The Innovative University

Chapter 9Harvard's Growing Power and Profile

It would be too strong to say that James Bryant Conant's successor, Nathan Pusey, was his opposite. In choosing Pusey, though, Harvard's governing boards followed their pattern of replacing the outgoing president with a candidate of differing background and strengths.¹ Conant, the distinguished laboratory scientist, Deist, and lifelong Harvard man, was followed by Pusey, a teacher of classics, devout Episcopalian, and educator at female-friendly liberal arts schools. An Iowan who graduated from Cedar Rapids High School and presided for nine years over Appleton, Wisconsin's Lawrence College, he was the first Midwesterner to lead Harvard. His only obvious qualification to succeed Conant was the set ...