James A. Perkins *37

Distinguished educator and former president of Cornell U., James A. Perkins, died Aug. 18, 1998, in consequence to a recent fall. He was 86 and was residing in a rest home in Burlington, Vt.

James was an honors graduate of Swarthmore College in 1934. At Princeton, he earned a master's in politics in 1936 and a doctorate in 1937. He was an instructor at Princeton until WWII intervened. From 1941-45 he served in the Office of Price Administration and the Foreign Economic Administration.

In 1946 he became v.p. of Swarthmore, where he remained until becoming v.p. of the Carnegie Corp. in 1950. In 1963, James was elected president of Cornell U. In 1969, during a period of extreme unrest in academe, armed African-American students seized a building on the Cornell campus and demanded the establishment of a department of African-American studies. As a devout Quaker, opposed to bloodshed, James agreed to this addition, and the uprising died. One month later his resignation was forced by widespread protest. His many positive contributions to Cornell were obscured by this outcry, later deemed "courageous and entirely positive."

He returned to Princeton, where he established and directed the Intl. Council for Educational Development until his retirement in 1990. He is survived by his wife, five children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

The Graduate Alumni