Grayson L. Kirk | |
|---|---|
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| 14thPresident of Columbia University | |
| In office 1953–1968 | |
| Preceded by | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Succeeded by | Andrew W. Cordier |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Grayson Louis Kirk (1903-10-12)October 12, 1903 Jeffersonville, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | November 21, 1997(1997-11-21) (aged 94) Yonkers, New York, U.S. |
Grayson Louis Kirk (October 12, 1903 – November 21, 1997) was an Americanpolitical scientist who served as president ofColumbia University during theColumbia University protests of 1968. He was also an advisor to theState Department and instrumental in the formation of theUnited Nations.
Kirk was born to a farmer and schoolteacher inJeffersonville, Ohio. He originally intended to become aforeign correspondent, but fell into educational administration when he served briefly as a high school principal inNew Paris, Ohio during his senior year at college. He graduated fromMiami University in 1924, earned anM.A. inpolitical science fromClark University in 1925, and studied at theÉcole Libre des Sciences Politiques in 1929 before completing aPh.D. in the discipline at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison in 1930. While a student at Miami, Kirk became a brother of the founding chapter of thePhi Kappa Tau fraternity. During his graduate studies, he edited his fraternity's national magazine,The Laurel, to earn money for tuition. He married the former Marion Sands, a schoolteacher and daughter of an official of theB&O Railroad, in 1925. They raised one son, John Grayson.
After receiving his doctorate, Kirk spent the next decade on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He completedpostdoctoral research at theLondon School of Economics in 1937.[1]
In 1940, Kirk was appointed to the faculty of Columbia University as anassociate professor of government. He was promoted to full professor in 1943 and began a long association with the U.S. government when he served in the Security Section of theUnited States Department of State's Political Studies Division duringWorld War II. Kirk became involved in the formation of theUnited Nations Security Council, attending theDumbarton Oaks Conference and theUnited Nations Conference on International Organization where theUnited Nations Charter was signed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Kirk as the university's provost in 1949. In 1951, when Eisenhower took leave to serve asSupreme Allied Commander Europe, Kirk became acting president of the university. He assumed the presidency in earnest in 1953 after Eisenhower was sworn in asPresident of the United States.
During his tenure at Columbia, he quadrupled the university's endowment, added a dozen new buildings to theMorningside Heights campus, and doubled the university library's holdings. However, the university's academic standing gradually eroded during his tenure vis-à-vis such ascendent institutions asStanford University and theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, leading historian Robert McCaughey to characterize the epoch as the "afternoon on the Hudson."[2]
Early in his tenure, Kirk was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society (1954) and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences (1959).[3][4] Also in 1959, Kirk entered Columbia into its relationship with theInstitute for Defense Analyses, which would draw much fire from the anti-war movement, particularly theStudents for a Democratic Society, nearly a decade later.
Prior to the 1968 disturbances, Kirk received honorary degrees from a number of institutions, including the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1953),Yale University (1953),Harvard University (1954), theUniversity of North Dakota (1958),Bates College (1964) andWaseda University (1965).
The university and Kirk came under fire in 1967 for attempting to patent and promote a "healthier" cigarette filter developed byNew Jersey chemist Robert Louis Strickman.[5] Questions regarding the filter's effectiveness began to surface just before Kirk was to testify before Congress as to its benefits.
Kirk's relationship with the student body began to degenerate in the early 1960s as students got caught up in the civil rights and anti-war movements and began to protest openly on campus. In 1959, Kirk started to pursue the construction of a gymnasium suitable for intercollegiate sports competition. Construction was delayed for several years due to lack of funds, during which time community resentment over the university's crowding out its poorer neighbors festered. When construction began in February, 1968, Harlem community activists and civil rights figures protested vigorously enough for the university to fence off the site and post a police guard.
The1968 Columbia University protests began on April 23, when student protesters began what would become an eight-day occupation of five university buildings and the president's office. Students were protesting the university's affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses and its plans to construct a new gymnasium in Morningside Park that had one entrance for Columbia students and faculty and another entrance for members of the neighboring West Harlem community, who would not have access to all of the facilities.[6] Kirk initially agreed to address some of the protesters demands, but ultimately filed trespass charges against them and called in police to clear the occupied buildings. After the incident, Kirk resisted calls for his resignation, but stayed away from graduation and eventually announced his retirement before the start of the next academic year.
In 1974, a newly constructed gymnasium finally opened.[7]
After relinquishing the presidency, Kirk completed terms on theCouncil on Foreign Relations and theAssociation of American Universities, serving as president of the former organization until 1971.
He also remained on Columbia's full-time faculty as the Bryce Professor of the History ofInternational Relations, a position he had held since 1959, before retiring in 1973.[8] Kirk served as president emeritus and trustee emeritus until his death and "would continue to help raise money for the university."[9]
Kirk died in his sleep at thePlashbourne Estate, where he had resided since 1973, inYonkers, New York in 1997.[10] He is buried next to his wife Marion Sands Kirk (May 6, 1904 – May 17, 1996) at Fairview Cemetery in Jeffersonville, Ohio.
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of Columbia University 1953–1968 | Succeeded by |
