FACULTY OBITUARIES

BU President Emeritus John R. Silber Dies at 86 Led University for 25 years

By Bostonia staff

!"#$ %. &'()*+ (Hon.’95), the president emeritus and former chancellor who led the transformation of University from a commuter school to a renowned research institution, was strong-willed, outspoken, and often controversial. His resolute work ethic, formidable capacity for knowledge, and dogged determination to improve both BU and the city of Boston made him well known in academic as well as political circles. During his tenure at , which coincided, for a time, with his unsuccessful 1990 run for governor of , he greatly expanded the campus, recruited top-notch faculty, including two future Nobel Prize winners, and established the University’s long-running partnership with the Chelsea Public School system, which began in 1988 and continued for 20 years. The University he served for so long awarded him an honorary degree at the 1995 Commencement. Silber, who came to the University in 1971, was the University’s seventh president, serving for more than three decades, as president until 1996, then as University chancellor from 1996 to 2003. He also was a College of Arts & Sciences professor of philosophy and of international o Silber took an to greatness that we are steering today. We owe relations, a University Professor, and a School ambitious tack John a tremendous debt of gratitude.” of Law professor of law. when he arrived While his tendency toward blunt speech He died on September 27, 2012, at age 86. The at BU, balancing earned him moments of local and national cause of death was kidney failure. the budget in attention, most memorably during his guberna- 18 months and “In the seven years I have served this wonder- then launching torial campaign, his friends and supporters ful institution, I have come to appreciate the an aggressive praised him for choosing truth over tact. “I called magnitude of what John Silber accomplished at campaign to hire him the last candid man,” author Boston University,” says University President new faculty, first (Hon.’00) said. “There aren’t many left who say Robert A. Brown. “He worked tirelessly to trans- in the human- what they mean, and mean what they say.” ities and social form the University, introducing ever-higher sciences, then in Silber was born in , Tex., to standards in the hiring and promotion of faculty the life sciences. Jewell Silber, a schoolteacher, and Paul Silber, and admission of students. There were some “Back then,” he an architect who immigrated to the United who found fault with his candor and those who said, “run ning States from Berlin in 1902. He described his Boston Uni ver- disagreed with him on some policy or decision, sity was like try- parents as “strict but loving” people who “gave but nobody can deny John’s legacy. He was ing to fly a 747 no excuses.” In 1989, he told famously outspoken and unhesitant in decision- with out an in stru- about his realization at age four that his right arm, making. He left an indelible imprint on Boston ment panel.” shortened by a congenital birth defect, would University and set the foundation for the course never grow. “My mother always fixed my sleeves

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776-79_BostoniaWinter13_01.indd6-79_BostoniaWinter13_01.indd 7766 22/1/13/1/13 99:50:50 AAMM so I would have use of my arm,” he said. “She prisoners in state correctional facilities, while never hid it. Neither have I. By not pampering me, the University Professors Program allowed they let me develop into the person that I am.” advanced undergraduates to plan their own He attended Trinity University in San Antonio, curricula. The physical plant improved drama- where he met his wife, Kathryn (Hon.’01), and tically as well, doubling in size with the addition graduated with a degree in philosophy. He earned of facilities such as the Metcalf Center for Science o John R. Silber a master’s degree in 1952 and a doctorate in 1956 & Engineering, in 1983, the Rafik B. Hariri (Hon.’95), from Yale, both in philosophy, then returned to Boston Building for the School of Management, in 1996, his home state to teach philosophy at the Univer- University and the Boston University Photonics Center, sity of Texas at Austin. He was named chair of president which opened in 1997. the philosophy department in 1962 and dean of emeritus Under Silber’s leadership, BU also forged and former UT’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1967, but a chancellor, deeper ties with the community, most notably clash with the chairman of the university’s board served the by taking the unprecedented step of managing a of regents over a plan to split the college into University for failing Boston-area school system. The Boston smaller schools led to his dismissal in July 1970. more than 30 University/Chelsea Partnership, established His principled stand, however, won the attention years. in 1988, brought new facilities, curriculum of the Boston University presidential search changes, and new policies for students, teachers, committee, then entering the ninth month of and administrators into a troubled system, looking for a new leader. with the goal of making Chelsea’s schools “a When Silber arrived the following year, the model for excellence in urban education.” The school bore little resemblance to the BU of today. partnership, which provided the district with The campus had only 66 education and research tutoring programs, early-childhood education, buildings and 42 residence halls, the library had scholarships, and enrichment programs, was less than a million books, and most critically, intended to last for a decade; it ended in 2008 the University was operating at a budget deficit after two. Silber also created the Boston High of $8.8 million. School Scholars Program in 1973—the largest “When I came here, we didn’t have a list of such scholarship program in the country. In our alumni,” Silber told the University’s weekly 1993, he founded Boston University Academy, newspaper, the BU Bridge, in 2002. “We didn’t a college preparatory school for secondary have a balanced budget. We didn’t have a com- school students. puterized payroll system. We were raising only Silber served on the Kissinger Commission about $2.5 million a year. Back then, running (the President’s National Bipartisan Commission Boston University was like trying to fly a 747 on Central America) and was chair of the Mas- without avionics, without an instrument panel.” s achusetts Board of Education, which during Silber took an ambitious tack, balancing his tenure developed the first curriculum the University’s budget in 18 months and then frameworks. launching an aggressive campaign to hire new WEB EXTRAS Despite his success in raising the University’s faculty, first in the humanities and social sciences, Watch a profile, Silber’s direct, unguarded critiques of slideshow then in the life sciences. (Hon.’74), of images students and faculty made him an unpopular the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Human- from John R. figure in some circles at points in his career. In ities, was recruited in 1976, and Derek Walcott Silber’s tenure 1976, unhappy with what Time magazine called (Hon.’93), a Col lege of Arts & Sciences professor as president his “overpowering style in office” and a proposed emeritus of creative writing, in 1982—both went of BU and a budget cut that could include faculty positions, 10 video of the on to win Nobel Prizes, Wiesel’s in peace, and November deans and three-quarters of the Faculty Assembly Walcott’s in literature. At Silber’s behest, two 29 memorial called for his resignation—a move that the Board other Nobel laureates joined the faculty, the late service at of Trustees voted down. (Hon.’04), a University Professor and bu.edu/ His presidency was never again at stake, but bostonia. a CAS professor, in 1993, and Sheldon Glashow, Silber continued to draw public scrutiny over the Arthur G. B. Metcalf Professor of Mathematics the years. He took a leave of absence from BU and Science, in 2000. to run for governor of Massachusetts in 1990 Over the next 25 years, BU experienced a and secured the Democratic nomination. His period of unprecedented growth and engage- campaign was initially a success, but he failed to ment with the city of Boston. New programs and win over the old guard of the Democratic Party institutes served a range of constituencies—with and ultimately lost to William Weld. He returned the founding of the Prison Education Program in to the University, and in 1993 the Massachusetts 1972, Metropolitan College offered courses for attorney general investigated the finances of BU,

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and the University was asked to adjust its governance rules. In 1996, when he stepped down as president, Silber was named chancellor, maintaining an office on Bay St ate Road and continuing to live in University- owned housing. In 2003, he was widely criticized for his role in selecting Daniel Goldin, a former admin- istrator at NASA, as BU’s ninth president—and then VERNON DOUCETTE dismissing him with a $1.3 million payout before he took office. JOHN CHEFFERS: Silber’s role at BU diminished over the next few years, as (Hon.’06), the former pro- Athlete, Coach, Academic vost of the Medical Campus and dean of the School SED professor emeritus brought people together of Medicine, served as president ad interim, then president, until 2005. Brown, the former provost of MIT, was appointed the 10th president of Boston University, taking office in September of that year. By Madeline Rosenberger o In class, John Cheffers would Silber continued to live on the BU campus, but turned (COM’14) sit at a large round table and stroke his beard while his attention to other interests, such as sculpture (he discussing the essentials completed a bas-relief of Wiesel) and architecture. !"#$ %#&''&(), * School of great teaching with his He published a well-reviewed critique of modernist of Education professor graduate students. architecture, titled Architecture of the Absurd: How emeritus of curriculum and “Genius” Disfigured a Practical Art (Quantuck Lane, teaching, was an authority 2007). In December 2011, he finished a critical analy- on crowd behavior, focusing early 1960s. He became the sis of the work of the German philosopher Immanuel his studies on the behavior track and field coach for the Kant, a project he began in 1954 when he was a grad- of sports fans. He advised Olympic team of Rhodesia uate student and member of the junior faculty at Yale. the International Olympic (now Zimbabwe) in 1968, The book, Kant’s Ethics: The Good, Freedom, and the Committee and the New but Mexico refused to rec- Will (Walter de Gruyter), was published in May 2012. England Patriots on crowd ognize the athletes’ pass- In 2007, the University honored Silber with a gala control techniques, and ports and denied them entry tribute, featuring letters and presentations from his research on violence in into the country. He wrote colleagues, dignitaries, and friends. While many sports was featured in a 1983 about the experience in friends poked fun at the former president’s notorious Sports Illustrated article. his memoir, A Wilderness frankness and occasional temper, others talked of his But Cheffers wasn’t of Spite: Rhodesia Denied lesser-known kindness: letters and phone calls that always an academic. He (Vantage Press, 1972). came at times of illness or trouble, his habit of eating began his career as an ath- He began teaching at the breakfast and dinner with his children every day, even lete and then a coach before School of Education in the at the most demanding moments of his career, and his joining the BU faculty. 1970s, and his office was long and loving relationship with his wife, who died Cheffers died on October legendary among students. in 2005. 28, 2012. He was 76. In the small space crammed “What I am most grateful for was the honor and He grew up in Mel- with treasures from all privilege of serving for more than 30 years,” Silber said bourne, Australia, with over the world, including a at the end of the evening. “BU was one of the finest dreams of competing in the boomerang, Cheffers always toys I was ever allowed to play with—a great toy with decathlon at the Olympics, welcomed students. In class, enormous potential, if you polished it up and gave it a according to the Boston he would sit at a large round few tools to make it run.” Globe. Just weeks before table, stroking his beard and Silber is survived by six daughters, Rachel Devlin he was to compete in the discussing the essentials and Martha Hathaway, of Newton, Mass., Judith 1956 Summer Olympics of great teaching with his Ballan, of New York City, Alexandra Silber, of Carls- in Melbourne, he tore his graduate students while bad, Calif., Ruth Belmonte, of State College, Pa., and anterior cruciate ligament, classical music played in the Caroline Lavender, of Atlanta, Ga., a son, Charles ending his athletic career. background. Hiett, of Hot Springs, Ark., 26 grandchildren, and It was then he turned to “His methods changed 3 great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his coaching and teaching. the behavior of everyone brother and sister-in-law, Paul and Phyllis Silber, He coached the Carlton who had the good fortune of San Antonio, Tex., two nieces, a great-niece, and Football Club in Australia, of being his student,” says a great-nephew. the team he had played for Leonard Zaichkowsky, a A memorial service for Silber, attended by 700 years earlier, and continued retired professor of coun- people, was held on Novem ber 29, 2012, at the George coaching various sports seling psychology at SED Sherman Union Metcalf Ballroom. teams in South Africa in the and the School of Medicine

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