
When Hurricane Donna struck New Jersey in 1960, Princeton President Robert
Goheen ’40 *48 (right) surveyed the damage firsthand. His
crisis management skills were greatly needed as the University experienced
the trials of the 1960s, from student power and Vietnam protests to coeducation
and greater diversity inadmissions. Goheen also presided over a
major building program on the main campus and at the Graduate College
and Forrestal Research Center. Under his leadership, the University’s
annual budget quadrupled, the faculty grew from 500 to 700, undergraduate
enrollment increased from 3,000 to 4,000, and the admission application
rate more than doubled.
Goheen was born in Vengurla, India, in 1919 to Presbyterian
American missionary parents. He came to the United States to further
his studies, earning an A.B. with highest honors in the Humanities Program
and winning the University’s highest general distinction for undergraduates,
the Moses Taylor Pyne Prize. After serving four years in the U.S.
Army, Goheen returned to Princeton and received his Ph.D. in 1948.
He was only 37 years old and an assistant professor of classics when he
was chosen to be president in 1957. Leaving the presidency 15 years
later, he went on to become the president of the Council on Foundations
and, in 1977, the U.S. ambassador to India. As an alumnus of the
undergraduate and graduate program, Goheen is the only person to have
won both of Princeton’s highest alumni honors, the Woodrow Wilson
Award (1979) and the James Madison Medal (1988).
- To learn more about Princeton
University presidents, see quotation #9, 11,
33, and 41, and Café
Vivian picture #33, 40,
95, 98, 105,
113, and 125.
- To learn more about Woodrow Wilson Award winners,
see quotation #8, 16,
17, 19, 21,
33, and 37, and Café
Vivian picture #17, and 122.
- To learn more about recipients of the James
Madison Medal, see quotation #3, 5,
30, and 31, and Café
Vivian picture #70, and 125.
- To learn more about Moses Taylor Pyne, see Café
Vivian picture #40, 118,
and 124.
- To learn more about Princeton in the 1960s student
protest era, please see quotation #2, and Café
Vivian picture #106.
- To learn more about the Forrestal Research Center,
see quotation #27 and Café Vivian picture
#35, 114, and 131.
CLOSE
|