Mark Ellingson digital audio recordings

Mark Ellingson (d.1993) was the fifth president of the Rochester Institute of Technology (1936-1969), succeeding his father-in-law, John A. Randall. Ellingson began at RIT as a professor of economics in 1926. He organized and coached the first RIT Wrestling team. Under his leadership, enrollment went from 550 students to 5,000, with endowment increasing from $1.5 million to $22 million and school assets increasing from $2.4 million to $111 million.

Ellingson had a gift for getting along with everyone, from industry leaders to the school's maintenance staff. During Ellingson's presidency, RIT saw a major expansion, the merger with the Empire School of Printing; the renaming of the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute to the current Rochester Institute of Technology; the relocation of RIT from its downtown Rochester location to its current campus in Henrietta; and he was instrumental in the process of RIT being selected as the location for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

He retired in 1969 and died in 1993. In his final report to the Institute, he declared "I can think of no other life which would have given me the satisfaction that I have had from my association with the Institute...its students, faculty, alumni, and its board of directors."