D. Bruce Johnstone

Who is D. Bruce Johnstone?

Donald Bruce Johnstone is an American educator who is most notable for having served as President of Buffalo State College and Chancellor of the State University of New York.

Johnstone was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and pursued degrees in Economics and Education at Harvard University before taking a high school teaching position in Westport, Connecticut. He then returned to school, earning a Ph.D. in Higher Education at the University of Minnesota in 1969.

After brief stints working as an administrative assistant to Walter F. Mondale and a project specialist at the Ford Foundation, Johnstone took academic and administrative positions at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1979, he assumed the Presidency of Buffalo State College.

In 1988, he was chosen to head the State University of New York System. Johnstone commissioned an influential support to spur lawmakers to enable the SUNY System to adapt to the changing needs of New York State, specifically, the need to educate older and more ethnically diverse students and to supply the State healthcare system with an ample supply of healthcare workers. He resigned in 1994 after struggling with pancreatic cancer.