Robert E. Witt recently retired as Chancellor of The University of Alabama System, a position he held since 2012. Before becoming chancellor, Dr. Witt led The University of Alabama through a nine-year period of growth that included a dramatic increase in student enrollment, an upward surge in student quality, and a building construction program that changed the face of the campus and its surroundings.
Witt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Bates College, an MBA from Dartmouth, and a Ph.D. in business administration from Penn State.
The Connecticut native came to The University of Alabama in 2003 following an eight-year tenure at the University of Texas-Arlington where he was responsible for a dramatic turnaround. Witt joined the business school faculty at the University of Texas, Austin in 1968 and rose through the ranks as chair and associate dean. He was named the Zale Corporation Centennial Progressor in Business in 1983. Two years later, he was named to the Mortimer Centennial Professorship in Business and that year became acting dean of business. In 1985, he was named dean, a position he would hold for nine years at a business school ranked by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top seven schools of business in the world.
In 1995, Witt went to UT-Arlington as interim president and was named permanent president in 1996.
As chancellor of The University of Alabama System, Witt was responsible for The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and The University of Alabama in Huntsville, as well as the UAB Health System. Collectively, the UA System has an economic impact of over $8 billion annually on the state of Alabama
Witt’s civic work has been equally impressive and significant. He served as chairman of the Council of Presidents of Alabama’s colleges and universities and was a member of the Governor’s College and Career Ready Task Force.
He is a member of the Alexis de Toqueville Executive Committee and is chairman of the United Way of Tuscaloosa 2016 Campaign.
He is a past chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, a member of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Board, and the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Witt has also been lauded for recognizing the role athletics can play in bringing visibility and prominence to a university. Under Witt’s leadership, the University hired football coach Nick Saban who was brought six national championships to Alabama in the past 13 years.
Witt is no stranger to hall of fame inductions. In 2015, he was inducted into the Tuscaloosa County Civic Hall of Fame, following his 2011 induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor which consists of 100 living Americans elected on the service to the state. Most recently, he was inducted into the National Collegiate Wheelchair Basketball Intercollegiate Division Hall of Fame for his support of adaptive athletic programs.
Dr. Witt and his wife, Sandee Kirby Witt, have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.
