Valparaiso University's 150th Anniversary

John E. Roessler, 1921-1922 and
Milo J. Bowman, 1922

Roessler, a VU alumnus, was serving as Professor of German when he was selected as University president in 1921 after the Hodgdon debacle. Roessler was successful at reconciling the various contentious student and faculty factions that had formed during Hodgdon’s presidency, and with the help of vice president and mathematics professor Alpheus Americus Williams, Roessler managed to balance the University’s budget. Unable to make headway against the University’s large accumulated debt, however, Roessler retired in the spring of 1922 and was succeeded on an interim basis for six months by the Dean of Law, Milo J. Bowman.