Interview with former President Paul G. Bulger, 1959-1967

Paul G. Bulger was born July 25, 1913. He received his B.S. in 1936 from SUNY at Albany and his M.S. from there in 1941. In 1951, Paul Bulger was awarded his Ed.D from Columbia University. From February 1959 to June 1959 Dr. Bulger was Provost and Professor of Education at the Teachers College at Columbia University. On July 1, 1959, Dr. Paul Bulger became President of the State University College at Buffalo. His tenure as president saw sweeping changes for the campus. Dr. Bulger led the transformation of the State University College at Buffalo from a teachers’ college to the largest college of arts and sciences in New York’s State University system. He oversaw the planning and construction of new buildings for fine arts, physical education, and science as well as the student union, library, campus school, and residence halls. Among the things that were started and founded during Dr. Bulger’s tenure were the Burchfield Art Center, the Great Lakes Laboratory, the Buffalo State Foundation, and the Siena Program. Dr. Bulger resigned the presidency of the State University College at Buffalo in 1967 to became the associate commissioner of higher and professional education for the Board of Regents in the State Education Department. He stayed in that role for a year before leaving and becoming professor of higher education at the State University of New York at Albany where he remained until 1975. From 1975-1977 Dr. Bulger was principal of Harlaxton College, a branch of the University of Evansville (Ind.), located in Grantham, England. From 1977 to 1987 he held different posts including a visiting fellowship at Cambridge University, scholar-in-residence and special assistant to the president at William Jewell College in Missouri, and was a lecturer at the State University College at Buffalo. In 1988, Dr. Paul Bulger was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from the State University College at Buffalo. In 1993, the Bulger Communication Center was named in his honor at the State University CCollege at Buffalo. He passed away on February 8, 2000.https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/bsc_oral_history/1031/thumbnail.jp