LeMaistre and Mark Named Chancellors Emeritus
Former Chancellors Charles LeMaistre and Hans Mark were given the honorific title Chancellors Emeritus by the University of Texas System Board of Regents Thursday.
Only two other chancellors, Harry Huntt Ransom (1961-71) and E. Don Walker (1978-84), have been named Chancellor Emeritus.
“Charles LeMaistre and Hans Mark were visionary chancellors who expanded the UT System into new directions that greatly benefited higher education and the people of Texas,” said current Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. “They were unique, with exceptional careers in their respective fields of medicine and aerospace engineering before bringing their impressive talents to the UT System. I am enormously proud to be a part of the long and distinguished history of chancellors that includes these two remarkable leaders.”
Charles LeMaistre is a physician and professor of internal medicine who served as the fourth UT System chancellor, from 1971-78. Under his leadership, the UT System expanded to include new health science centers in Houston and San Antonio and new universities in Dallas, Permian Basin and San Antonio.
Before joining the UT System as vice chancellor for health affairs in 1966, LeMaistre served as associate dean and professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical School. He had received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College and later served as chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
LeMaistre has devoted much of his professional career to cancer prevention and smoking control. He served on the first U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health in 1964, and later as the national president of the American Cancer Society. He was president of UT MD Anderson Cancer Center from 1978 to 1996 and holds the title President Emeritus.
Among his numerous awards and recognitions, Charles LeMaistre received the President’s Award from the American Lung Association in 1987 and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Medical Association in 1995.
Hans Mark is a physicist and retired professor of aerospace engineering who served as the sixth chancellor of the University of Texas System from 1984 to 1992. He led the UT System to international prominence in engineering and science, and played a prominent role in bringing the high-tech industry to Austin and Central Texas, including MCC (Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation) and SEMATECH (Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology).
As chancellor, he presided over a major increase in federal and private funding for UT System institutions and was instrumental in bringing Pan American University into the UT System, which has provided greater opportunities for higher education in the Rio Grande Valley.
Prior to his chancellorship, Mark served as deputy administrator of NASA, where he assisted in developing the space station and oversaw 14 space shuttle flights. He taught at a several prestigious universities, including MIT, UC Berkeley and Stanford, and he also served as Secretary of the U.S. Air Force.
He has received a number of awards and accolades for his teaching and service, including the Distinguished Service Medal from NASA and the U.S. Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest civilian honor, for his more than 50 years of military research. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the American Society of Engineering Education, among other prestigious memberships.
Hans Mark retired recently as the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in Engineering at UT Austin after teaching there for 23 years.
About the University of Texas System
Educating students, providing care for patients, conducting groundbreaking research and serving the needs of Texans and the nation for more than 130 years, The University of Texas System is one of the largest public university systems in the United States, with nine academic universities, six health institutions and a fall 2013 enrollment of more than 213,000. The UT System confers more than one-third of the state’s undergraduate degrees, educates two-thirds of the state’s health care professionals annually and accounts for almost 70 percent of all research funds awarded to public universities in Texas. The UT System has an annual operating budget of $14.6 billion (FY 2014) including $3 billion in sponsored programs funded by federal, state, local and private sources. With about 90,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.
