EDUCATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000200320028-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 1998
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: February 22, 1960
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 1999/09/07 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200320028-1
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Approved For Release 1999/09/07 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200320028-1
 CPYRGHT M ,
Approved For Release 194
EDUCATION
t-Ine Fellows
IL.rr\: rd s eru,ty President ( ugoy-33
\hhotl Ia,\Ienre l.o\cell was a Ph.D. who
?Ic\clup"d .ui earl%, aversion to the Ph.D.
t,u tot\ .\-trm. In a famed plea that
- hol.lrs ,hould he judged by deeds and
,-t is degrees. he \\rote. "We have devel-
?prd Into a mass production of mediocri-
A few ve:lr- before retiring. Lowell
l'egan agitating for a more creative path
into teaching t -to entice and fructify
nnauination ' I. It turned into Harvard's
i reewheeling Society of Fellows-a unique
,?.\tx?riment in C.S. education.
F.ich year. at the society's first dinner.
the need of it. Ha ard's main hope is that
all may p ermanen y enrich one another.
vent faith in the scheme. 'In a kind of
desperation." Lowell finally endowed the
,ociety out of his own pocket. "although
it took nearly all I had." (It took $1,5oo,
ooo.) Last week the impressive return on
Low ell's investment was totted up in a
proud report by the society's chairman,
History Professor Crane Brinton.
Lowell's R.fwrn. Of 145 former Fel-
lows (2o are now at Harvard), 1 28 have
become top schol-ara at 36 U.S. (and ee
foreign) colleges apd universities. rd
has the lion's sh*re, with 42 on its faculty
quinine tied reserprne: scis y;tT
Getting, World War II radar pioneer and
now a vice president of Raytheon: Physi-,
cist James B. Fisk. president of Bell Tele-
phone Laboratories and the V'est's cJ.ief
negotiations with the Russians.
Ideal School. Society Chronicler Brin-
ton is quick to concede that the Fellows
might have done just as well without go-
ing to Harvard, and nobody can he sure if
the twice-weekly lunches and once-weekly
dinners (preceded by scholarly sherry) in
Eliot House hive really broadened the
minds of already brilliant men. "Frankly.
the society does not turn out Renaissance.,
polymaths," says Brinton. "But something,t .
rubs off from one Fellow on another."
The mixit~ .of many disciplines. avoids
the free-for,E'elcesses of latterdaY -Aca-
demic brainstorming, remains a memora-
ble experience to most former
Says one J.F., now a Defense
political analyst: "The society
would be an ideal school for
to serve the country swell." -
At the same time, it is an
for men who would have no
to deal with the furtive gleams
own minds. There is a breath-takirrs
in -e system that allows a
maticiaa like En t~- avJt Mu -
ford, 22, now at~
kind cd, d private "1asiQn" '
Im woe on rule i)SR the
an accessible but ttotrtrivLt
pathology of modus, of higher....
[takingly
I1-sits sim s JUN cos Ft:LLOws AT ELIOT HousE
Sornethinq rubs off from one on another.
the clrairnuul ri?e, :i ni olemnly intones
-four aim +\ill he knowledge and wisdom.
not the rcilected glamour of fame. You
will seek not , near, but a distant. objec-
tive. and yotl will not be satistied with
what you have done. All that you may
achieve or discover you will regard as a
iragnient of a larger pattern."
Scholar's Utopia. In e:+r>. i ;; gift-
ed gr:uht_+tes of s colleges around the
world have heard these words before be-
ginning .+ dream life at Harvard. The so-
rirly's nine Senior Fellow, pick the junior
Fellows I+ccnusc they give rare promise of
original \\ork: the idea is to free them of
the usual clock-punching requirements of
Graduate _tudy. Turned loose for three
ec.+rs. the 11 .- can pursue whatever
phrases Ihem, from poetry to physics.
The\ need not .iltcnrl any courses or earn
u,% dcgrecs..U their full disposal are liar-
\:+rcl's libr.ir+c, and laloaratories: they get
rrc+? room :Ind hn:ircl, plus $ .roc a year
tar i roc , fur hac hclur- and till to $ .joo
i,.r ir,artied men- Extra Inonev can be had
":in toddle off'uApp weed forfR+elt sh15'9 /
(including three deans), followed by Cal-
ifornia with 14. Among Rust J.F.s (rang-,
ing in age from 26 to 55) are two Cheva-;
tiers of the French Legion of Honor, six
Fellows of the National Academy of Sci-
ences, nine Fellows of the American Phys-
ical ical Society, s3 Fellows of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
They have published more Ihan 18o
books, from The ('[Mellor .lime Holds to
The Amfrka+r Business Creed, and their
interests are 'as diverse as their origins
( from Lone Elm. Kans. to Berlin). They
include Younger Poets Ronald Hall and
John Hollander. . Sociologist William
Foote Whyte (Street Corner Society), and ,