John W. Shumaker

John William Shumaker (born 1942) is an American educator who served as president of Central Connecticut State University, the University of Louisville, and the University of Tennessee.

Shumaker is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1942. He received a bachelor's degree in ancient Greek from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was admitted into Phi Beta Kappa. He undertook graduate study in classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving master's and doctoral degrees in 1966 and 1969, respectively. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Homeric transformations in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes."

Shumaker began his academic career as a faculty member at Ohio State University. In 1975 he became associate dean of the College of Humanities there. He left Ohio State in 1977 for the State University of New York at Albany, where he was initially the dean of humanities and fine arts and later became vice president for academic planning and development. In 1987 he left SUNY Albany to become president of Central Connecticut State University, where he served until 1995, when he accepted the presidency of the University of Louisville. While he was at Louisville, the university increased its endowment from $183 million to more than $500 million. Shumaker worked to enhance the university's profile as a research university. He was also credited with a successful effort to build a new football stadium at Louisville which was largely funded through alumni donations; hiring Rick Pitino to coach the school's basketball team; and helping to improve the quality of the student body, as indicated by the test scores of the freshmen who enrolled at the university.

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