As expected, the new president displayed a winning way with budget-controlling state legislators, obtaining appropriations for new university buildings and faculty salary raises. Less expected, because his gregarious nature was more immediately apparent than his wide intellectual horizons, were his zeal and success in strengthening the sciences, humanities, and arts at the university. Among his acquisitions for the Indiana faculty were geneticists Tracy M. Sonneborn and Hermann J. Muller and heart surgeon Dr. Harris B. Shumacker, Jr. He stood firm against demands for the dismissal of zoologist Alfred C. Kinsey, head of the university's Institute of Sex Research, when Kinsey' studies of human sexual behavior aroused national controversy.

Herman Wells and Josiah Lilly at the groundbreaking for the Lilly Library

Wells secured for the university library many outstanding private book collections, including that of Josiah Kirby Lilly, which contains 20,000 pieces, including a Caxton Bible and several copies of the Shakespeare First Folio.

Under his presidency the university's School of Music, with the Berkshire Quartet as resident faculty, achieved a position in the first rank of the music schools in the United States. With the assistance of the late Ward G. Biddle, then vice-president of the university, he inaugurated a regular program in which outstanding performers or groups in the arts, such as the Metropolitan Opera company, were brought to the campus.

Wells also established Indiana University's counseling and guidance program, a pioneering project of its kind. Additionally, he instituted reading and study clinics, a student employment service, a health and hospital program, a residence hall system financed through self-liquidating bond issues, and a series of open houses, which allowed students to confer with him in his office without appointment. Quietly but firmly he removed segregationist customs from the campus, opening the university's swimming pools and dormitories to blacks.

During World War II Wells offered the United States government complete access to Indiana University's scholarship and research facilities, and Indiana's scientists made significant contributions to the development of the atomic bomb. Wells left the campus in 1943 to work under Dean Acheson, then Assistant Secretary of State, as Deputy Director of the Office of Foreign Economic Coordination. The following year he became a special advisor on liberated areas for the State Department. In 1945, as the war was ending, he was appointed a consultant at the initial United Nations Conference in San Francisco.

With peace, enrollment of veterans swelled Indiana's student body from 6,000 to 10,000. Meeting the challenge with characteristic confidence, Wells announced in 1946 a ten-year, $25,000,000 expansion plan designed to accommodate 12,000 students. Of this $15,000,000 was earmarked for classrooms, laboratories, and a library, and the remaining $10,000,000 for housing and other projects.

Listen to Herman Wells describe his vision of the campus and the library

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During the whole course of Wells' presidency, the physical size of the university quadrupled, and the enrollment quintupled, reaching more than 27,000 students. In addition to improvements on the Bloomington campus, Wells was responsible for adding five branch campuses and two extension centers.. Thus, by the end of his tenure, Indiana University maintained branch campuses in Gary, East Chicago, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Kokomo, Indianapolis, and Jeffersonville, and cooperative centers in Richmond and Vincennes.

After the war, Wells was increasingly called away from campus. Wells served the United States government as an Allied observer of the 1946 Greek elections and as advisor on cultural affairs to the Military Governor of Germany in 1947. He was also on the UNESCO Committee of Experts on German Questions in 1949, and he served as a member of various other UNESCO boards during the next eight years. In 1958 he led a delegation of university presidents to Russia to survey Soviet higher education. He served as an advisor to the Ministry of Education in Pakistan in 1959. He was a United States delegate to the Twelfth General Assembly of the United Nations and headed a delegation to the 1960 SEATO conferences in Bangkok.

Herman B Wells

Retiring as president of Indiana University in 1962, Wells was succeeded by Elvis J. Stahr, Jr., the former Secretary of the Army in the United States Department of Defense. Upon his retirement, Wells accepted the title of chancellor of the university, a title that was created for Wells. Wells also became president of the Indiana University Foundation, which receives and administers grants, gifts and bequests for the benefit of the university. Wells also served as Chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis from 1940 to 1971, Director of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company from 1951 to 1972, Director of the Chemed Corporation from 1970 to the present, and Director of the Lilly Endowment, Inc., from 1973 to the present.

In 1968, Wells briefly returned to his position as president of Indiana University, serving an interim role between the leadership of Elvis Stahr and Joseph Sutton. Wells also returned for the dedication of the Main Library at Indiana University in 1970, in whose funding and construction Wells had played an important role. Officiating at the ceremonial presentation of the last book to the new Main Library building, Wells called the new building a dream come true for students and faculty (Indiana Daily Student, 21 June 1969, 1). Speaking at the dedication of the new building the following year, Wells described the library and "the most precious of university jewels", commenting that "there is no distinguished university without a distinguished library" (Indiana Daily Student, 12 October 1970, 1).

Robert Miller (Dean of the I.U. Libraries) and Herman Wells

In addition, Wells was involved in numerous public service activities, in addition to those previously listed above. Wells served as chairman of the Aerospace Research Applications Center at Indiana University, and dedicated time to the Education and World Affairs Foundation. He served as trustee of Howard University, Earlham College, and the Indiana Institute of Technology; director of the Arthur R. Metz Foundation, Goodwill Industries of America, the James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Association, and the Jamestown (Indiana) Citizens State Bank. In 1965, President Johnson appointed him to a committee to study ways and means of expanding trade between the United States and the Soviet bloc. Wells was a director of the Committee on Cultural Relations with Latin American and a trustee of the Council for InterAmerican Cooperation, the National Foundation for Education in American Citizenship, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Hoosier Salon Patrons Association. Wells served on the board of directors for the Sigma Nu Educational Foundation, the Learning Resources Institute, and the Council on Library Resources, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. Wells was the founder and active member of the Indiana Academy.

In addition to his public service, Wells was affiliated with numerous professional societies. These included the Indiana Society of Chicago, the American Association of School Administrators, the American Association of University Professors, the Association of American Colleges, the Indiana State Teachers Association, the American Economic Association, the National Association of Cost Accountants, the American Bankers Association, Econometric Society, Indiana Academy of Social Sciences, Indiana Society of Chicago, and Indiana Society of Pioneers. Wells was a member several fraternities, including Phi Beta Kappa, Blue Key, Beta Gamma Sigma, Alpha Kappa Si, Sigma Nu, the Masonic order (33rd degree), Kiwanis, Rotary, Athenaeum (Indianapolis), and the Cosmos of Washington. He held an honorary membership in the International College of Dentists and was honorary vice-president of the American Sunday School.

Wells wrote numerous publications, including participating in the formulation of the Report of Study Commission for Indiana Financial Institutions, 1932; and Being Lucky: Reminiscences and Reflections in 1980.

Throughout his career, he was the recipient of many awards, including several honorary degrees. These included: Honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Butler and DePauw universities and Rose Polytechnic Institute in 1939; Wabash College in 1942; the University of Wisconsin in 1946; Earlham College in 1948; Valparaiso University in 1953; Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Tri-State College in Angola, Indiana in 1959; the University of Louisville in 1961; Franklin College of Indiana, Anderson College and Theological Seminary, and Indiana University in 1962; Ball State Teachers College and Washington University in 1963; University of Notre Dame, St. Joseph's College, the University of California, and Indiana State College in 1964; Drury College in 1968; Columbia in 1969; Chicago Circle Campus of the University of Illinois in 1973; Howard University in 1976; and University of South Caroline in 1980. Wells received an honorary doctorate in education from the College of Education in Bangkok in 1968.

In addition to these honorary degrees, Wells awards and honors included: the Distinguished Service Award of the Indiana Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1938; the first annual award of the New York alumni chapter of the business honorary society, Beta Gamma Sigma, in 1939; Radio Station WHAS Indiana Man of the Year in 1960; Man of the Year award for the Indianapolis Times and the Optometric Association, in 1961; the Gold Medal Award of the International Benjamin Franklin Society, the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the National Inter-Fraternity Conference Award in 1962; Hoosier of the Year award from the Sons of Indiana in New York in 1963; Inter-Fraternity Service Award from Lambda Chi Alpha and Robins of American award in 1964; the Distinguished Service for School Administration award from the American Association of School Administrators in 1965; the Indiana Arts Award in 1977; the Liberty Bell award in 1978; the Lifetime Achievement award from the Indiana Council of Fundraising Executives in 1985; the Distinguished award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Council on Education in 1985; the Diamond Jubilee award from Kappa Alpha Psi in 1986; the Indiana University medal in 1989; the Great American Traditions award from the B'nai B'rith International in 1991; Lifetime Achievement award and Entrepreneur of the Year in 1992; and the Maynard K. Hine medal from Indiana University-Purdue University in 1993. Foreign honors bestowed upon him include Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and decoration as knight commander second class in the Most Noble Order of the Crown and as commander in the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant of Thailand. Additionally, the Wells Scholars program was established, bearing his name, to attract students of high educational merit from across Indiana and the United States to study at Indiana University.