John Silber, groundbreaking president of BU, dies at 86
By Ira Kantor | Thursday, September 27, 2012 |
Photo by Ted Fitzgerald (file)
John R. Silber, Boston University’s seventh president for a quarter of a century, and a one-time candidate for governor of Massachusetts, died early this morning at the age of 86, the campus said today.
“Boston University has lost a great leader,” said current BU president Robert A. Brown in a letter sent today. “In the seven years I have served this wonderful institution, I have come to appreciate the magnitude of John’s work. We speak of the university as a great private, residential, research institution with international reach. John — with the support of the people he gathered around him — is responsible for the transformation of a regional, primarily non-residential institution with minimal research and scholarship into the modern Boston University that is the foundation for our efforts and our aspirations.”
Brown said Silber’s health had declined in recent months. A campus spokesman said Silber previously had suffered from kidney failure.
“In recent days, he invited many friends to his bedside where he said his good-byes and was, by all accounts, supremely lucid, wry, and disposed to laughter, notwithstanding weakness and discomfort,” Brown said, adding, “Our thoughts and prayers go first to his family, including especially his children and grandchildren.”
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino called Silber “one of the smartest people I ever knew,” and said Silber will be missed.
“His passion for education spanned every corner of our state,” Menino said. “It wasn’t just in speeches or policy — under his leadership Boston University provided the resources to our students in the form of scholarships and PILOT payments — he gave opportunity to thousands of Boston Public School students and that legacy continues today. The city of Boston could not have asked for a better friend.”
Born in San Antonio, Texas, Silber graduated from Trinity University. He then studied theology, enrolled for a year at the University of Texas Law School, and earned a Ph.D in philosophy from Yale University.
From 1962 to 1967, Silber chaired the philosophy department at the University of Texas at Austin, before becoming dean of UT Austin’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1967.
Silber’s “principled stand” against the Board of Regents’ plan to dismember the College cost him his job, but brought him to the attention of Boston University, according to a campus biography.
Appointed president of BU in 1971, Silber took the helm of a campus “in financial and educational disarray,” the campus said on its website. Along with balancing the school budget, Silber, in his 25 years as president, hired distinguished new faculty, raised admission standards, expanded the campus, build the endowment, and had protestors who broke the law arrested, according to his campus biography.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan appointed Silber to the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America. In 1989, Silber accepted an invitation from the School Committee of Chelsea to manage its school system for 10 years. Silber also established the Prison Education Program and the Boston University Academy, and oversaw the construction of the Arthur G. B. Metcalf Center for Science and Engineering and the Rafik B. Hariri Building for the School of Management, according to his campus biography.
Silber ran as Democratic nominee for governor of Massachusetts in 1990, and became known for his energetic responses to questions from the press, which were dubbed “Silber shockers.” Silber lost the election to William Weld, who would appoint him chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education in January 1996.
Silber was also the author of two books, “Straight Shooting: What’s Wrong With America and How to Fix It,” and “Architecture of the Absurd: How ‘Genius’ Disfigured a Practical Art.”
Silber became chancellor of the university in 1996 but returned briefly to the president’s office in July 2002 when Jon Westling resigned. He then stepped down as chancellor in October 2003 when Dr. Aram Chobanian became president ad interim.
At a gala tribute in April 2007, more than 900 people came to pay their respects to Silber, including Menino, author Tom Wolfe, and Kraft Group Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft.
Earlier that same day, Alan Leventhal, chairman of BU’s Board of Trustees announced the naming of the university’s administrative complex at One Sherborn Street as the John and Kathryn Silber Administrative Center, and the endowment of the John Silber Philosophy Chair. In May 2008, the City of Boston renamed Sherborn Street “John R. Silber Way.”
“John was mindful that universities are built to endure and that, to serve responsibly, their leaders must look well beyond the horizon of their own tenure and indeed their own lives,” Brown said. “We are forever in his debt.”
Silber is survived by seven children and 26 grandchildren.
Article URL: bostonherald.com |
