Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was named the Chancellor at the College of William & Mary, the same school he graduated from in 1965 with a Bachelors Degree in History and served as president of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity.
Gates previously served as the President of Texas A&M University before becoming Defense Secretary. He once joked that as Texas A&M president, he got more criticism for firing football coach R.C. Slocum than he did for invading certain countries as Secretary of Defense.
“I congratulate Robert Gates on his selection as the twenty-fourth Chancellor of the College of William & Mary,” President Obama said. “In Bob, one of our nation’s oldest colleges has found one of our nation’s finest public servants. I’m confident that Bob will bring to this new role the same sense of duty and personal integrity that I and other Presidents valued during his distinguished career in government. As he did at Texas A&M and the Department of Defense, Bob will again help lead an institution devoted to our nation’s most precious resource—our young men and women. I wish Bob the very best as he begins this new chapter at his alma mater, which helped to inspire his commitment to public service five decades ago.”
