Robert Maynard Hutchins, was an American educational philosopher, president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago, and earlier dean of Yale Law School (1927–1929). He was the husband of novelist Maude Hutchins. A graduate of Yale University and its law school, Hutchins joined the law faculty and soon was named Dean, where he gained notice for Yale's development of the philosophy of Legal Realism. Hutchins was 30 years old when he became Chicago's president in 1929. While he was president, Hutchins implemented wide-ranging and sometimes controversial reforms of the University, including the elimination of varsity football. He supported interdisciplinary programs, including during World War II, establishing the Metallurgical Laboratory. His most far-reaching academic reforms involved the undergraduate College of the University of Chicago, which was retooled into a novel pedagogical system built on Great Books, Socratic dialogue, comprehensive examinations and early entrance to college. Although parts of the Hutchins Plan was abandoned by the University shortly after Hutchins left in 1951, an adapted version of the program survives at Shimer College in Chicago. Hutchins left Chicago to head the Ford Foundation where he channeled resources into studying education. In 1959, he founded the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions a think tank in Santa Barbara, California.