Francis White, a member of the original Board of Trustees, was the first treasurer of the Johns Hopkins University. He and one other person, his assistant, Charles J. Meyer, conducted all the financial business of the University. White directed the University's financial policy from his office in downtown Baltimore, while Meyer collected tuition and paid salaries. Meyer succeeded White as treasurer in 1901. The third treasurer was W. Graham Boyce, who took office in 1911 and served until 1931. S. Page Nelson succeeded Boyce. In 1934 Henry S. Baker, a member of the first graduating class of the School of Engineering, and former investment banker with Alex. Brown and Sons, became the fifth Hopkins treasurer. After 25 years of service Baker's title was changed to vice president for finance and treasurer. In 1964, Baker was succeeded by Bruce J. Partridge, who had been vice president for business and management at the University of Delaware. After his retirement as treasurer, Baker remained the University's investment officer, responsible for recommendations to the trustees' finance committee concerning investment policy and the purchase and sale of corporate securities, real estate, and mortgages. In 1966, when P. Stewart Macaulay retired from his position as executive vice president, the University administration was reorganized and Partridge assumed responsibility for personnel, grants and contracts, and government relations. His title also changed, to vice president for administration and treasurer. Partridge resigned his position in June 1969, in order to become president of the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

When Partridge left, the Board of Trustees split the positions of vice president for administration and treasurer. The treasurer was to be the advisor to the vice president for administration in all matters concerning the investment of University funds. All of the treasurer's duties relating to the routine management of the University's property and finances were given to the vice president for administration. As part of this reorganization, the Office of the Treasurer and the Office of the Controller were separated. George Stewart, who had been investment officer since September 1965, became the new treasurer. Stewart resigned at the end of 1979.

In February 1980, Robert C. Bowie, already vice president for financial and management systems, became vice president for finance and treasurer. However, direct control of the office was placed in the hands of the assistant treasurer, R. Riggs Griffith V, who was named associate treasurer and director of investments. In 1985 Bowie was promoted to the position of senior vice president for administration and Griffith was appointed treasurer, recreating the administrative structure of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Griffith resigned in August 1986, and Bowie served as treasurer pro tem until March of 1987, when Eugene Sunshine, a former state treasurer and deputy commissioner for tax policy analysis in New York, was appointed to the post. Sunshine remained treasurer until February 1988, when he succeeded Bowie as senior vice president for administration. He was followed in office by the assistant treasurer, William E. Snow, who had been manager of investments and insurance at COMSAT before coming to Hopkins in October 1987.