Cornelis de Kiewiet

Who was Cornelis de Kiewiet?

Cornelis Willem de Kiewiet was a 20th-century historian most notable for having served as president of Cornell University and the University of Rochester.

De Kiewiet was born in the Netherlands, but grew up in South Africa, where his father went as a diamond and gold-seeker and later worked as an employee of the Transvaal Republic's Railway. In the early 1920s, Cornelis earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees in history from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and, in 1927, he earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of London.

De Kiewiet emigrated to the United States in 1929 when he was offered a position teaching European history at the University of Iowa. In 1941, he joined the faculty of Cornell University, where he taught modern European history and pursued his research interests in British colonial policy, particularly in South Africa. In the mid-1940s, de Kiewiet became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell and, in 1948, he was named University provost.