Description:
Richard A. Levao, Ph.D., JD, was born in Manhattan in 1948. He grew up in Washington Heights and Tenafly. From 1966 to 1970, he attended Rutgers College, known at the time as the College of Arts and Sciences, and majored in political science. He was a Henry Rutgers Scholar, studying with Dr. Ross Baker, then a junior faculty member. Dr. Levao served as the student body president and representative to the National Student Association, as well as the student representative to the University Senate. At WRSU, he worked as a disc jockey and delivered news commentaries and movie reviews. He recalls administrators Mason Gross, Arnold Grobman and Howard Crosby, with whom he had a close relationship, and professors Ross Baker, Lloyd Gardner, Warren Susman, Michael Curtis and Josef Silverstein. During the turbulent late 1960s, he remembers the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the student protest movements, the controversy surrounding the draft lottery, the debate over coeducation, and the student strike following the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. As Student Council president, he delivered a speech about President Richard Nixon's highly-contentious plans to attend the centennial college football game in 1969. After attending Cornell Law School, he went on to a career practicing law and in higher education. He was a member of both the Rutgers University Board of Trustees and Board of Governors. Dr. Levao served as the President of Bloomfield College for sixteen years, before retiring with emeritus status in 2019.