John W. Hennessey Jr

Who is John W. Hennessey Jr?

John W. Hennessey, Jr. is an American academic and educator. He has spent most of his life in academia, as professor, dean, and provost. He is Third Century Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth College, where he served for eight years as dean of the Tuck School of Business, during formative years at Tuck. After retirement from teaching applied and professional ethics, he became the provost of the University of Vermont, later serving as interim president.

He has served on more than thirty boards of nonprofit and corporate entities, often as chair. He became emeritus on the Vermont Law School board in 2007 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at its 2008 commencement, at which Madeleine Kunin was the principal speaker and fellow recipient of an LL.D. degree. Governor John Lynch proclaimed March 25, 2005, Hennessey’s 80th birthday, “John W. Hennessey Jr. Day in New Hampshire.” He was awarded an LL.D. degree, honoris causa, at the May 2012 Commencement of The University of Vermont.

His first wife, Jean Lande Hennessey, was an international environmental commissioner and academic program manager, and she was a leading New Hampshire Democratic strategist and activist.