Vivian A. Bull, the eighteenth president of what is now Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon, passed away Friday, August 12. She was 87 years old.
Dr. Bull led Linfield from 1992 to 2005 and oversaw dramatic change and growth for the university. She remains the only woman to lead the university.
Bull often cited her lifelong interest in international studies as an outgrowth of her youth in northern Michigan on a street with 15 families that spoke six different languages. She received her bachelor’s degree from Albion College in Michigan and later earned a doctorate from New York University. She did graduate work at the London School of Economics on a Fulbright Scholarship and studied in Norway, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.
From 1962 to 1992, Dr. Bull taught economics at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. She also spent eight years as an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts at Drew University. After serving as president at Linfield for 13 years, Dr. Bull returned to Drew University in 2005 where she later served as its interim president from 2012 to 2014. Upon retirement she was named president emerita.
In 2006, the Vivian A. Bull Music Center was dedicated on the campus of Linfield University. In 2014, the Vivian A. Bull Academic Commons in the Drew University library was named in her honor.