SUNY Potsdam

President John F. Schwaller's career in higher education spans more than 30 years. He served as the vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean, and professor of history and languages from 2001-2006 at University of Minnesota, Morris. From 1995-2001, he was associate provost and associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of Montana, Missoula. Previously, Dr. Schwaller was the director of the Academy of American Franciscan History at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, California.

President Schwaller was also the associate dean of the Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities at Florida Atlantic University, where he held a number of important administrative positions over a fourteen-year period.

A nationally-recognized scholar of early colonial Latin America, and of Nahuatl and the Nahua (the Aztec language and people) Dr. Schwaller is the author of five books and the editor of three others.  Additionally, Dr. Schwaller is the author of 50 articles in leading scholarly journals and has more than 100 professional papers and presentations to his credit.  He sits on the Editorial Board of two scholarly journals, The Americas and Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl.

His teaching experience began in 1969, when as a graduate student he was an assistant instructor of Spanish at the University of Kansas. Most recently he was a professor of history and Spanish at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

President Schwaller is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Administrative Service Award from the University of Montana, Distinguished Teacher of the Year from the College of Arts and Humanities of Florida Atlantic University and two Fulbright-Hays Research Awards.

His numerous professional service commitments include membership on the executive council of the American Catholic Historical Association; he chaired the program committee of the American Historical Association Conference on Latin American History; he was President of the Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies; and he served as United States Delegate to the History Commission of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History.

An active member of the communities where he has lived, Dr. Schwaller has been involved in his church, Kiwanis and in the Scouting movement, serving in leadership capacities. He and his wife, Anne Cardot Taylor Schwaller, are parents of two sons, Robert and William. Robert is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Kansas. William is a recent graduate of Grinnell College, in Iowa, and currently a graduate intern at Bucknell University.

President Schwaller earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Grinnell College in 1969, a Master of Arts in Spanish from the University of Kansas in 1971 and a Doctorate in Colonial Latin America History from Indiana University in 1978.  In 2009 he was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters, honoris causa, by Grinnell College in recognition of his accomplishments in higher education.