Princeton's Interregnum
Since 71-year-old Dr. John Grier Hibben announced more than a year ago that he would retire this June as president of Princeton University at the end of 20 years' service, Princeton's board of trustees has sought vainly for a sufficiently distinguished successor. Two months ago University of Chicago's Arthur Holly Compton, Nobel Prize physicist, was reported to have declined the post (TIME, March 21). The Princeton trustees have been meeting fortnightly in an effort to agree on some one else. Last week, their quest still unsuccessful, they chose one of their own number to be acting president. He was Edward Dickinson Duffield, bulky president of Prudential Insurance Co., super-loyal Princeton alumnus. He will direct Princeton's affairs as long as may be necessary until a permanent president is picked.*
Princeton alumni last week were comforted if not overjoyed by their trustees' decision. That the presidency of Princeton should be so hard to fill seemed an equivocal commentary on the university. But that so dependable a person as "Ed" Duffield would be in charge insured against any backsliding of the institution with Dr. Hibben gone. The university's immediate problems are financial and finance is his forte. His shoulders are broad enough to carry any unpleasantness that may arise from Princeton's necessary retrenchments. Though not primarily a scholar, Acting-President Duffield received both B.A. and M.A. degrees from Princeton (1892, 1895). He has served twelve years as a life trustee. He is descended from Princeton's first president, Jonathan Dickinson. His father, Rev. John Thomas Duffield, taught there for 56 years. His brother, Henry Green Duffield, was treasurer from 1901 to 1930. Than Ed Duffield no man appreciates more the remarkable group of trustees—including Moses Taylor Pyne, Bayard Henry, Charles Scribner, Cyrus McCormick, Melancthon W. Jacobus, Edward Sheldon, Henry B. Thompson—who built up the modern Princeton. None is more devoted than he to their belief that the genius of Princeton and its distinction lie and should remain in the undergraduate college rather than in the ramifications of a big university.
Big of frame and face, President-elect Duffield, 61, has been president of the Village of South Orange, N. J. (1917) and of its board of education (1901-04). In 1905-06 he was New Jersey's assistant attorney general. Last year was not the first time New Jersey has thought of him as a Republican gubernatorial possibility. Because of his many other activities (Presbyterian councils also keep him busy) he will not be a full-time president of Princeton. When he is away the administration of the university will be in the hands of Dean of the Faculty Luther Pfahler Eisenhart, who has been at Princeton for 32 years and was largely instrumental in formulating the upperclass ("four-course") plan of study inaugurated in 1924.