John Silber died

[KazooMan]

For those of you old enough to remember the late '60's and early '70's around UT, when Frank Erwin ran the Board of Regents, you may remember John Silber in the College of Arts and Sciences. Depending on the story at the time, either Frank ran John off the 40 Acres, or John quit because of the shackles Frank was putting on A & S. Regardless of what you think of his political views, John was a nice guy, and went on to do great things at Boston University.

John Silber

 

[Mesohorny]

I remember Dean Silber. A good man. He was head of the College of Arts and Sciences when I came to UT, and I recall the run-ins he and Erwin had. A real firebrand who put UT academics first and never kowtowed to the BOR. Our loss was Boston U's big gain.

I never knew he ran for MA gov, but lost to Wm Weld, or that he was talked abt as a possible Dem POTUS candidate. Interesting, not surprising.

RIP.

Thx for the post.

 

[DrRad]

My wife and I were in school in the 60s. As I remember he was nicknamed "Long John" Silber and wanted to establish UT as a "univeristy of the first class".

 

[DrRad]

Ok, so my memory from the 60s isn't so good. A little research shows "The Texas Constitution of 1876 mandated that the state establish a university "at an early day," calling for the creation of a "university of the first class," styled "The University of Texas." " Maybe Silber just emphasized it during his tenure.

 

[huisache]

They ran him off in the summer after my first semester so there would not be so much in the way of faculty or students around to raise a stink.

He got hired at BU and turned the place around in short order. The endowment boomed, he recruited great faculty, some of it from UT, and built it into a very good university.

Too bad the good old boys wouldn't let him do the same at UT, which had a huge head start and lots more assetts. Someday perhaps we will be rid of the Erwins and Perrys and other mediocrities who keep us from achieving what we are capable of.

We lost VArtan Gregorian and William Arrowsmith as a result of this travesty and gott only knows how many others.