John T. Casteen III
College of Arts and Sciences '65, Graduate School of Arts and Scences '66, '70
University of Virginia

John T. Casteen has been president of the University of Virginia since August 1990. After teaching English at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Virginia, Casteen became Virginia's secretary of education in 1982. He served until 1985.

While secretary, he directed reforms in both secondary and higher education, overhauled Virginia's college desegregation efforts, and initiated programs of state support for research. He served as dean of admissions at the University of Virginia from 1975 to 1982. From 1985 to 1990, he was president of the University of Connecticut.

In 1993, Casteen was named the Outstanding Virginian. The state conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) presented its highest honor, the Jackson Davis Award to him in December 1993. In February 1996, he received the doctor honoris causa from the University of Athens in Greece. The American Association for Higher Education named him to its list of the nation's leaders of higher education in February 1998. In 1998, he was named the University of Virginia's outstanding alumnus of the year. Mr. Casteen received, in December 1998, the National Institute of Social Sciences' Gold Medal Award.

Mr. Casteen holds three degrees in English from the University of Virginia.