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Kingman Brewster, Jr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kingman Brewster, Jr., (June 17, 1919 – November 8, 1988) was an educator, President of Yale University, and an American diplomat.
Brewster was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, the son of Florence Foster (née Besse) and Kingman Brewster Sr., a lawyer.[1] He graduated from Yale in 1941, where he was chairman of the Yale Daily News. His junior year, he turned down an offer of membership in Skull and Bones. In 1948, he received his law degree from Harvard Law School. After teaching at Harvard Law School from 1950 to 1960, he accepted the post of Provost at Yale, serving from 1960 to 1963. Upon the death of President A. Whitney Griswold, he was named President of Yale University, serving from 1963 to 1977.
He was known for the improvements he made to Yale's faculty, curriculum, and admissions policies, and for his skillful handling of student protests during the protests against the Vietnam War, which he himself opposed. His presidency was also marked by the Black Panther trial and the admission of women as undergraduates.
As president, he appointed an undergraduate admissions director, Inslee Clark, under whose tenure the proportion of undergraduate African-Americans, Jews, and high school graduates rose.
His appointment of the controversial chaplain, the antiwar activist William Sloane Coffin, is described in Coffin's autobiographyOnce to Every Man.
After leaving Yale, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James (i.e. the United Kingdom) from 1977 to 1981 and later was Master of University College, Oxford, serving from 1986 until his death there in 1988. He is interred in Grove Street Cemetery, in New Haven, Connecticut.
His grand-daughter is actress Jordana Brewster (D.E.B.S. (2004), The Faculty (1998) and The Fast and the Furious (2001)).
Brewster's life and career at Yale is the focus of Geoffrey Kabaservice's 2004 book, The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment.
He is thought to be the inspiration for Garry Trudeau's character President King in the popular comic strip Doonesbury.
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Anne Armstrong |
U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1977–1981 |
Succeeded by John J. Louis, Jr. |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Alfred Whitney Griswold |
President of Yale University 1963–1977 |
Succeeded by Hanna Holborn Gray, acting |
| Preceded by Arnold Goodman |
Master of University College, Oxford 1986–1988 |
Succeeded by John Albery |
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