JAMES P. BAXTER 3D DIES; EX-PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100004-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 19, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100004-8
THE NEW YORK TIi'ES
19 JUNE 1975
.Ex. President of Williams
i
By ALDEN WHITMAN
James Phinney Baxter 3d, When he retired, that average
former president of Williams had been raised to between
College, Harvard professor and IC-plus and B-minus.
Pulitzer Prize-winning histori- To effect the change, Mr.
an, died Tuesday in a nursing Baxter increased scholarships
home in Williamstown, Mass, and student aid more than six-
Mr. Baxter, who retired from fold and cut way down on ad-
Williams in 1961 after 24 years missions from prep schools. He
as president, was 82 years old. also quadrupled the college's
budget for instruction. "Vital
His prize book, "Scientists teaching is the essential thing,"
Against Time," was a history he said of small colleges. The
of the Office of Scientific Re- teacher-student ratio was re-
search and Development in duced to 1 to 10.
l
h
b
k
W
Wor
ar II. T
e
oo
d
, which Mr. Baxter also enriched the ice'';
won the Pulitzer in 1947, 1 b 1'
c
urrica um y vita lung a back
chronicled the development of ward science department and William H. Tague, 1965
the proximity fuse, sono-radio by making it possible for stu-
buoys, antimalarials, gunfire dents to major in such com James Phinney Baxter 3d
control and similar applications bined fields as American his-
of technology to the war. tory and literature, or art andlclass at Williams in 1914. Con-
"A fine book, obviously one religion. Itracting tuberculosis while.
of the most important docu- Williams enrollments in- working in Wall Street, he,
ments written so far about the creased during Mr. Baxter'slwent to Colorado to recuper-
war," commented E. B. Garside presidency from 820 to 1,100,jate. He did graduate work in
in The New York Times Book and the number of seniors en- history there and taught ate
Review. tering graduate school rose Colorado College before joining
"The author," Mr. Garsidelfrom 25 to 50 per cent by 1961, the Harvard faculty in 1925.
continued, "has a reticent clear when he stepped down. His doctoral thesis disputed the.
style admirably suited to pin Lecture to a Bear longheld idea that the Monitor
down his refractory material... and the iY1en imac were the,
His preoccupation with techni- Mr. Baxter did some lectur-world's first iron-clad ships. He
cal detail has not diminished ing to students at Williams- gave the primacy to La Gloire,
his grasp of wartime science as and once to a bear caught in a French vessel of 1859.
a whole." a trap. The incident occurred Recruiter for O.S.S.
Mr. Baxter's ability to con- when he and a guide were on popular at Harvard, Mr. Bax-;
'vey the complex in understand- a fishing trip without a gun.Iter left reluctantly to head Wil-
able language was a talent he Tile guide suggested that to'liamle founded in 1793, as its
had honed as a professor of put the animal out of its mis- 10 president. He 793, ,save
history at Harvard, where he cry, he hit it over the head in World War II to, amove,
served from 1925 to 1937. A with an ax while Mr. Baxter other things, recruit academic,
former student recalled Mr. distracted its attention. Mr. othernnel s, recruit Office ic ofl
Baxter yesterday as an admir- Baxter recalled that he walked Strategic Services and to serve'
able, stentorian-voiced lecturer. toward the beast, expounding, as historian for the Office of
"Bald, mustached, bespectacled, in his customary emphatic Scientific Research and Devel-
moon-faced, he invariably came tones, the Florida boundary dis- opment. In the nineteen-fifties,
to class in a three-button suit, pute of 1803-19 with Spain. he was a member of the Gaith-
secured by the top button, and The bear reportedly was awe- er Commission, which studied,
.with his jacket pockets bulging struck. "The Florida dispute the cold war.
with a miscellany of notes," was always a difficult thing to Although Mr. Baxter publish
the former student said, adding: explain to a class," Mr. Baxter
"His courses were tough, but said afterward, "and I felt if ed few books, he wrote exten-
.he never put you to sleep-and'I could hold the attention of sively for history and law jour-
nals and was a senior fellow
.he was a merciful grader.' students with it, I might hold
Master of Adams House la bear's." of the Council on Foreign Af
Mr. Baxter was a staunch airs. For his contributions to
Mr. Baxter taught diplomaticlRepublican and at the sameleducation and history he col-
history, naval history and in-time a sturdy defender of aca-elected 17 honorary degrees, in-
ternational relations; and foridemic freedom and the riTht oficluding one from Harvard and
six years he was master ofIdissent. In the hysteria of thelanother from Columbia. He was
Adams House, one of the show-McCarthy era of some 20 years also made a fellow of the,
places of the Harvard housej20 years ago, he supported an American Academy of Arts ands
system for undergraduates. (outspoken Williams professes-:?c"tic,:s and was elected to the!
In his 24 years at Williams, whose dismissal as "a pinko" Century Association.
Mr. Baxter transformed the!was demanded by influential, His wife, the former Anne'
college from an institution that alumni. Mr. Baxter's readiness !Holden Strang, died in 1961.
educated young men who were to regard colleges as a free He is survived by three sons,!
more rich than bright into al market in ideas earned him the James Phinney Baxter 4th, a
school that put a premium on affection and respect of his fac-lChirago banker; Arthur B. of
intellectual accomplishment.!ulty. (Newtown, Conn., and Stephen
The average grade at Williams A native of Maine. Mr. Bax-IB., a historian, of Chapel Hid,
was D-plus--not even the tra-; ter was born in Portland on IN. C.; a sister, Mrs. Sam Bruce,1
ditional gentleman's C-when:Feb. 15, 1893. He was presi-,eight grandchildren and aI
Mr. Baxter took over in 1937.:dent and valedictorian of hislgreat-grandson.
11 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100004-8