President Tom Cronin was regarded as one of the most effective college presidents in the American west. Whitman College, under his leadership, was regularly hailed by THE PRINCETON REVIEW of BEST COLLEGES for extraordinary administrative leadership and high student satisfaction. It also twice earned the highest accreditation rankings of any college or university in that part of the country.

Fellow scholar and CNN commentator Michael A. Genovese edited a volume of essays in tribute to him, writing that "It is unusual to become a Mount Rushmore scholar in any one field, but Tom Cronin has made that tremendous accomplishment in two different academic fields - he is one of the most respected American presidency scholars in the nation. And he is one of the most influential leadership scholars."

Cronin earned his Ph.D. in Political Science at Stanford University. He served as a White House Fellow on the White House staff and later served as a scholar in residence at the Brookings Institution, the Aspen Institute, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions and the Hoover Institution.

Tom Cronin taught for nearly three decades at Colorado College where he received several awards for teaching and advising and served in 1991 as Interim President. He served as President of Whitman College from 1993 through 2005.

He was co-author for thirty years of two best selling college textbooks, Government by The People, and State and Local Government. He has also written several books about politics, the presidency, public policy and political films and novels. He is co-author of the prizewinning Leadership Matters.