UC Announces the Recipient of the Award for Excellence

Henry R. Winkler, president emeritus of the University of Cincinnati, will be honored with UC’s Award for Excellence at UC’s December Commencement Ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, in Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center.

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1916, Dr. Winkler graduated high school in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He moved to Cincinnati to board with an aunt and uncle while he attended the University of Cincinnati as an evening student. Despite Depression-era jobs at a shoe store and a department store, his funds ran out and he returned east, taking jobs as a dishwasher and at a chrome-plating factory to earn enough to return to Cincinnati.

Eventually, Dr. Winkler earned two degrees from the University of Cincinnati, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1938 and earning his master’s degree in 1940. While attending UC, he studied abroad under a UC Geneva Fellowship and also earned a Taft Fellowship.

Another fellowship allowed Dr. Winkler to enroll at the University of Chicago. During World War II, he spent two years as an information analyst at the Office of War Information. He earned his PhD from Chicago in 1947 while teaching at Roosevelt College, and accepted a faculty position at Rutgers University.

Dr.  Winkler was on the history faculty at Rutgers from 1947-77. During his career at Rutgers, he served as head of the history department from 1960-64 and executive vice president from 1976-77. Simultaneously, he chaired a number of national board and committees relating to the study of history, the quality of education, and the well-being of faculty.  He also accepted visiting professorships at the London School of Economics (under a Fulbright grant), Harvard, Bryn Mawr and Columbia.

In 1977, Dr. Winkler was invited to UC as University Professor of History and executive vice president. He was named president later that year, and served until retiring in 1984. He remains the only alumnus of UC to serve as president.

Dr. Winkler has remained active, conducting research, lecturing and publishing several books. His most recent book is British Labour Seeks a Foreign Policy, 1900-1940, published in 2004. During the past year, he co-chaired the “We’re All UC” fund-raising campaign for UC faculty and staff which raised $8,968,291 to benefit the university.

Institutions as far away as Manila have presented Dr. Winkler with honorary degrees, and he was invited by Thomas More College to inaugurate a lecture series in history. Rutgers University has named a residence hall in his honor.

Throughout his considerable experience as an administrator Dr. Winkler demonstrated dignity, integrity, and devotion to the highest and finest of academic ideals. As a scholar, his work on the British Labour Party has become standard in the field.