Robert Doherty (college president)

Robert E. Doherty (1885–1950) was an American electrical engineer who served as the third President of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.

Doherty was born in Clay City, Illinois, then a rural area without electricity or a telegraph office. When electricity was introduced there, it fascinated him. He began to learn telegraphy while in high school and after graduation, worked as a telegrapher for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He saved his money to attend prep school. At age 21 he enrolled in the University of Illinois hoping to study electrical engineering. He attended a lecture during his freshman year by Charles Steinmetz of the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York. It inspired him to take a position at GE after graduation.

By 1918 Steinmetz promoted Doherty to be his assistant, and he served in this role until Steinmetz's death in 1923. Doherty next became a full-time consulting engineer at GE and began to teach problem-solving courses within the company to newly hired engineers. During this time Doherty continued his studies and earned an M.S. from Union College. The Great Depression took its toll on GE, however, and Doherty accepted an offer from Yale University. He became dean of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science in 1932. In 1936, he accepted the presidency at Carnegie Institute of Technology, today's Carnegie Mellon.

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