Albert J. Simone

Who is Albert J. Simone?

Albert Joseph Simone is a former president of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Henrietta, New York.

Simone earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Tufts in 1957, and his PhD in economics from MIT in 1962.

He served as dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Cincinnati from 1972 to 1983.

He was both Chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Manoa and President of the University of Hawaii System from 1984 to 1992. As President at Manoa, Simone lobbied for greater independence from the Hawaiian legislature’s control in order to retain accreditation. During his tenure, UH Manoa consolidated departments, research institutes and federal cooperative programs from different parts of campus into the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology, a leading education and research resource.

He became president of RIT on September 1, 1992, succeeding M. Richard Rose. Simone was previously president of the University of Hawaii System and chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His tenure at RIT saw additional PhD programs inaugurated and improvements made to RIT's athletic program.