Some of you might have noticed the recent kerfuffle about the position of Woodrow Wilson at my alma mater, where it seems like every other building is named after him. The reason for all of this Wilson hagiography is that Wilson was not merely a graduate of Princeton who became president of the United States, but that he was also a faculty member at Princeton and, ultimately, president of the university itself.
As I was contemplating the fact that Wilson was the only university president ever to become president of the United States, I realized that his career path was not unique. There is one other man who served as a university president before being elected president of the U.S. Can you name him? (Hint: like Wilson, he was the head of an Ivy League university).
Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower served briefly as president of Columbia University after he left the army and before being elected president of the U.S. Apparently neither Eisenhower nor Columbia enjoyed his term as university president.
1 comment:
Haha! I remember Truman being reported as saying (paraphrase from memory): "Poor Ike! As a General, he got used to his orders being obeyed. As President he's going to say 'Do this! Do that!' -- and nothing will happen!"
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