Pusey, << PYOO zih, >> Nathan Marsh (1907-2001), an American educator, served as president of Harvard University from 1953 to 1971. Pusey, a native of the Midwest, was the first non-New Englander to hold that position. He was publicly critical of McCarthyism when four faculty members at Harvard were accused of being Communists or cooperating with Communists. McCarthyism is a term for the widespread accusations and investigations of suspected Communist activities in the United States during the 1950’s. Pusey’s tenure was marked by Vietnam War-era student demonstrations in the 1960’s. In 1969, he called in riot police to end a protest led by hundreds of student radicals who took over Harvard’s main administration building. Some 45 students were injured in the raid by police using batons and tear gas. Nearly 200 students were arrested. Students protested the raid by boycotting classes for more than a week, paralyzing the university.
Pusey was born on April 4, 1907, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1928. After study at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, he received a doctorate at Harvard. From 1944 to 1953, Pusey served as president of Lawrence College (now Lawrence University) in Appleton, Wisconsin, and on the Wisconsin Governor’s Commission on Human Rights. He published his observations on education in his books The Age of the Scholar (1963) and American Higher Education, 1945-1970: A Personal Report (1978). Pusey died on Nov. 14, 2001.
