| Richard L. Morrill | |
| Birth Date: | 4 June 1939 |
| Birth Place: | Hingham, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Term Start: | September 30, 1988 |
| Term End: | June 30, 1998 |
| Term Start1: | 1982 |
| Term End1: | 1988 |
| Term Start2: | 1979 |
| Term End2: | 1982 |
| Education: | Brown University (B.A.) Yale University (B.Div.) Duke University (Ph.D.) |
Richard Leslie Morrill (born June 4, 1939) is an American educator and former academic administrator who is the chancellor of the University of Richmond. He was president of Salem College, Centre College, and the University of Richmond between 1979 and 1998. He also currently holds the position of distinguished university professor of ethics and democratic values at Richmond.
Richard Leslie Morrill[1] was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, on June 4, 1939.[2] He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Brown University in 1961, graduating magna cum laude. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in religious thought from Yale University in 1964 and a Ph.D. in religion from the Duke University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he was named a James B. Duke Fellow.
Morrill began his career in academia when he joined the faculty at Wells College in Aurora, New York, in 1967. Afterwards taught at Chatham College—now Chatham University—in Pittsburgh. He was appointed to his first position in administration at Chatham as executive assistant to president Edward D. Eddy[3] and later associate provost. In 1977, he became executive assistant to the provost at Pennsylvania State University while also holding a faculty position as associate professor of religion. He remained at Penn State for two years before his election as president of Salem College, a private women's liberal arts college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1979.
He was president of Salem for three years before taking the presidency of another liberal arts school, Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, where he stayed from 1982 to 1988. He left Centre to take the presidency of the University of Richmond and remained in that position for ten years. Upon leaving Richmond's presidency, he became the school's chancellor and was titled distinguished university professor of ethics and democratic values.[4]
Morrill married Martha Leahy in New Haven, Connecticut, on June 27, 1964.[5] They have two children.[6]