Kingman Brewster, Jr.
Encyclopedia
Kingman Brewster, Jr., was an educator, president of Yale University
, and American
diplomat.
, the son of Florence Foster (née Besse), a 1907 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wellesley College, and Kingman Brewster, Sr., a 1906 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College
and a 1911 graduate of the Harvard Law School
. He was a direct lineal descendant of Elder William Brewster
(c. 1567 - April 10, 1644), the Mayflower
passenger, Pilgrim colonist leader, and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony
, through his son Jonathan Brewster
; he was also descended from Mayflower passenger John Howland
. He was a grandson of Charles Kingman Brewster and Celina Sophia Baldwin, and Lyman Waterman Besse and Henrietta Louisa Segee. His maternal grandfather, Lyman W. Besse, owned an extensive chain of clothing stores in the Northeast known as "The Besse System."
In 1923, when he was 4, his parents separated and later divorced. He and his surviving sister, Mary, were raised by their mother first in Springfield, Massachusetts and later in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. His mother was a firm influence but never overbearing. One of Brewster's friends characterized her as "one of those people whose presence you always felt when she was in the room". Another friend remembered that "she knew poetry, she knew music, she knew art, she knew architecture, and believe me, she knew Kingman."
Kingman wrote that his mother was a "marvelously speculative and philosophical type," a "free-thinking spirit...given to far-out enthusiasms and delighting in sprightly arguments with her more intellectually conventional friends.
His mother remarried in 1932 to Edward Ballantine
. He was the son of William Gay Ballantine, the fourth president of Oberlin College
, and Emma Frances Atwood. He was a music professor at Harvard University and composer she had known since childhood. He was, however, without a real father role, until his uncle, Arthur Besse, stepped into that role. One of Besse's sons described him as "a man of tremendous warmth and honesty, a generous and wonderfully moral person." He was by all accounts a very good surrogate father. Kingman described his stepfather as "marvelous, and sensitive to the point of vulnerability." However, he had no children of his own and did not want to play a fatherly role.
, Mary Louise Phillips, born August 30, 1920 in Providence, Rhode Island
, the daughter of Mary and Eugene James Phillips, (he was a 1905 graduate of Yale College
, and a 1907 graduate of Yale Law School
). She graduated in 1939 from the Wheeler School
and attended but did not graduate from Vassar College
. She died on April 14, 2004 at her home in Combe, Berkshire
, England at age 83. She was buried next to her husband in the Grove Street Cemetery.
Kingman and Mary were the parents of 5 children. Their granddaughter is actress Jordana Brewster
. His first cousin was Janet Huntington Brewster
(September 18, 1910 –December 18, 1998) who was an American philanthropist, writer, radio broadcaster and relief worker during World War II in London
. She was married to Edward R. Murrow
(April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) who was an American broadcast journalist. His uncle, Stanley King
, (May 11, 1883 – April 28, 1951) was the eleventh president of Amherst College
. He held that position from 1932 to 1946.
in Belmont, Massachusetts
, he entered Yale University, graduating in 1941 where he was chairman of the Yale Daily News
. His junior year, he turned down an offer of membership in Skull and Bones
becoming a legend in Yale undergraduate lore.
Like many students at the time, he was an ardent opponent of America's intervention into World War II
and was an outspoken isolationist. He idolized fellow isolationist Charles Lindbergh
and was his early hero. He was entranced by his Trans-Atlantic flight, and remained, in his words, "bug-eyed about aviation" his entire life. He invited Lindbergh in 1940 to speak at Yale. At the time of the invitation, Lindbergh was the nation's best-known isolationist and the most prominent private citizen advocating to keep America out of the war. He and Lindbergh strategized on AFC.
With the fall of France, he founded the America First Committee
(AFC) along with other students at Yale. The founding members of the AFC included many of the East Coast Universities' best and the brightest, from valedictorians to football all-Americans to campus newspaper editors. Many of these men later achieved national reputations. They included future President Gerald Ford
; the first director of the Peace Corps
Sargent Shriver
; future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart
, and Congressman Jonathan Brewster Bingham
. AFC became the most prominent organization in the struggle to keep America out of the European war.
Brewster also took great care to ensure that the noninterventionist movement on campus was not led by social outcasts or malcontents but by "students who had attained relative respect and prominence during their undergraduate years". He emphasized again and again that his group represented mainstream campus opinion, and that its views were "in agreement with the great majority of Americans of all ages".
Before the end of his senior year, he had officially resigned from the committee after the passage of the Lend-Lease Act
. He said at the time, "I still believe it outrageous to commit this country to the outcome of the war abroad and wish to limit that commitment as much as possible," he wrote Potter Stewart, but "the question from now on is not one of principle it is one of military strategy and administrative policy." Since the passage of Lend-Lease into law, "there is no room for an avowed pressure group huing {sic} a dogmatic line. Whether we like it or not America has decided what its ends are, and the question of means is not longer a legislative matter. A national pressure group therefore is not aiming to determine policy, it is seeking to obstruct it. I cannot be a part of that effort."
With the attack on Pearl Harbor
on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, he immediately volunteered for service in the U.S. Navy
. During World War II he was a Navy aviator and flew on submarine-hunting patrols over the Atlantic. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1946. After the war he entered Harvard Law School, becoming note editor and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review. In 1948, he received his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School
.
. Professor Katz, was a teacher and scholar of international law at Harvard Law School and the administrator of the United States Marshall Plan. Though he flourished in the job, he stayed only one year, returning in 1949 -at Katz's advice- to be a research associate in MIT's Department of Economics and Social Science.
.
, and from 1953 to 1960 he was a full professor at Harvard Law School
.
offered him the presidency by a vote of 13-2; the opposition came from two senior members of the Corporation who feared that the liberal Republican would push too hard for change in their beloved institution. He served as president of Yale University
from 1963 to 1977.
Brewster was known for the improvements he made to Yale's faculty, curriculum, and admissions policies. He was president of the University when Yale began admitting women. Academic programs in various disciplines were expanded. He was also president when the faculty voted to terminate academic credit for the Reserve Officers Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) program in June 1971 due to the belief that the ROTC program made the University complicit in the war in Vietnam
. Alumni relations grew testy at times, yet fundraising increased throughout his tenure.
Brewster's appointment of liberal theologian Rev. William Sloane Coffin
to the post of university chaplain is described in Coffin's autobiography, Once to Every Man. After his appointment, Coffin, a former CIA operative, Williams College
chaplain and Skull & Bones alum, became an ardent anti-war activist. In 1967, along with Benjamin Spock
, Yale 1925, he organized a mass protest in Boston, Massachusetts
and then sent hundreds of draft cards back to the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C.
When Brewster defended Coffin, who was arrested in 1968 together with Spock for encouraging draft resistance, he did so citing academic freedom. This action only complicated his dealings with an increasingly wary alumni association.
Brewster was chairman of the National Policy Panel of the United Nations
in 1968. He was a member of the President's Commission on Selective Service in 1966 and 1967 and of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice from 1965 to 1967.
In 1963, Governor George Wallace
was invited by the Yale Political Union
to speak at Yale, Provost Brewster asked the Yale Political Union to revoke its invitation for security reasons. The result was a massive outcry across campus. The Woodward Report
on free speech, commissioned by Brewster in 1974 was issued in 1975. Historian C. Vann Woodward
chaired the committee. The committee labeled the so-called “Wallace Affair” an outright failure.
On April 23, 1970, during the New Haven Black Panther trials
, Brewster spoke to the faculty at Yale. His remarks, which were leaked to the press, made that a day which would follow him for the rest of his life: “I am appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass in this country that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States.” This remark, made one week before the tumultuous May Day protests of the Black Panther trials, was decried in editorials and speeches across the country. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew jumped into the fray calling for Brewster’s immediate resignation.
McGeorge Bundy
, the president of the Ford Foundation
, addressed the Yale Club of Boston just days before the May Day demonstrations and assured his fellow alumni that "one of the things I have observed about my friend Brewster is that he will deal with anyone and surrender his responsibilities to nobody."
Brewster inevitably would be judged on May Day's outcome because he had opened his university to all those coming to New Haven to support the Panthers, even offering them food and shelter. Brewster knew that, in the face of potential catastrophe, he had the support of other leaders cast from the same mold, friends and colleagues who shared his background and outlook.
On May 1, 1970, at ten minutes before midnight, bombers exploded three devices in the Yale hockey rink. Protesters threw rocks and bottles at the National Guardsmen and taunted the New Haven police. The authorities responded by tear-gassing the demonstrators. Yale chaplain, William Sloane Coffin, stated, "All of us conspired to bring on this tragedy by law enforcement agencies by their illegal acts against the Panthers, and the rest of us by our immoral silence in front of these acts." Fortunately, there were no fatalities that evening.
President Richard Nixon
commenting on the events of May 1, 1970 to the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, stated that to be fair to the students, they were not entirely to be blamed for their actions that day. "What can we expect of students if a person in that position and of that stature (Brewster) engages in such acts?" Henry Kissinger
, sitting just a few chairs away mused aloud that Brewster was the one man whose assassination would benefit the United States. It was Brewster's handling of the May Day demonstrations and his actions after the crisis that made him a target of the Nixon White House
.
He is also well known for his skillful handling of the student protests on the Yale campus during the Vietnam War
era, a war that he openly criticized and opposed. He never allowed such convictions to disrupt the University’s operations, especially classes. His bold stewardship of the University during an era of political unrest is widely regarded as successful.
On May 12, 1972, Brewster made a public statement, printed in full on the front page of the Yale Daily News
, prior to a campus visit by Richard Nixon
’s Secretary of State William P. Rogers
. He is at once uncompromising about upholding free speech and unrestrained in showing his discontent with the Nixon administration. Brewster, on the one hand, threatened to expel students who might bar Rogers from speaking. Still, he also said that he “expects” disciplined picketing and asked that students appropriately protest the Rogers’ appearance. In the end, Rogers unexpectedly canceled his appearance for unknown reasons.
As Yale's president, he appointed R. Inslee Clark, Jr.
("Inky") as Director of Undergraduate Admissions. Under his tenure, he established academic credentials in the admissions process and the proportion of undergraduate African-Americans, Jews, and public high school graduates at Yale rose. Despite the alumni outrage over these policy changes, Clark held the position from 1965 to 1970.
No aspect of Brewster's presidency stirred more anger and debate than the overhaul of Yale's undergraduate admissions policy in the 1960s. He also had made it clear from the beginning of his presidency that he was not going to preside over a finishing school on Long Island Sound. Admissions became the battleground over the university's true purpose. The outcome of the battle, which was felt far beyond New Haven, was only a part of larger struggles in American society, the thorny debate over race, class, gender and leadership.
on April 7, 1977 to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James. He was confirmed by the United States Senate
on April 29, 1977 and he served from 1977 to 1981.
Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance
, a member of the Yale Corporation, and a close personal friend, recommended him to President Carter for the position. Despite his lack of diplomatic experience, the British press was pleased with the appointment, calling Brewster potentially the best ambassador since David K. E. Bruce
. They described him as a "New England Patrician" and expressed delight at his gold ring with his family motto in Norman French. My role, he said at the time, is trying to advise my Government on British attitudes and concerns in the fullest way possible.
He wasted no time in beginning his new responsibilities. He was called to step in and resolve difficulties between United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young
and the British Foreign Office. This was followed by smoothing out American/British difficulties over policy toward Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe
), which helped lead to the end of minority white rule in that country. He reveled in the "good life" of London and took advantage of the range of social occasions from dinner with Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
to quaffing a pint of ale in a working class pub, saying, "Becoming aware of the richness and variety here is a lot of fun."
.
in 1956. He received several honorary Doctor of Laws degrees. They were awarded by Princeton University
in 1964; the University of Pennsylvania
in 1965; Boston College
in 1968;Michigan State University
in 1969. and Yale University in 1973.
In May 1979 Brewster was awarded an honorary degree
from the British Open University as Doctor of the University.
in Oxford, England. He was buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut
.
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
diplomat.
Early life
He was born in Longmeadow, MassachusettsLongmeadow, Massachusetts
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,633 people, 5,734 households, and 4,432 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 5,879 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 95.42% White, 0.69% African American, 0.05% Native American, 2.90%...
, the son of Florence Foster (née Besse), a 1907 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wellesley College, and Kingman Brewster, Sr., a 1906 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
and a 1911 graduate of the Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
. He was a direct lineal descendant of Elder William Brewster
William Brewster (Pilgrim)
Elder William Brewster was a Mayflower passenger and a Pilgrim colonist leader and preacher.-Origins:Brewster was probably born at Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, circa 1566/1567, although no birth records have been found, and died at Plymouth, Massachusetts on April 10, 1644 around 9- or 10pm...
(c. 1567 - April 10, 1644), the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
passenger, Pilgrim colonist leader, and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
, through his son Jonathan Brewster
Jonathan Brewster
Elder Jonathan Brewster was an early American settler, the son and eldest child of elder William Brewster and his wife, Mary. Brewster had two younger sisters, Patience and Fear, and two younger brothers, Love and Wrestling along with an unnamed brother who died young.-Life:Brewster was born in...
; he was also descended from Mayflower passenger John Howland
John Howland
John Howland was a passenger on the Mayflower. He was an indentured servant who accompanied the separatists, also called the Pilgrims, when they left England to settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts...
. He was a grandson of Charles Kingman Brewster and Celina Sophia Baldwin, and Lyman Waterman Besse and Henrietta Louisa Segee. His maternal grandfather, Lyman W. Besse, owned an extensive chain of clothing stores in the Northeast known as "The Besse System."
In 1923, when he was 4, his parents separated and later divorced. He and his surviving sister, Mary, were raised by their mother first in Springfield, Massachusetts and later in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. His mother was a firm influence but never overbearing. One of Brewster's friends characterized her as "one of those people whose presence you always felt when she was in the room". Another friend remembered that "she knew poetry, she knew music, she knew art, she knew architecture, and believe me, she knew Kingman."
Kingman wrote that his mother was a "marvelously speculative and philosophical type," a "free-thinking spirit...given to far-out enthusiasms and delighting in sprightly arguments with her more intellectually conventional friends.
His mother remarried in 1932 to Edward Ballantine
Edward Ballantine
Edward Ballantine , was an American composer and professor of music.-Biography:Edward Ballantine was born in Oberlin, Ohio, on August 6, 1886, the son of William Gay Ballantine, the fourth president of Oberlin College, and Emma Frances Atwood...
. He was the son of William Gay Ballantine, the fourth president of Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, and Emma Frances Atwood. He was a music professor at Harvard University and composer she had known since childhood. He was, however, without a real father role, until his uncle, Arthur Besse, stepped into that role. One of Besse's sons described him as "a man of tremendous warmth and honesty, a generous and wonderfully moral person." He was by all accounts a very good surrogate father. Kingman described his stepfather as "marvelous, and sensitive to the point of vulnerability." However, he had no children of his own and did not want to play a fatherly role.
Marriage and family
In 1942, while serving in the armed services, he married in Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, Mary Louise Phillips, born August 30, 1920 in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, the daughter of Mary and Eugene James Phillips, (he was a 1905 graduate of Yale College
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
, and a 1907 graduate of Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
). She graduated in 1939 from the Wheeler School
Wheeler School
The Wheeler School is a coeducational independent day school located on the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island, United States. The school serves students from the nursery level through twelfth-grade.- Mary C. Wheeler :...
and attended but did not graduate from Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
. She died on April 14, 2004 at her home in Combe, Berkshire
Combe, Berkshire
Combe is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated in the district of West Berkshire,on the top of the downs near Walbury Hill and Combe Gibbet, overlooking the village of Inkpen and the valley of the River Kennet...
, England at age 83. She was buried next to her husband in the Grove Street Cemetery.
Kingman and Mary were the parents of 5 children. Their granddaughter is actress Jordana Brewster
Jordana Brewster
Jordana Brewster is an American actress. She began her acting career in her late teens, with a 1995 one-episode role in the soap opera All My Children. She followed that appearance with the recurring role as Nikki Munson in As the World Turns, for which Brewster was nominated for Outstanding Teen...
. His first cousin was Janet Huntington Brewster
Janet Huntington Brewster
Janet Huntington Brewster was an American philanthropist, writer, radio broadcaster and relief worker during World War II in London.-Life:...
(September 18, 1910 –December 18, 1998) who was an American philanthropist, writer, radio broadcaster and relief worker during World War II in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She was married to Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
(April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) who was an American broadcast journalist. His uncle, Stanley King
Stanley King
Stanley King was the eleventh president of Amherst College. He held that position from 1932 to 1946.-Early life:...
, (May 11, 1883 – April 28, 1951) was the eleventh president of Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
. He held that position from 1932 to 1946.
Education and war years
After graduating from Belmont Hill SchoolBelmont Hill School
Belmont Hill School is a prestigious independent boys school located on a campus in Belmont, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. The school enrolls approximately 440 students in grades 7-12, separated into the Middle School and the Upper School , and refers to these grades as "Forms" with a Roman...
in Belmont, Massachusetts
Belmont, Massachusetts
Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census.- History :Belmont was founded on March 18, 1859 by former citizens of, and land from the bordering towns of Watertown, to the south; Waltham, to the west; and Arlington, then...
, he entered Yale University, graduating in 1941 where he was chairman of the Yale Daily News
Yale Daily News
The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...
. His junior year, he turned down an offer of membership in Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
becoming a legend in Yale undergraduate lore.
Like many students at the time, he was an ardent opponent of America's intervention into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and was an outspoken isolationist. He idolized fellow isolationist Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
and was his early hero. He was entranced by his Trans-Atlantic flight, and remained, in his words, "bug-eyed about aviation" his entire life. He invited Lindbergh in 1940 to speak at Yale. At the time of the invitation, Lindbergh was the nation's best-known isolationist and the most prominent private citizen advocating to keep America out of the war. He and Lindbergh strategized on AFC.
With the fall of France, he founded the America First Committee
America First Committee
The America First Committee was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. Peaking at 800,000 members, it was likely the largest anti-war organization in American history. Started in 1940, it became defunct after the attack on Pearl Harbor in...
(AFC) along with other students at Yale. The founding members of the AFC included many of the East Coast Universities' best and the brightest, from valedictorians to football all-Americans to campus newspaper editors. Many of these men later achieved national reputations. They included future President Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
; the first director of the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
Sargent Shriver
Sargent Shriver
Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., known as Sargent Shriver, R. Sargent Shriver, or, from childhood, Sarge, was an American statesman and activist. As the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, he was part of the Kennedy family, serving in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations...
; future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart
Potter Stewart
Potter Stewart was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. During his tenure, he made, among other areas, major contributions to criminal justice reform, civil rights, access to the courts, and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.-Education:Stewart was born in Jackson, Michigan,...
, and Congressman Jonathan Brewster Bingham
Jonathan Brewster Bingham
Jonathan Brewster Bingham was an American politician and diplomat...
. AFC became the most prominent organization in the struggle to keep America out of the European war.
Brewster also took great care to ensure that the noninterventionist movement on campus was not led by social outcasts or malcontents but by "students who had attained relative respect and prominence during their undergraduate years". He emphasized again and again that his group represented mainstream campus opinion, and that its views were "in agreement with the great majority of Americans of all ages".
Before the end of his senior year, he had officially resigned from the committee after the passage of the Lend-Lease Act
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
. He said at the time, "I still believe it outrageous to commit this country to the outcome of the war abroad and wish to limit that commitment as much as possible," he wrote Potter Stewart, but "the question from now on is not one of principle it is one of military strategy and administrative policy." Since the passage of Lend-Lease into law, "there is no room for an avowed pressure group huing {sic} a dogmatic line. Whether we like it or not America has decided what its ends are, and the question of means is not longer a legislative matter. A national pressure group therefore is not aiming to determine policy, it is seeking to obstruct it. I cannot be a part of that effort."
With the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, he immediately volunteered for service in the U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. During World War II he was a Navy aviator and flew on submarine-hunting patrols over the Atlantic. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1946. After the war he entered Harvard Law School, becoming note editor and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review. In 1948, he received his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
.
Marshall Plan
His first job after graduating was to accompany Professor Milton Katz to Paris, France to serve as his assistant at the European headquarters of the Marshall PlanMarshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
. Professor Katz, was a teacher and scholar of international law at Harvard Law School and the administrator of the United States Marshall Plan. Though he flourished in the job, he stayed only one year, returning in 1949 -at Katz's advice- to be a research associate in MIT's Department of Economics and Social Science.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
From 1949 and 1950, Brewster was a research associate in the Department of Economics and Social Science at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
.
Harvard University
From 1950 to 1953, he was an assistant professor of law at Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and from 1953 to 1960 he was a full professor at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
.
Yale
In 1960, he accepted the post of provost at Yale, serving from 1960 to 1963. After the death of Yale's president, A. Whitney Griswold, despite the fact that Brewster was considered Griswold's logical successor, Yale conducted a lengthy, open, and agonizing search (for Brewster) that lasted five months. On October 11, 1963, the Yale CorporationYale Corporation
The Yale Corporation, sometimes, and more formally, known as The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.The Corporation comprises 19 members:...
offered him the presidency by a vote of 13-2; the opposition came from two senior members of the Corporation who feared that the liberal Republican would push too hard for change in their beloved institution. He served as president of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
from 1963 to 1977.
Brewster was known for the improvements he made to Yale's faculty, curriculum, and admissions policies. He was president of the University when Yale began admitting women. Academic programs in various disciplines were expanded. He was also president when the faculty voted to terminate academic credit for the Reserve Officers Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) program in June 1971 due to the belief that the ROTC program made the University complicit in the war in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. Alumni relations grew testy at times, yet fundraising increased throughout his tenure.
Brewster's appointment of liberal theologian Rev. William Sloane Coffin
William Sloane Coffin
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. was an American liberal Christian clergyman and long-time peace activist. He was ordained in the Presbyterian church and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ....
to the post of university chaplain is described in Coffin's autobiography, Once to Every Man. After his appointment, Coffin, a former CIA operative, Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
chaplain and Skull & Bones alum, became an ardent anti-war activist. In 1967, along with Benjamin Spock
Benjamin Spock
Benjamin McLane Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its message to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do."Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand...
, Yale 1925, he organized a mass protest in Boston, Massachusetts
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and then sent hundreds of draft cards back to the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
When Brewster defended Coffin, who was arrested in 1968 together with Spock for encouraging draft resistance, he did so citing academic freedom. This action only complicated his dealings with an increasingly wary alumni association.
Brewster was chairman of the National Policy Panel of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in 1968. He was a member of the President's Commission on Selective Service in 1966 and 1967 and of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice from 1965 to 1967.
Wallace Affair
In 1963, Governor George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
was invited by the Yale Political Union
Yale Political Union
The Yale Political Union , a debate society now the largest student organization at Yale University, was founded in 1934 by Professor Alfred Whitney Griswold , to enliven the university's political culture of the time. It was modelled on the Cambridge Union Society and Oxford Union...
to speak at Yale, Provost Brewster asked the Yale Political Union to revoke its invitation for security reasons. The result was a massive outcry across campus. The Woodward Report
Woodward Report
The Woodward Report, formally titled the Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression at Yale, was issued by Yale University in 1975. Historian C. Vann Woodward chaired the committee. Yale endorsed the first section of the report as official policy....
on free speech, commissioned by Brewster in 1974 was issued in 1975. Historian C. Vann Woodward
C. Vann Woodward
Comer Vann Woodward was a preeminent American historian focusing primarily on the American South and race relations. He was considered, along with Richard Hofstadter and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to be one of the most influential historians of the postwar era, 1940s-1970s, both by scholars and by...
chaired the committee. The committee labeled the so-called “Wallace Affair” an outright failure.
Black Panthers
On April 23, 1970, during the New Haven Black Panther trials
New Haven Black Panther trials
In 1970 there were a series of criminal prosecutions in New Haven, Connecticut against various members of the Black Panther Party. The charges ranged from criminal conspiracy to felony murder. All indictments stemmed from the murder of nineteen-year-old Alex Rackley in the early hours of May 21,...
, Brewster spoke to the faculty at Yale. His remarks, which were leaked to the press, made that a day which would follow him for the rest of his life: “I am appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass in this country that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States.” This remark, made one week before the tumultuous May Day protests of the Black Panther trials, was decried in editorials and speeches across the country. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew jumped into the fray calling for Brewster’s immediate resignation.
McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was United States National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from 1961 through 1966, and president of the Ford Foundation from 1966 through 1979...
, the president of the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, addressed the Yale Club of Boston just days before the May Day demonstrations and assured his fellow alumni that "one of the things I have observed about my friend Brewster is that he will deal with anyone and surrender his responsibilities to nobody."
Brewster inevitably would be judged on May Day's outcome because he had opened his university to all those coming to New Haven to support the Panthers, even offering them food and shelter. Brewster knew that, in the face of potential catastrophe, he had the support of other leaders cast from the same mold, friends and colleagues who shared his background and outlook.
On May 1, 1970, at ten minutes before midnight, bombers exploded three devices in the Yale hockey rink. Protesters threw rocks and bottles at the National Guardsmen and taunted the New Haven police. The authorities responded by tear-gassing the demonstrators. Yale chaplain, William Sloane Coffin, stated, "All of us conspired to bring on this tragedy by law enforcement agencies by their illegal acts against the Panthers, and the rest of us by our immoral silence in front of these acts." Fortunately, there were no fatalities that evening.
President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
commenting on the events of May 1, 1970 to the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
, stated that to be fair to the students, they were not entirely to be blamed for their actions that day. "What can we expect of students if a person in that position and of that stature (Brewster) engages in such acts?" Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
, sitting just a few chairs away mused aloud that Brewster was the one man whose assassination would benefit the United States. It was Brewster's handling of the May Day demonstrations and his actions after the crisis that made him a target of the Nixon White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
.
Vietnam War
He is also well known for his skillful handling of the student protests on the Yale campus during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
era, a war that he openly criticized and opposed. He never allowed such convictions to disrupt the University’s operations, especially classes. His bold stewardship of the University during an era of political unrest is widely regarded as successful.
On May 12, 1972, Brewster made a public statement, printed in full on the front page of the Yale Daily News
Yale Daily News
The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...
, prior to a campus visit by Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
’s Secretary of State William P. Rogers
William P. Rogers
William Pierce Rogers was an American politician, who served as a Cabinet officer in the administrations of two U.S. Presidents in the third quarter of the 20th century.-Early Life :...
. He is at once uncompromising about upholding free speech and unrestrained in showing his discontent with the Nixon administration. Brewster, on the one hand, threatened to expel students who might bar Rogers from speaking. Still, he also said that he “expects” disciplined picketing and asked that students appropriately protest the Rogers’ appearance. In the end, Rogers unexpectedly canceled his appearance for unknown reasons.
Admissions
As Yale's president, he appointed R. Inslee Clark, Jr.
R. Inslee Clark, Jr.
Russell Inslee "Ink" Clark, Jr. was an educator, administrator, and a key player in the transition of the Ivy League into co-education in the 1960s.-Personal life:Clark was born in 1935 and graduated from Garden City High School in 1953....
("Inky") as Director of Undergraduate Admissions. Under his tenure, he established academic credentials in the admissions process and the proportion of undergraduate African-Americans, Jews, and public high school graduates at Yale rose. Despite the alumni outrage over these policy changes, Clark held the position from 1965 to 1970.
No aspect of Brewster's presidency stirred more anger and debate than the overhaul of Yale's undergraduate admissions policy in the 1960s. He also had made it clear from the beginning of his presidency that he was not going to preside over a finishing school on Long Island Sound. Admissions became the battleground over the university's true purpose. The outcome of the battle, which was felt far beyond New Haven, was only a part of larger struggles in American society, the thorny debate over race, class, gender and leadership.
Diplomatic career
While serving as Yale's president, he was nominated by President Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
on April 7, 1977 to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James. He was confirmed by the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
on April 29, 1977 and he served from 1977 to 1981.
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Cyrus Vance
Cyrus Vance
Cyrus Roberts Vance was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980...
, a member of the Yale Corporation, and a close personal friend, recommended him to President Carter for the position. Despite his lack of diplomatic experience, the British press was pleased with the appointment, calling Brewster potentially the best ambassador since David K. E. Bruce
David K. E. Bruce
David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce was an American diplomat, and the only American to serve as Ambassador to France, the Republic of Germany and the United Kingdom.-Biography:...
. They described him as a "New England Patrician" and expressed delight at his gold ring with his family motto in Norman French. My role, he said at the time, is trying to advise my Government on British attitudes and concerns in the fullest way possible.
He wasted no time in beginning his new responsibilities. He was called to step in and resolve difficulties between United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
and the British Foreign Office. This was followed by smoothing out American/British difficulties over policy toward Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
(Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
), which helped lead to the end of minority white rule in that country. He reveled in the "good life" of London and took advantage of the range of social occasions from dinner with Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
to quaffing a pint of ale in a working class pub, saying, "Becoming aware of the richness and variety here is a lot of fun."
Post diplomatic career
After stepping down as Ambassador in 1981, Brewster was associated with the New York-based law firm of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts. In 1984, he became its resident partner in London. He was appointed master of University College, Oxford, serving from 1986 until his death there in 1988, during which he was also the chairman of the Board of the United World CollegesUnited World Colleges
UWC is an education movement comprising thirteen international schools and colleges, national committees in over 130 countries and a series of short educational programmes. The UWC movement aims to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future...
.
Quotes
- "If I take refuge in ambiguity, I assure you that it's quite conscious."
- "Incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of a profession."
- "There is no lasting hope in violence, only temporary relief from hopelessness."
- "It won't make for a quiet life but it will make for an interesting paper vastly more significant because it is doing something only a daily paper can do."
- "Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information."
- "Maybe you are the "cool" generation. If coolness means a capacity to stay calm and use your head in the service of ends passionately believed in, then it has my admiration."
- "The function of a briefing paper is to prevent the ambassador from saying something dreadfully indiscreet. I sometimes think its true object is to prevent the ambassador from saying anything at all."
- "The newspaper fits the reader's program while the listener must fit the broadcaster's program."
- "There is no greater challenge than to have someone relying upon you; no greater satisfaction than to vindicate his expectation."
- "Universities should be safe havens where ruthless examination of realities will not be distorted by the aim to please or inhibited by the risk of displeasure."
- "We all live in a televised goldfish bowl."
- "While the spoken word can travel faster, you can't take it home in your hand. Only the written word can be absorbed wholly at the convenience of the reader."
Honors awarded
Brewster was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1956. He received several honorary Doctor of Laws degrees. They were awarded by Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1964; the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1965; Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
in 1968;Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
in 1969. and Yale University in 1973.
In May 1979 Brewster was awarded an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
from the British Open University as Doctor of the University.
Works
He is the author of Anti-trust and American Business Abroad (1969) and coauthor of Law of International Transactions and Relations (1960).Death
He died on November 8, 1988 at John Radcliffe HospitalJohn Radcliffe Hospital
The John Radcliffe Hospital is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England.It is the main teaching hospital for Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University. As such, it is a well-developed centre of medical research. It also incorporates the Medical School of the University of Oxford....
in Oxford, England. He was buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
.
Additional notes
- He is thought to be the inspiration for Garry TrudeauGarry TrudeauGarretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
's fictional character, President King, in the popular comic stripComic stripA comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
, DoonesburyDoonesburyDoonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
.
Further reading
- Brewster, Kingman, Jr. in Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
- Profile at NNDB
- The Birth of a New Institution: How two Yale presidents and their admissions directors tore up the "old blueprint" to create a modern Yale (Yale Alumni Magazine, December, 1999)
- Brewster, Kingman, Jr. in Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
- "Kingman Brewster's Leadership" by Bharat Ayyar A Student Curated Exhibit, Yale University Library (Spring 2009)
- Profile at NNDB
- "Brewster's Legacy: God, Country and Yale" by Sarah Raymond in the Yale Herald (1 October 2004)
- Holden, Reuben A. (1967). Yale: A Pictorial History (1967).
- Pierson, George WilsonGeorge Wilson PiersonGeorge Wilson Pierson was an American academic, historian, author and Larned Professor of History at Yale University. He was the first official historian of the university.-Family life:...
. (1952). Yale College, An Educational History (1871–1921). New Haven: Yale University Press. OCLC 191068