Bruce D. Benson
Bruce Davey Benson (born July 4, 1938) served as president of the University of Colorado (CU) system from March 2008 to July 1, 2019. The CU university system encompasses four campuses: CU Boulder, CU Denver, CU Colorado Springs and University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado. Early career. Benson is a businessman who was active in a variety of educational, civic and political activities at the state and national levels. In 1965, he founded Benson Mineral Group, an oil and gas exploration and production company. Since then, his business interests have expanded to include banking , mortgage servicing, real estate development and management, geothermal power, manufacturing, trucking, restaurants and cable television. In 2009 he was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame. Benson has sat on boards of directors of dozens of companies, including United States Exploration, American Land Lease Corporation, Western Capital Investment Corporation and First Interstate Bank of Denver. Three different Colorado governors have named Benson to educational initiatives and governing boards, all of which he chaired: the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (1985–89), Metropolitan State College Board of Trustees (2003–07), P-20 Education Coordinating Council (2007–08) and the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel  for Higher Education (2001–03). Outside Colorado, he was board chair of the Berkshire School in Massachusetts (1984–94) and also served on the board of Smith College (1988–95). Nationally, Benson was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Park Service and was confirmed by the US Senate as a member of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Tenure. CU President Benson celebrated his 10th anniversary in March 2018, becoming the longest serving CU president in the past 65 years. During Benson's tenure, CU's research funding has reached record levels in each of the past several years  (including topping $1 billion in 2016–17), supporting the university's research strengths in biotechnology, health care, renewable and sustainable energy, and aerospace engineering, among others. He has led efforts to promote cross-campus collaboration that have resulted in cooperative academic programs and research initiatives, most notably CU’s Biofrontiers Institute, led by Nobel laureate Tom Cech. Benson and his wife, Marcy Head Benson, chaired CU's $1.5 billion Creating Futures fundraising campaign, which was publicly announced in April 2011 and concluded in November 2013 with $1.53 billion in donations to support scholarships, academic enhancements (endowed faculty positions , programs), research projects and capital improvements across CU's campuses. On July 18, 2018, Benson announced his intention to retire, effective July 2019. Education. Benson studied at Cornell University and then earned his bachelor's degree in geology from CU-Boulder in 1964. Benson received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from CU in 2004. Controversies. Benson was selected as CU president amid concerns among the CU faculty and community members about his lack of academic pedigree and for climate change denial, close connection to partisan politics (Benson unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Colorado as the Republican nominee in 1994 ), and close ties to the oil and gas industry. However, Benson—the longest sitting president in the past 65 years—has since won over several of his detractors and has become notable for his philanthropy, not accepting salary increases and essentially working as the university's "volunteer" president. In 2012 after the State of Colorado passed Colorado Amendment 64 legalizing the use of recreational marijuana, Benson sent an email to constituents decrying the passage of the amendment, commenting on his personal disapproval of the amendment and erroneously suggesting that the CU system would lose federal funding because of its passage . Political life. Benson was the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party from 1987 to 1993 and was the Republican nominee for Colorado governor in an unsuccessful 1994 bid. Personal life. Benson and his second wife Marcy have three children and 10 grandchildren.