Perkins

James A. Perkins, who as president of Cornell University from 1963 to 1969 led the campus during its most tumultuous years of social change, died August 19 in Burlington, Vt., of complications from a fall while vacationing in the Adirondacks. He was 86.

Widely recognized as one of the nation's most innovative educators and an effective spokesman for higher education, Perkins at the time of his death was chairman emeritus of the International Council for Educational Development in Princeton, N.J., an organization he founded in 1970 to identify and analyze key problems facing education around the world.

"Jim Perkins represented the highest ideals of liberal education, and he left a permanent legacy not only on the Cornell campus but also in the foundation of our nation's dynamic postwar educational and research institutions," Cornell President Hunter Rawlings said. "Though overshadowed by events surrounding his departure from the university, his impressive accomplishments as president expanded Cornell's leadership in American higher education and research endeavors, and left an impact that is still felt today."

Born in Philadelphia on Oct. 11, 1911, Perkins graduated in 1934 with honors from Swarthmore College, where he joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and then earned his doctorate in political science from Princeton University in 1937. He taught at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs from 1937 to 1941. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Office of Price Administration and the Foreign Economic Administration.

Perkins returned to Swarthmore after the war to serve as vice president of the college from 1945 to 1950. He then went to the Carnegie Corp., a leading educational foundation, while continuing active involvement in national government and educational affairs. He served as chairman of President John F. Kennedy's Advisory Panel on a "National Academy of Foreign Affairs" and submitted a report in 1963 that the president publicly endorsed. He was a member of the 12-person General Advisory Committee of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under the chairmanship of John J. McCloy, the U.S. Committee for UNESCO, and the board of trustees of the Rand Corp. He took a leave from the Carnegie Corp. in 1951-1952 to serve as deputy chairman of the Research and Development Board of the Department of Defense.

In the education field, Perkins' activities included heading a committee for a project sponsored by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund that produced a well-known report, "The Power of the Democratic Idea," that was distributed widely in the United States and abroad.

Perkins was inaugurated as Cornell's seventh president on Oct. 4, 1963, succeeding Deane W. Malott. During his tenure, he restructured the College of Engineering, instituted new departments in biological science and computer science, and created new programs including the Laboratory of Plasma Studies, Risley House (a special-interest residence hall for the arts), the Society for the Humanities, the Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large, the Center for International Studies and the Water Resources Institute. He was responsible for the development and initial funding for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and for securing I.M. Pei as its architect. The campus physical plant grew with the construction of the Space Sciences Building, which housed the laboratories of Carl Sagan and other prominent astrophysicists; the Robert R. Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory; the Noyes Student Center; the Campus Store, built underground to preserve the beauty of the central campus; and Uris, Clark, Emerson and Bradfield halls.

Perkins also oversaw the completion of two capital campaigns that raised more than $100 million for Cornell and its Medical College in New York City, and he presided over the university's year-long celebration of its centennial in 1965, which included orations by Sir Eric Ashby and Adlai E. Stevenson.

His efforts to increase the recruitment and retention of African-American students at Cornell were successful -- the number of black students enrolled increased from less than 10 to more than 250 during his presidency -- but also led ultimately to his resignation on May 31, 1969. He was under fire for his handling of the takeover of Willard Straight Hall by black militant students, a protest that was one of the most famous campus demonstrations of the time.

The New York Times, in an editorial on June 3, 1969, called Perkins' resignation "...a tragic reflection of the inability of a great educational institution to absorb the strains of severe cultural shock and the consequent polarization of the campus. It is a triumph for extremists of all varieties, and a bitter commentary on the failure of the Ôsilent center' to make itself heard."

Disagreement and bitterness over the events of 1969 still reverberate, to some extent, on the Cornell campus. In an effort to promote healing, Cornell Trustee Thomas W. Jones, one of the militant students involved in the takeover who is now an executive in The Travelers Group, in 1995 established the annual James A. Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony. In a statement issued then, he said:

"President Perkins made the historic decision to increase very significantly the enrollment of African American and other minority students at Cornell. He did so in the conviction that Cornell could serve the nation by nurturing the underutilized reservoir of human talent among minorities, and in the faith that the great American universities should and could lead the way in helping America to surmount the racial agony which was playing out in the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. He made a courageous and wise decision and deserves recognition for it."

After leaving Cornell, Perkins founded the International Council for Educational Development and led that organization for 20 years, becoming chairman emeritus in 1990.

He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of the gold medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences. He chaired the New York State Advisory Committee on Educational Leadership from 1963 to 1967, the Presidential General Advisory Committee on Foreign Assistance from 1965 to 1969 and the board of trustees of the Educational Testing Service from 1967 to 1968. He was named by President Lyndon B. Johnson as co-chairman of the International Conference on the World Crisis in Education in 1967.

Cornell President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes said, "Jim Perkins was immensely proud of his association with Cornell. He took the university to new heights during his presidency and, though the events of 1969 were a strain on everyone, the positive effects of his leadership continue to be felt. After he left Cornell, Jim Perkins played an influential and important role in international higher education, serving the whole commonwealth of learning. Many continue to benefit from his leadership, even though they may have little idea of the influential role he played. He was a good friend, an upright and generous person, and he will be greatly missed."

Rhodes added, "One of the best moments in recent years was the ceremony in which an endowed chair was named in his honor. That was a tribute that touched him deeply and marked a new phase of interest and involvement between him and Cornell."

The James A. Perkins Professorship of Environmental Studies in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences was established in 1992 and is held by Eloy Rodriguez, the first Chicano scientist awarded an endowed chair in environmental biology in the United States.

"I was saddened to hear of Jim's death," Rodriguez said. "He had a great love for Latin America that was part of his international interests. He felt that undergraduate education at the international level is very important, and he was very interested in the work I do, taking students on trips for international research projects. I was so proud to be named the first Latino to hold the Perkins Chair, especially after I met him. He continued to be a mentor to me, and I very much appreciated it."

Perkins, who resided in Princeton, is survived by his wife, the former Ruth B. Aall; he was formerly married to Jean Bredin Perkins, who died in 1970. Other survivors include two sons, John of Sheridan, Ore., and David of Raleigh, N.C.; three daughters, Barbara Tinker of Carlisle, Mass., Joan Bredin-Price of Amherst, Mass., and Tracy Perkins of Northhampton, Mass.; four stepchildren, Cecilia Matthews of Princeton, Mea Kaemmerlen of Plainsboro, N.J., Pamela McPherson of Washington, and Christian Aall of Boston; seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.