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Although the trustees of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University formally federated their institutions in 1967, this union had been seen by many as inevitable for decades before that. Case and Reserve often behaved like good next-door neighbors should-helping each other when needed and willing to work together whenever possible. They shared buildings or staff when necessary and worked together when it might prove fruitful. One of the best examples of this was seen in 1887, when Case physicist Albert Michelson and Reserve chemist Edward Morley collaborated on the famous Michelson-Morley Experiment. The results of their experiment served as a foundation for Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Since that time there have been myriad examples of collaboration--both spontaneous and planned--between various faculty members and departments.
There had been some discussion of a merger of the two institutions as early as 1890, but those talks dissolved quickly. In the 1920s, the Survey Commission on Higher Education in Cleveland, funded by the Cleveland Foundation, issued a milestone report based on their five-year study of the matter. The commission took a strong stand in favor of federation and the community was behind the idea as well, but in the end all that came of the study was a decision by the two institutions to cooperate in founding Cleveland College, a special unit for part-time and adult students in downtown Cleveland. In the years that followed, however, the schools did find other ways in which they could cooperate to reduce redundancy and save money. In 1950, they began sharing the same student health service. The adoption of a common academic calendar in 1958 allowed students to take courses at either institution. Instruction in astronomy was held at Case, while all geology and foreign language instruction was held at Western Reserve.
By the 1960s, Reserve president John Schoff Millis and Case president T. Keith Glennan shared the idea that federation would create a complete university, one better able to attain national distinction. A 1965 letter from John Gardner, the former president of the Carnegie Foundation who had been appointed head of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, strengthened their belief. "Together your two institutions stand a chance of emerging as one of the great landmarks on the world educational scene," Gardner wrote. "Neither is likely to make it alone. I recognize that each is a distinguished body; but it will require more strength and resources than either can command alone to emerge as one of the truly great 'citadels of learning.'"
Shortly after receiving this letter, Glennan and Millis went to see Gardner. From this meeting emerged a plan to study the potential for federation, a plan that was approved by the boards of trustees of both Case and Western Reserve. Financed by the Carnegie Corporation, Cleveland Foundation, Greater Cleveland Associated Foundation, and several local donors, a study commission of national leaders in higher education and public policy was charged with exploring the idea of federation. The Heald Commission, so known for its chair, former Ford Foundation President Henry T. Heald, issued its final report, "Vision of a University," proposing a federation of Case and Reserve. The report defined the action as a federation to ensure a "combination of resources and unity of leadership and the flexibility and autonomy of organizations within the University that would preserve the strengths and traditions of the components." The report predicted the federation of Case and Reserve would create one of the largest private universities in the nation, with a combined faculty larger than that of Princeton, Chicago, Stanford or Johns Hopkins. Its degrees granted would exceed in number those of Princeton, Chicago, Duke or Brown, its was projected, and its endowment would be larger than that of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Cal Tech, or New York University.
In June 1967, the trustees of Case and Reserve approved an "Agreement of Consolidation," and appointed Robert W. Morse, who one year earlier had succeeded T. Keith Glennan at Case, as the new University's president. Reserve's president John S. Millis was named the University's chancellor, a senior advisory role. Case Western Reserve University began its existence on July 1, 1967, under a new board of trustees that had fifteen members from each predecessor institution.
Although the Heald Commission outlined the many benefits of federation, it did not give specific guidance as to how it should be carried out. There were no models available at the time for a "federation," and the nation was about to enter a period of intense political, racial, and cultural turmoil. While the new University's first decade of life was eventful, the persistence and determination exhibited during that era by faculty, staff, students, trustees, and alumni helped to create the University we know today. Case Institute of Technology, a school of science and engineering, and Western Reserve University, known for its strong liberal arts and professional programs, came together in 1967 in one of the most important examples of cooperation ever achieved in American higher education: Case Western Reserve University.
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