American educator and scholar, president of Yale (Yale University) (1846–71), whose many innovations later became common in institutions of higher learning.

Woolsey graduated as head of his class at Yale in 1820, and in 1831 he was appointed professor of Greek there. Elected president of Yale in 1846, Woolsey improved scholarly standards and expanded the university. Under his leadership the scientific school was founded, the first American Ph.D. was awarded (1861), the first college school of fine arts was established, the law and divinity schools were rejuvenated, the corporation was reorganized, and the “government of the faculty” was affirmed.

Woolsey's editions of the Greek tragedies brought the advanced methods of German scholarship to American colleges, and his Introduction to the Study of International Law (1860) and Essay on Divorce and Divorce Legislation (1869) went through many editions. After retirement he wrote Political Science (1877) and Communism and Socialism (1880) and headed an American commission for revision of the New Testament.