Richard Warch has served as president of Lawrence University since 1979 and is the second-longest serving president in the college's history. From 1977 to 1979, he was vice president for academic affairs and professor of history.
Warch earned the Bachelor of Arts degree at Williams College in 1961. An ordained minister in the United Presbyterian Church, he studied theology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Yale Divinity School in 1964 and a Ph.D. in American studies from Yale University in 1968.
For the next ten years, he served Yale in a number of capacities, including associate professor of history and American studies, director of the National Humanities Institute program, associate dean of the college, and director of the Visiting Faculty Program.
He is the author of the book School of the Prophets: Yale College, 1701-1740 and co-edited the volume John Brown in the Great Lives Observed Series, along with more than a score of articles and reviews addressing issues in higher education. Most recently, he has contributed a chapter, "If You Build It They Will Come . . . and Stay," to the book Academic Excellence: The Role of Research in the Physical Sciences at Undergraduate Institutions.
An active member of the Annapolis Group, an association of the nation's leading liberal arts colleges, he has served on its executive committee.
At the October 2002 annual meeting of the Lawrence University Board of Trustees, President Warch announced his intention to retire at the conclusion of the 2003-04 academic year, which will be his 25th year as president.
