Alfred Whitney Griswold

A. Whitney Griswold
President of Yale University
Term 1951 – 1963
Predecessor Charles Seymour
Successor Kingman Brewster, Jr.
Born October 27, 1906(1906-10-27)
Morristown, New Jersey
Died April 19, 1963(1963-04-19) (aged 56)
New Haven, Connecticut

Alfred Whitney Griswold (October 27, 1906 – April 19, 1963) was an American historian and educator, and President of Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.

Contents

Biography

Born in Morristown, New Jersey, he attended Hotchkiss School before obtaining his B.A. from Yale University in 1929. Griswold was a descendant, on his mother's side, of Eli Whitney, and of six colonial governors of Connecticut on his father's side.[1]

Griswold, along with a handful of students and faculty members, founded the Yale Political Union.[2][3]

He taught English for a year, then changed to history, which he taught at Yale from 1933, becoming an assistant professor in 1938, an associate professor in 1942, and a full professor in 1947. He was President of Yale University from 1951 to 1963.[4] Griswold was unawares of his imminent rise to the presidency. The day of his elevation, he told his wife, "Thank God we're not in that racket," after they had lunched with a friend, the president of Mount Holyoke College.[5]

Griswold received a Ph.D. in the new field of History, the Arts and Letters, writing the first dissertation in American Studies in 1933.[6] The American cult of success was the dissertation's subject, informed in part by Griswold's brief time on Wall Street between his graduation and the stock market crash of 1929.[7] Griswold authored The Far Eastern Policy of the United States (1938), Farming and Democracy (1948), Essays on Education (1954), In the University Tradition (1957), andLiberal Education and the Democratic Ideal (1959).[4]

Griswold is credited with tripling the university endowment to $375 million, building 26 new buildings and establishing research fellowships for young scholars, particularly in the sciences.[8] He was arguably Yale's first modern president, and was widely quoted in the national media for his views on foreign affairs, amateur athletics, academic freedom, and the liberal arts against government intrusion.[9]

Griswold worked in successful collobration with Nathan Pusey, his counterpart at Harvard, to create the Ivy League, maintaining amateurism in athletics among the member programs.[10]

The decision to create the 11th and 12th residential colleges at Yale, known as Morse and Ezra Stiles, was made by Griswold. In 1952, he established masters of arts programs in teaching, affiliated with the traditional liberal arts departments. During World War II he headed special U.S. Army training programs in languages and civil affairs.[4]

Griswold died of colon cancer in New Haven, Connecticut, and is buried in Grove Street Cemetery. His former home, at 237 East Rock Road in New Haven, is a contributing property in the Prospect Hill Historic District.[11]

Ben Kiernan is the current A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History at Yale.

Quotes

On ideas and the banishment of books:

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education. —Alfred Whitney Griswold, "Essays on Education,"

On coeducation at Yale:

By keeping in step with the male,/
we proceed at the pace of the snail./
Said the Dean of Admission,/
"Let's switch our position/
and get some fast women at Yale!"[12]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Karabel, Jerome. The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admissions and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Houghton Mifflin and Company, New York, 2005. p. 222. ISBN 139780618574582, 100618574581
  2. ^ "Two Yale Groups Turn to Politics; New Union's Plan to Train an Intelligent Minority for Leadership Is Approved". The New York Times: pp. N3. December 9, 1934. 
  3. ^ Kabaservice, Geoffrey. The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment, Henry Holt and Company, Inc., New York, 2004. p. 51. ISBN 0805067620
  4. ^ a b c Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. 12, Micropædia 15th edition, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc, Vol. 12
  5. ^ Karabel, Jerome. The Chosen: The History of Admissions and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Houghton Mifflin and Company, New York, 2005. p.222. ISBN 139780618574581, 100618574581
  6. ^ Karabel, Jerome. The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admissions and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Houghton Mifflin and Company, New York, 2005. p. 222. ISBN 139780618574581, 100618574581
  7. ^ "Yale in the Great Depression", Gaddis Smith, Yale Alumni Magazine, p. 38, November/December 2009|Volume LXXIII, Number 2
  8. ^ Time magazine, "New Haven, Safe Haven", Apr. 17, 1964
  9. ^ Oren, Dan. Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2000. p. 221. ISBN 0300084684
  10. ^ Bergin, Thomas A. The Game: The Harvard – Yale Football Rivalry, 1875–1983, Yale University Press, New Haven and London. p. 200. ISBN 0300032676
  11. ^ Susan Ryan (January 5, 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Prospect Hill National Register District / Prospect Hill". National Park Service. p. 9. http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/79002670.pdf. 
  12. ^ letters to the editor, from Sarah Griswold Leahy, Yale Alumni Magazine, p. 4, November/December 2009|Volume LXXIII, Number 2

References

External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
Charles Seymour		 President of Yale University
1951–1963		 Succeeded by
Kingman Brewster, Jr.