Kurt L. Schmoke Named UB’s Eighth President
Category: Noteworthy
photography: Audra Harvey, M.A. ’11
On May 14, the University System of Maryland Board of Regents announced the appointment of Kurt L. Schmoke as president of the University of Baltimore, effective July 7. A three-term former mayor of Baltimore who held office from 1987-99, Schmoke most recently served as interim provost and general counsel at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he was also dean of the School of Law from 2003-12.
Schmoke, 64, addressed the UB community the day the announcement was made. “The thing that attracted me [to UB] so much—not only my love for the city, the state—[but] looking at the plans, the proposals, the strategic plan, all the ideas that have been brought together about the future of the University, it just seemed to me that this University has great dreams for the future,” he said. “And it’s up to all of us [who] will be in leadership capacities to make sure that we fulfill those dreams. ... So I’m excited about this opportunity.”
A native of Maryland’s largest city, Schmoke graduated from Baltimore City College high school and was elected state’s attorney for the city before becoming Baltimore’s first elected black mayor.
Schmoke earned his undergraduate degree in history from Yale University in 1971 before receiving his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1976; in between, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He is married to Dr. Patricia Schmoke, an ophthalmologist, and they have two adult children.
