Category: Leaders
John Silber, Seventh President
from 1971–1996
Texas native John Silber graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio and earned a PhD in philosophy from Yale University. Appointed Boston University president in 1971, Silber took charge of an institution in financial and educational disarray. His first task was to balance the budget. He also hired distinguished new faculty, raised admissions standards, expanded the campus, built the endowment, reinstituted academic requirements, and had protesters who broke the law arrested. His actions during the 1970s provoked opposition and controversy but, by the 1980s, even Silber’s critics conceded that he had transformed Boston University. Among his other notable achievements were managing the school system of neighboring Chelsea for 10 years and establishing the Prison Education Program and Boston University Academy. In March 1994, he announced that he would step down on May 31, 1996, to become Chancellor.
BU doctors become co-directors of the Framingham Heart Study
In 1971, Boston University doctors become co-directors of the Framingham Heart Study, a landmark series of physical exams and lifestyle interviews that began in 1948 with 5,209 residents of Framingham, Mass. After more than 60 years, the study is one of the largest and longest-running epidemiological research projects in the world.
John Silber Inaugurated as President
John Silber is inaugurated as President of Boston University; his inaugural address is entitled "The Pollution of Time." Silber succeeds in persuading the graduating class to wear academic dress and argues that the ceremony and its trappings are important symbols of tradition in defiance of the day's "instant culture."
Arland F. Christ-Janer, Sixth President
from 1967–1970
Arland Christ-Janer, a native of Nebraska, attended Yale Divinity School and the University of Chicago Law School. He served as president of Cornell College in Iowa until his appointment in 1967 to the presidency of Boston University. Christ-Janer took office at a time of social unrest. The week of his inauguration, the Students for a Democratic Society declared a Stop the Draft Week. Soon after, an African American student organization issued a list of demands and staged a nonviolent sit-in at the President’s office. Christ-Janer agreed to all their demands, but campus demonstrations and radical student actions continued. After serving for three years, Christ-Janer resigned in July 1970. Commencement that year was canceled because of the threat of violent protests.
MLK Jr Receives PhD
Martin Luther King, Jr., receives his PhD from Boston University. After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he presents his papers to the Special Collections (now called the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center).
First Black Dean Named
Howard Thurman is named Dean of Marsh Chapel, becoming the first black dean in a predominantly white University.
Harold C. Case, Fifth President
from 1951–1967
A Kansas native, Harold Case pursued graduate study at Harvard University, Garrett Biblical Institute, Northwestern University, and Boston University School of Theology. He was a successful minister at several large Methodist churches across the nation before assuming the presidency of Boston University in 1951. Case continued the postwar expansion of the University, building new dormitories and establishing the School of Fine and Applied Arts (now the College of Fine Arts), the College of Engineering, and Metropolitan College. In 1953, he created the African Studies Program and the same year invited the distinguished African American theologian Howard Thurman to be dean of Marsh Chapel.
First Female Judge Becomes a University Trustee
Alumna Emma Fall Schofield, Massachusetts’ first female judge, becomes a University Trustee. She is also the first female assistant district attorney and first female judge in New England.
Photo courtesy of Marsh, Daniel L. and Clark, William H. The Story of Massachusetts. New York, The American Historical Society, Inc. [1938]
BU Alum Named “Man of the Year”
Owen D. Young (Class of 1896), alumnus, international diplomat, and Boston University School of Law instructor, is named “Man of the Year” by Time magazine for the second time. Young is one of the chief architects of the Dawes Plan, which established the policy for German reparations following World War I. Young was also part of the 1929 committee that created the Young Plan for the fiscal rehabilitation of Germany, at the time considered to be a great diplomatic feat.
Magazine cover courtesy of Time magazine.
"The great lawyer of the future will be the man who has the faculty for seeing right; the man who has the courage to tell what he saw; the man who has the stability to maintain what he said." — Owen D. Young
Daniel L. Marsh, Fourth President
from 1926–1951
Born in rural Pennsylvania, Daniel Marsh earned a degree from the Boston University School of Theology in 1908 and served as a Methodist minister and administrator with a strong record of creating social welfare programs for the urban poor. As Boston University president, Marsh declared that BU would instill in students the spirit of “Useful Service for the Sake of Others.” Marsh succeeded in building the new campus that President Murlin had envisioned. He also incorporated Sargent College into the University and founded the School of Social Work, the School of Nursing, the School of Public Relations (now the College of Communication), and the General College. He successfully guided the University through severe financial stringency in the Depression and during World War II.
