Elmer Louis Kayser (1896-1985) came to The George Washington University as a student in 1914 and stayed until his death 1985. He was an institution unto himself, and author of two books chronicling the history of GW: Bricks Without Straw: The Evolution of George Washington University (1970) and A Medical Center The Institutional Development of Medical Education in George Washington University (1973). He also wrote The Grand Social Enterprise; A Study of Jeremy Bentham in his Relation to Liberal Nationalism (1932) and A Manual of Ancient History (1937). Kayser was professor of European history from 1917-67 when he assumed the role of professor emeritus. He was also the University Historian from 1962-85.

Elmer Kayser was born in August 27, 1896 in Georgetown, D.C., attended Western High School (now the Duke Ellington School of the Arts), and received a B.A. (1917) and M.A. (1918), and a Ph.D. from Columbia University (1932). During his incredible seventy-one year tenure with the University, he held various administrative offices, among them Secretary of the University, 1918-27, Dean of University Students, 1930-62, and President of the General Alumni Association of GW, 1950-53. He was given a Distinguished Alumni Achievement award in 1941 and awarded and honorary Doctor of Laws in 1948. His activities outside of academia included radio commentator on foreign affairs during World War II, historian of the National Capital Sesquicentennial Commission, and member of the governing boards of Mount Vernon College, the National Cathedral School, the nurses' school committee of Emergency Hospital and Central Dispensary and St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Elmer Kayser served for more than twenty-five years as vice-chairman of the board of the Mount Vernon Seminary (now the Mount Vernon Campus of GW), and received an honorary degree from that institution in 1975. The Elmer Louis Kayser endowed Professorship in History was established in 1983, with more than 1,000 alumni, faculty, staff and friends contributing gifts in excess of $500,000 needed to establish it. Kayser was also a recipient of the George Washington Award at GW in 1977, given "in special recognition to those people who have made The George Washington University a better place to be."

Elmer Kayser died April 28, 1985 in Washington, D.C.