Massey Bridges Cultural Gap at SAIC

In the fall of 2010, Dr. Walter Massey assumed the presidency of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

A prominent physicist, Massey doesn’t consider his artistic talent on the level of the university’s students and faculty; however, he brings decades of creative and cultural interests to the president’s desk.

Dr. Walter Massey“I think some of that came from my early education at Morehouse when we were encouraged to explore new areas, to be curious and to take risks in learning,” says Massey, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Massey entered Morehouse College after completing his sophomore year of high school. “I won a scholarship that was part of a national competition by the Ford Foundation,” he recalls.

With an early interest in arithmetic, Massey eventually focused his studies in theoretical physics as an undergrad. “I found that physics was a way to help you use mathematics to understand the world around you,” he says.

In 1958, Massey graduated from Morehouse, then continued to pursue physics under prominent physicist Eugene Feenberg as a doctoral student at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Earning my Ph.D. helped me to master physics, but it also taught me how to approach learning in general and how to master other fields,” he says.