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April 01, 2008

Obituary: Robert Goheen, Former Princeton President, 88

Robert Goheen, former president of Princeton University and the Council on Foundations, died at age 88 on March 31, in Princeton, N.J., reports The New York Times.

Elected to be president of Princeton in 1956 at age 37, he would revolutionize the university by greatly increasing its physical size and wealth, as well as diversity. Mr. Goheen increased the university’s indoor square footage by 80 percent, doubled alumni donations, and quadrupled the budget.

Reversing his earlier position, the former assistant classics professor supported the admittance of the university’s first female students in 1969. Mr. Goheen also hired Princeton’s first black administrator and first black full professor, and heavily recruited minority students.

After his retirement from the post in 1972, he became president of the Council on Foundations, in Arlington, Va. In 1977, he was appointed U.S. ambassador to India. He ended his career back at Princeton, as a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Mr. Goheen is survived by his wife of 66 years, Margaret, and six children.

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