Richard James Stonesifer (June 21, 1922 – January 1999) was the fifth President of

Monmouth University Monmouth University is a private university in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Founded in 1933 as Monmouth Junior College, it became Monmouth College in 1956 and Monmouth University in 1995 after receiving its charter. There are about 4,400 full- ...

Early life and career

Stonesifer was born in

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

to Rev. Paul T. and Esther (Wittlinger) Stonesifer. He graduated from

Franklin and Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It employs 175 full-time faculty members and has a student body of approximately 2,400 full-time students. It was founded upon the merger of Frankli ...

in 1944 where he was a member of

Sigma Pi Sigma Pi () is a collegiate fraternity with 233 chapters at American universities. As of 2021, the fraternity had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 110,000 alumni. Sigma Pi headquarters are in Nashville, Tennessee. The fraternity ...

fraternity. He then served in the

Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the war he earned his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

and married Nancy Jane Weaver on June 28, 1947. They had one daughter, Pamela Ann. He then returned to Franklin and Marshall as a member of the English Department from 1946 until 1960. During this time he earned his

Doctorate Degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1954.

College leadership

In 1960, he was promoted to Assistant to the President of Franklin and Marshall. Through his efforts the college won an award from the American College of Public Relations Association for his newspaper series ''“Campus and Classroom”'' in 1962. On March 1, 1963, he was named as the new Assistant To the Provost and Director Of the College of General Studies and the Summer School for the University of Pennsylvania. He also joined the faculty of the Annenberg School as an Associate Professor of Communications. During his time at the University he wrote his book about Welsh tramp poet

W. H. Davies William Henry Davies (3 July 1871 – 26 September 1940) was a Welsh poet and writer, who spent much of his life as a tramp or hobo in the United Kingdom and the United States, yet became one of the most popular poets of his time. His themes inc ...

, entitled ''W. H. Davies: A Critical Biography'', the first full biography of Davies, which was published in 1965. Stonesifer then moved to

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

in 1965. He served as their dean of the College of Liberal Arts until 1971.

College President

From 1971 to 1979 he served as the President of Monmouth University. Dr. Stonesifer has received some credit for developing the academic reputation of Monmouth. During this time several buildings on campus were added to the National Register of Historic Places and the college received some attention for being the home of the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

and

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

training camps. His tenure was marred by a tight financial situation at the university. Like most private colleges in the 1970s, Monmouth suffered from declining enrollment, national economic inflation, and debt from a large building program in the 1960s. The faculty threatened strikes throughout the decade. There was eventually a two-week faculty strike in 1979 as well as a longer staff strike. These strikes strained his relationship with the college's regents which caused him to step down.

Post presidential career

After leaving Monmouth he served as a Woodrow Wilson professor of humanities and social science from 1979 to 1982. Stonesifer died in Mullins, South Carolina in January, 1999.

Publications

Books

*Stonesifer, Richard J. (1963), ''W. H. Davies - A Critical Biography'', London:

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...

, ISBN B0000CLPA3

Articles

source: * Stonesifer, Richard J. "The Catsup Factory Fallacy." ''Small College Annual'', 1966: p. 11-12. * Stonesifer, Richard J. "A Ritual of Restlessness." ''The Drew University Magazine'', Summer 1970: p. 11-13. * Stonesifer, Richard J. "TV Form and TV Sense." '' Television Quarterly'', vol. 4, no. 2, Spring 1965: p. 19-27.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stonesifer, Richard J. Monmouth University faculty United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II American non-fiction writers 1922 births 1999 deaths People from Lancaster, Pennsylvania