The Education of a College President

Book excerpt: "The Education of a College President" is a personal account of the author's association with M.I.T. for sixty years as student, editor, and administrative officer, including his service as President from 1948 to 1959, and as Chairman of the Corporation. Interwoven with this account of an unusual career at one of the world's leading science-based universities is the story of Killian's excursions into the public sector as the nation's first full-time presidential science adviser, when NASA and our national space program were created and Eisenhower began initial efforts to ban atmospheric nuclear tests and to encourage disarmament. Attention is also paid to his role as the "father of public television." In his memoir, Killian shows how M.I.T. grew from an engineering school offering technical courses to undergraduates into a research university of a unique kind, with a new focus on developing better links between the "two cultures" of science and the humanities. He provides an inside report on the major events and policies of his administration: the establishment of a School of Humanities and Social Science, the rationale for the later formation of a School of Management; and many improvements in the Institute's environment. Following his student days at M.I.T., Killian joined the staff and later became editor of the institute's alumni journal, "Technology Review. In 1939 he became President Karl T. Compton's Executive Assistant. He became Vice President of the Institute in 1943, President in 1948, and Chairman of the Corporation in 1959. James R. Killian has received numerous awards, including the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the first Vannevar Bush Award ofthe National Science Board, the Hoover Medal, one earned degree (S.B.) and thirty-nine honorary degrees. He is the author of "Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower and coauthor (with Harold E. Edgerton) of "Moments of Vision," both published by The MIT Press.