The man picked to run one of the world's great universities last week was a vice president of the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. 20 years ago, at the age of 33. Pineapples, plus the other jobs Deane Waldo Malott has swung in the last 20 years, persuaded the trustees to make him president of Cornell.
Among the things that impressed Cornell was the fact that Malott could combine pineapples with education. He has been assistant dean of the Harvard Business School, then, for the last twelve years, chancellor of his alma mater, the University of Kansas. At Kansas, he added and overhauled dozens...