A. Whitney Griswold
| Alfred Whitney Griswold | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 16th President of Yale University | |
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In office 1951–1963 |
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| Preceded by | Charles Seymour |
| Succeeded by | Kingman Brewster, Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 27, 1906 Morristown, New Jersey United States |
| Died | April 19, 1963 (aged 56) New Haven, Connecticut United States |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Brooks |
| Relations | Eli Whitney (ancestor) |
| Education |
Hotchkiss School (1925) Yale University (B.A. 1929) |
Alfred Whitney Griswold (October 27, 1906 – April 19, 1963), who went by his second given name, was an American historian and educator. He served as 16th President of Yale University from 1951 to 1963, during which he built much of Yale's modern scientific research infrastructure, especially on Science Hill.
Griswold was born in Morristown, New Jersey, the son of Elsie Montgomery (Whitney) and Harold Ely Griswold. He graduated from Hotchkiss School in 1925, before obtaining his B.A. from Yale University in 1929, where he edited campus humor magazine The Yale Record.
Griswold was a descendant, on his mother's side, of Eli Whitney, and of six colonial governors of Connecticut on his father's side. As an undergraduate, Griswold, along with a handful of students and faculty members, founded the Yale Political Union.
He taught English for a year, then changed to history, which he taught at Yale from 1933, becoming an assistant professor in 1938, an associate professor in 1942, and a full professor in 1947. Griswold received a Ph.D. in the new field of History, the Arts and Letters, writing the first dissertation in American Studies in 1933. The American cult of success was the dissertation's subject, informed in part by Griswold's brief time on Wall Street between his graduation and the . Griswold authored The Far Eastern Policy of the United States (1938), Farming and Democracy (1948), Essays on Education (1954), In the University Tradition (1957), and Liberal Education and the Democratic Ideal (1959). Although Griswold was not a specialist in foreign affairs, his 1938 book on Far Eastern policy was an elegantly written and vigorous survey which for many years was the most influential work in the field.
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