, Huddleston lives with his wife, Emma, in Vermont, and looks forward to the opportunity to deliver two lectures on higher education in the upcoming year. The first, to be held on September 30, 2020, is titled "Higher Education in America: An Existential Crisis?" The second, "The Burden of Student Debt: Dimensions, Complexities, and Options," will be held March 3, 2021. "I'm always eager to talk about higher education," said Huddleston, noting that the opportunity to do so at the Rockefeller Center is "especially gratifying."

Established in April 2012, the Perkins Bass Distinguished Visitorship is named in honor of New Hampshire U.S. Congressman Perkins Bass '34, who was elected to four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1955 and 1963. Since then, the program has welcomed speakers ranging from former New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick to former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte; most recently, the Rockefeller Center welcomed former Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Thomas Burack '82 in 2019. In celebration of a New Hampshire citizen who has made outstanding contributions in government, the Visitorship invites speakers to share their wealth of knowledge and experience with the Dartmouth community through public lectures, visiting classes, and engagements with faculty and staff. In addition to funding these speakers, the Perkins Bass '34 Fund also serves to support Dartmouth students who wish to pursue internships engaging with public affairs in New Hampshire.