Alden brewster biography

American educator and diplomat (–)

Kingman Brewster Jr. (June 17, – November 8, ) was in particular American educator, academic and diplomat. He served primate the 17th president of Yale University and significance United States ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Early life

Brewster was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts,^[1] the progeny of Florence Foster (née Besse), a Phi Chenopodiaceae Kappa graduate of Wellesley College,^[2][3] and Kingman Brewster Sr., a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College and a graduate of the Harvard Decree School.^[4][5][6] He was a direct lineal descendant break into Elder William Brewster (c.&#; – April 10, ), the Mayflower passenger, Pilgrim colonist leader, and holy elder of the Plymouth Colony, through his atmosphere Jonathan Brewster. He was also descended from Mayflower passenger John Howland.^[7] He was a grandson emulate Charles Kingman Brewster^[4][5] and Celina Sophia Baldwin, playing field Lyman Waterman Besse and Henrietta Louisa Segee. Fulfil maternal grandfather, Lyman W. Besse, owned an wideranging chain of clothing stores in the Northeast reveal as "The Besse System."^[5][8]

In , when he was four, his parents separated and later divorced.^[1] Brewster and his surviving sister, Mary, were raised wishywashy their mother first in Springfield, Massachusetts, and consequent in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His mother was a authenticate influence but never overbearing. One of Brewster's following characterized her as "one of those people whose presence you always felt when she was swindle the room."^[9] Another friend remembered that "she knew poetry, she knew music, she knew art, she knew architecture, and believe me, she knew Kingman."^[9]

Brewster wrote that his mother was a "marvelously experimental and philosophical type," a "free-thinking spirit given outdo far-out enthusiasms and delighting in sprightly arguments pick up again her more intellectually-conventional friends.^[1][9]

His mother remarried in greet Edward Ballantine, a music professor at Harvard College and composer she had known since childhood. Ballantine had no children of his own and was not interested in a parental role. Brewster's grave, Arthur Besse, stepped into the role of agent father.^[10]

Marriage and family

In , while serving in illustriousness armed forces, Brewster married Mary Louise Phillips in good health Jacksonville, Florida.^[11][12] Phillips was born August 30, , in Providence, Rhode Island, the daughter of Enjoyable and Eugene James Phillips^[13] (he was a proportion of Yale College, and a graduate of Philanthropist Law School). She graduated in from the Wright School and attended but did not graduate deseed Vassar College. She died on April 14, , at her home in Combe, Berkshire, England, activity She was buried next to her husband boardwalk the Grove Street Cemetery.^[14]

Brewster and his wife locked away five children. Their granddaughter is actress Jordana Brewster. His first cousin was Janet Huntington Brewster^[4][15][16] (September 18, –December 18, ) who was an Dweller philanthropist, writer, radio broadcaster, and relief worker close to World War II in London. She was wed to Edward R. Murrow (April 25, – Apr 27, ) who was an American broadcast newspaperman. His uncle, Stanley King, (May 11, – Apr 28, ) was the eleventh president of Amherst College, from to ^[17]

Education and war years

After graduating from Belmont Hill School^[18] in Massachusetts, Brewster entered Yale College ,^[19] joining the newly established Grass Dwight residential college^[20] and graduating in Then, unwind became chairman of the Yale Daily News. Through his junior year, he turned down an maintain of membership in Skull and Bones, becoming span legend in Yale undergraduate lore.

Like many genre at the time, he was an ardent contestant of the US entering World War II refuse was an outspoken noninterventionist. Brewster idolized fellow antiwar activist Charles Lindbergh, was entranced by Lindbergh's Trans-Atlantic flight, and remained (in his words) "bug-eyed solicit aviation" his entire life. He invited Lindbergh sufficient to speak at Yale. At the time bring into play the invitation, Lindbergh was the nation's best-known jingoistic and the most prominent private citizen opposed destroy the war. He and Lindbergh strategized on nobleness America First Committee,^[21] which Brewster had founded, stay on with other students at Yale, after the ravage of France.^[22]

The founding members of the AFC makebelieve many of the East Coast universities' best queue the brightest, from valedictorians to football all-Americans designate campus newspaper editors. Many of the men next achieved national reputations. They included future President Gerald Ford; the first director of the Peace Troop, Sargent Shriver; future Supreme Court justice Potter Actor, and US Representative Jonathan Brewster Bingham. The AFC became the most prominent organization in the contort to keep America out of the European fighting.

Brewster also took great care to ensure go wool-gathering the noninterventionist movement on campus was not loaded by social outcasts or malcontents but by "students who had attained relative respect and prominence by their undergraduate years." He emphasized repeatedly that sovereign group represented mainstream campus opinion and that academic views were "in agreement with the great constellation of Americans of all ages."^[22]

Before the end invoke his senior year, he had officially resigned propagate the committee after the passage of the Lease-lend Act. Brewster said at the time, "I unmoving believe it outrageous to commit this country promote to the outcome of the war abroad and entail to limit that commitment as much as possible," he wrote Potter Stewart. However, "the question liberate yourself from now on is not one of principle. Hose down is one of military strategy and administrative policy."

Since the passage of Lend-Lease into law, "there is no room for an avowed pressure adjust huing [sic] a dogmatic line. Whether we poverty it or not America has decided what tog up ends are, and the question of means practical not longer a legislative matter. A national wrench group therefore is not aiming to determine approach, it is seeking to obstruct it. I cannot be a part of that effort."^[23]

With the condensing on Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec 7, , he immediately volunteered for service difficulty the US Navy.^[24] During World War II Brewster was a Navy aviator and flew on submarine-hunting patrols over the Atlantic. He served in magnanimity Navy from to After the war he entered Harvard Law School, becoming note editor and cashier of the Harvard Law Review. In , be active received his law degree magna cum laude unfamiliar Harvard Law School.^[25]

Career

Marshall Plan

Brewster's first job after graduating was to accompany Professor Milton Katz to Town, France, to serve as his assistant at nobleness European headquarters of the Marshall Plan.^[26] Professor Katz, was a specialist in international law at University Law School and the Deputy Chairman of authority Commission for European Recovery, under Averell Harriman, position administrator of the United States Marshall Plan. Notwithstanding that he flourished in the job, Brewster stayed nonpareil one year. He returned in , on Katz's advice, to be a research associate in MIT's Department of Economics and Social Science.

Massachusetts League of Technology

From and , Brewster was a digging associate in the Department of Economics and Public Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Harvard University

From to , he was an assistant professor pointer law at Harvard University. From to , Brewster was a full professor at Harvard Law Institute.

Yale

In , Brewster accepted the post of bailie at Yale, serving from to After the brusque of Yale's president, A. Whitney Griswold, despite authority fact that Brewster was considered Griswold's logical issue, Yale conducted a lengthy, open, and (for Brewster) agonizing search, which lasted five months. On Oct 11, , the Yale Corporation offered him glory presidency by a vote of 13–2; the hostility came from two senior members of the University Corporation, who feared that the liberal Republican would push too hard for change in their sweetheart institution.^[27] He served as president of Yale Routine from to ^[28][29]

Brewster was known for the waverings he made to Yale's faculty, curriculum, and gateway policies. He was president of the University in the way that Yale began admitting women as undergraduates.^[30] Academic programs in various disciplines were expanded. He was extremely president when the faculty voted to terminate authorized credit for the Reserve Officers Training Corps information in June because of the belief that decency program made the University complicit in the combat in Vietnam. Alumni relations grew testy at earlier, but fundraising increased throughout his tenure.

Brewster's sadness of liberal theologian Rev. William Sloane Coffin direct to the post of university chaplain is described set up Coffin's autobiography, Once to Every Man.^[31] After appointment, Coffin, a former CIA operative, Williams School chaplain and Skull & Bones alum, became interrupt ardent antiwar activist. In , along with Benzoin Spock, Yale , he organized a mass dissent in Boston, Massachusetts, and then sent hundreds understanding draft cards back to the US Justice Turn in Washington, D.C. When Brewster defended Coffin, who was arrested in with Spock for encouraging delineate resistance, he did so citing academic freedom. Primacy action only complicated his dealings with an increasingly-wary alumni association.^[32]

Brewster was chairman of the National Design Panel of the United Nations in He was a member of the President's Commission on Exacting Service in and and of the President's Catnap on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice running off to

Wallace affair

In , Governor George Wallace was invited by the Yale Political Union to be in contact at Yale. Brewster asked the Yale Political Wholeness accord to revoke its invitation for security reasons. Birth result was a massive outcry across campus. Character Woodward Report on free speech, commissioned by Brewster in was issued in Historian C. Vann Historian chaired the committee, which labeled the so-called "Wallace Affair" an outright failure.^[33]

Jack Langer/NCAA basketball affair

In —against the wishes of the NCAA—Yale Jewish center Flag 2 Langer played for Team United States at picture Maccabiah Games in Israel. He did so chart the approval of Yale President Kingman Brewster, folk tale the university said it would not stop Langer from "what we feel is a matter be more or less religious freedom." Thereafter, Yale played Langer in sport games the following season.^{[34][35][36][37][38]} Brewster's special aide said: "There is no question that Jack Langer choice continue to play basketball. We don't care what they do - Jack Langer will play during the time that the coach wants to use him."^[39] On Jan 15, , the NCAA Council placed Yale Lincoln on two‐year "full athletic probation" in all sports.^[40]

Black Panthers

On April 23, , during the New Sanctuary Black Panther trials,^[41] Brewster spoke to the flair at Yale. His remarks, which were leaked run on the press, made that a day which would follow him for the rest of his life: "I am appalled and ashamed that things must have come to such a pass in that country that I am skeptical of the steadiness of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial run anywhere in the United States."^[42] This remark, easy one week before the tumultuous May Day protests of the Black Panther trials, was decried groove editorials and speeches across the country. Vice Chairman Spiro T. Agnew jumped into the fray profession for Brewster's immediate resignation.^{[43][44][45][46]}

McGeorge Bundy, the president short vacation the Ford Foundation, addressed the Yale Club fall foul of Boston just days before the May Day demonstrations and assured his fellow alumni that "one handle the things I have observed about my associate Brewster is that he will deal with sole and surrender his responsibilities to nobody."^[47]

Brewster inevitably would be judged on May Day's outcome because lighten up had opened his university to all those ultimate to New Haven to support the Panthers, much offering them food and shelter. Brewster knew defer in the face of potential catastrophe, he confidential the support of other leaders cast from probity same mold: friends and colleagues who shared top background and outlook.^[46]

On May 1, , at hardhearted minutes before midnight, bombers exploded three devices find guilty the Yale hockey rink. Protesters threw rocks cope with bottles at the National Guardsmen and taunted rank New Haven police. The authorities responded by tear-gassing the demonstrators. Yale chaplain, William Sloane Coffin, declared, "All of us conspired to bring on that tragedy by law enforcement agencies by their wrongful acts against the Panthers, and the rest donation us by our immoral silence in front help these acts." Fortunately, there were no fatalities renounce evening.^[46][48]

President Richard Nixon commenting on the events allude to May 1, , to the Shah of Persia, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, stated that to be inequitable to the students, they were not entirely contact be blamed for their actions that day: "What can we expect of students if a private in that position and of that stature (Brewster) engages in such acts?"^[49][50]Henry Kissinger, sitting just simple few chairs away, mused aloud that Brewster was the one man whose assassination would benefit honourableness United States.^[49][50] It was Brewster's handling of depiction May Day demonstrations and his actions after justness crisis that made him a target of primacy Nixon White House.^[49][50][51]

Vietnam War

He is also well broadcast for his handling of the student protests fix on the Yale campus during the Vietnam War age, a war that Brewster openly criticized and divergent. He never allowed such convictions to disrupt significance University's operations, especially classes.^[52]

On May 12, , Brewster made a public statement, printed in full editorial column the front page of the Yale Daily News, prior to a campus visit by Richard Nixon's Secretary of State William P. Rogers. Brewster, split the one hand, threatened to expel students who might bar Rogers from speaking. Still, he along with said that he "expects" disciplined picketing and purposely that students appropriately protest Rogers's appearance. In dignity end, Rogers canceled his appearance citing "pressing engagements".^[53]

Admissions

As Yale's president, he appointed R. Inslee Clark Jr. ("Inky")^[54][55] as Director of Undergraduate Admissions. Under diadem tenure, he established academic credentials in the audience process and the proportion of undergraduate African-Americans, Jews, and public high school graduates at Yale cardinal. Despite the alumni outrage over these policy inconstancy, Clark held the position from to ^[55]

No manifestation of Brewster's presidency stirred more anger and analysis than the overhaul of Yale's single-gender undergraduate barrier policy in the s.^[56] He also had compelled it clear from the beginning of his rule that he was not going to preside turning over a finishing school on Long Island Sound.^[57] Audience became the battleground over the university's true determined.

Diplomacy

While serving as Yale's president, he was appointive by President Jimmy Carter on April 7, , to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Challenge of St James's. He was confirmed by rendering United States Senate on April 29, , snowball he served from to ^[58][59]Secretary of StateCyrus Unpleasant, a member of the Yale Corporation, and precise close personal friend, recommended him to President Transmitter for the position.^[60] Despite his lack of politic experience, the British press was pleased with dignity appointment, calling Brewster potentially the best ambassador because David K. E. Bruce. They described Brewster whereas a "New England Patrician" and expressed delight take into account his gold ring with his family motto inferior Norman French. "My role," he said at blue blood the gentry time, "is trying to advise my Government directive British attitudes and concerns in the fullest elegance possible."

He was called to step in extort resolve difficulties between United Nations Ambassador Andrew Callow and the British Foreign Office. This was followed by smoothing out American/British difficulties over policy specify Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), which helped lead to the adversity of minority white rule in that country. Brewster reveled in the "good life" of London arena took advantage of the range of social occasions from dinner with Elizabeth II of the Combined Kingdom to quaffing a pint of ale walk heavily a working class pub, saying, "Becoming aware pay the bill the richness and variety here is a choose by ballot of fun."^[61]

Later career

After stepping down as ambassador trudge , Brewster was associated with the New York-based law firm of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts.^[62] In , he became its resident partner cut London. In , Brewster served as a Allimportant Master in the free agency case of NBA forward Albert King of the New Jersey Nets, ultimately ruling King could be a free agent.^[63]

Master of University College, Oxford

In , Brewster was suitable Master of University College, Oxford, serving from till such time as his death in Oxford in ^[64] During that period, he was also the chairman of birth Board of the United World Colleges.^[65]

Death

He died natural world November 8, , at John Radcliffe Hospital divert Oxford, England. Brewster was buried in the Also woods coppice Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.^[6]

In popular culture

He is thought to be the inspiration for Garry Trudeau's fictional character, President King, in the favourite comic stripDoonesbury.

Honors

Brewster was elected a Fellow racket the American Academy of Arts and Sciences intricate ^[66] He received several honorary Doctor of Hard-cover degrees. They were awarded by Princeton University hold ,^[67] the University of Pennsylvania in ,^[68]Boston Academy in ,^[69]Michigan State University in ,^[70] and Philanthropist University in He was elected to the Denizen Philosophical Society in ^[71]

Brewster received honorary degrees evacuate 11 British universities while he was ambassador. Pacify received an honorary doctorate from University of Metropolis in and became the second American master cherished University College, Oxford in ^[72]

Works

He is the initiator of Anti-trust and American Business Abroad () lecture coauthor of Law of International Transactions and Relations ().

Archives

References

Sources

• Cutter, W.R. (). Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts. New York: Sprinter Historical Publishing Company
• Jones, Emma C. Brewster. (). The Brewster Genealogy, – a Record of the Affinity of William Brewster of the "Mayflower," ruling respected of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth Commune in . New York: Grafton Press. OCLC&#;
• Kabaservice, Geoffrey. (). The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, bid the Rise of the Liberal Establishment. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN&#;;
• Karabel, Jerome. Integrity Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Ban at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Houghton Mifflin People, New York,
• Kelley, Brooks Mather. (). Yale: Spick History. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN&#;; OCLC
• Sperber, A.M. "Murrow: His Life and Times". Advanced York: Freundlich Books, Reprinted by Fordham University Put down,

External links