Lewis Webster Jones
15th President of Rutgers University
In office
1951–1958
Preceded byRobert Clarkson Clothier
Succeeded byMason Welch Gross
Personal details
Born(1899-06-11)June 11, 1899
Emerson, Nebraska
DiedSeptember 10, 1975(1975-09-10) (aged 76)
Sarasota, Florida
Cause of deathPneumonia
EducationReed College
Brookings Institution

Lewis Webster Jones (June 11, 1899 – September 10, 1975) was an economist, and the President of Bennington College from 1941-1947, the University of Arkansas from 1947 to 1951 and of Rutgers University from 1951 to 1958.

Biography

He was born in Emerson, Nebraska, and spent his youth in Portland, Oregon. Jones received his undergraduate degree from Reed College, and later earned his PhD from the Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government (now the Brookings Institution). Jones then did post-doctoral work at Columbia University, the London School of Economics, the University of Cambridge, the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. During his studies in Europe, he served as an economist on the staff of the League of Nations. He then joined the faculty of Bennington College in 1932 where he served as president from 1941 to 1947. He served from 1947 to 1951 as the 12th president of the University of Arkansas.[1] At Arkansas, he began the process of rebuilding the University after World War II. New graduate programs began, expanded and new buildings added. Most notable were the Fine Arts and Law school buildings. In 1951 he was appointed the fifteenth President of Rutgers University.[2]

During his tenure as Rutgers president, Jones oversaw the completion of the university's transformation into the State University in 1956, and massive construction efforts across the university's College Avenue, Busch, Cook and Douglass campuses. The Graduate School of Social Work, ranked as one of the finest in the United States, and the Graduate School of Library Science (now part of the School of Communication, Information and Library Science), and the Eagleton Institute of Politics were established during his tenure.

Jones resigned as president of Rutgers in 1958, to accept the presidency of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. In 1965 he retired to Sarasota, Florida where he lived until his death on September 10, 1975.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Blue Jeans with a Difference". Time. February 3, 1947. Archived from the original on February 26, 2008. Retrieved June 9, 2008. Last week wry, engaging Lewis Jones, 47, was ready to take a job as unlike his old one as it could be. The new job: president of the University of Arkansas.
  2. ^ "Lewis Webster Jones". Rutgers University. Retrieved June 9, 2008. Lewis Webster Jones (1899-1975), of Emerson, Nebraska was a noted economist and university president, a man of deep insight and broad educational philosophy. He spent his boyhood and youth near Portland, Oregon. A graduate of Reed College and the Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government, where he received his Ph.D. in 1927, he had undertaken postdoctoral studies at Columbia University, the London School of Economics, Cambridge and Geneva before serving as an economist and editor with the Foreign Policy Association until 1930. During his stay in Europe, he served as an economist on the staff of the League of Nations. For two years he was the economist for the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care and then joined the original faculty of Bennington College in 1932. In 1941 he was named president of Bennington, serving with distinction until 1947, at which time he became president of the University of Arkansas. During his presidency at Arkansas, Dr. Jones was a member of the President's Commission on Higher Education. On September 7, 1951, he was selected as the fifteenth president of Rutgers.
  3. ^ Freeman, William M. (September 11, 1975). "Lewis W. Jones, 76, Dies; Led Interfaith Conference". New York Times. Retrieved June 9, 2008. Lewis Webster Jones, a former president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and, earlier, president of Rutgers University, died yesterday of pneumonia in a hospital in Sarasota, Fla., where he lived. He was 76 years old.

Further reading

Academic offices Preceded byRobert Devore Leigh President of Bennington College 1941–1947 Succeeded byFrederick H. Burkhardt Preceded byArthur F. Harding President of University of Arkansas 1947–1951 Succeeded byJohn Tyler Caldwell Preceded byRobert Clarkson Clothier President of Rutgers University 1951–1958 Succeeded byMason Welch Gross
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