When Chancellor Troop stepped down in June 1944 (at the end of the academic year) Harry Brookings Wallace, president of the Board of Directors, became acting chancellor.

On April 19, 1945 Arthur Holly Compton accepted the position of chancellor, and according to the 1945 Hatchet yearbook "[he] will assume his duties at the University as rapidly as he is freed from his government commitments, involving scientific research connected with the war efffort."

Chancellor Compton's official Inauguration ceremony took place February 22, 1946.