Daniel S. Cheever (1995-2006)

Portrait of Daniel S. Cheever Jr., c. 1998.

Daniel S. Cheever, Jr., born 1942, received his B.A. in Education in 1964 from Harvard University, where he also completed his D.Ed. in 1974. He worked as the superintendent of two Massachusetts school districts before serving as President of Wheelock College from 1983 to 1991. While President of the American Student Assistance Corporation, he was asked to become acting President of Simmons College in 1995. A year later, he was appointed the College's sixth President. 

Cheever focused on modernizing governance and administration, restoring the College's financial health, renovating and expanding facilities, supporting diversity in staff, faculty, and student recruitment, and creating confidence in the College. Highlights of his tenure included a successful capital campaign, a joyous Centennial celebration, the construction of One Palace Road and a new library, and plans for a new School of Management building on the main campus. Increases in student enrollment and growth in minority recruitment illustrated Cheever's ability to carry forward John Simmons' vision into the new century. At the Centennial kickoff, Cheever spoke eloquently of the College's mission: 

The unique character of Simmons lies in its people: the undergraduate and graduate students who come to the College to find their voices as competent, powerful professionals; the committed faculty who teach and inspire them; the able staff who support them; and the 40,000 living alumnae/i whose great and varied accomplishments speak so well of Simmons in the wider world.