Howard A. Cutler

UAF Chancellor 1975 - 1981

Howard Cutler
UAF Chancellor
Emeritus Howard
A. Cutler

During a sweeping reorganization of the University of Alaska system in 1975, chancellors were appointed to oversee programs at the state's three urban centers in Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks. Howard Cutler assumed responsibility for the Fairbanks campus, considered the flagship of the university system, and managed its research and academic programs until 1981.

Cutler graduated from the University of Iowa in 1940 and received a master's degree in economics a year later. In 1943, Cutler received a Certificate of Graduation from Harvard University and in 1953 received his doctorate in economics from Columbia University.

He began his teaching career in 1946 at UI and held faculty positions at the University of Illinois, University of Chicago and Penn State University.

Former UA President William Wood appointed Cutler to the post of vice president for academic affairs for the University of Alaska in 1962, a position he held until 1966.

From 1966-1976, Cutler served as senior vice president of the Institute of International Education in New York City.

In 1976, Cutler returned to Fairbanks as chancellor of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His return to Alaska was requested by more than 100 members of the Fairbanks business community, all of who had signed a petition supporting his appointment as UAF's first chancellor.

In 1981 Cutler assumed the position of regent's professor of economics at UAF. At UAF's 1983 commencement, the university conferred upon him the rank of chancellor emeritus and regent's professor of economics, emeritus.

Stricken with Parkinson's disease in 1981, Cutler remained active in community and university affairs until his death in 1995. He and his wife, Enid Ellison Cutler, have three children.