Former President John W. Lederle dies at age 94

John W. Lederle, 94, of Naples, Fla., who served as president of the University of Massachusetts from 1960-70, a period of time that saw unprecedented growth both on the Amherst campus and within the University system, died Feb. 13 at Naples Community Hospital of heart failure.

During Lederle’s tenure as president, UMass Amherst was transformed from a small, rural campus with fewer than 6,000 students to a major research university. Nearly 50 major buildings were begun or completed on the Amherst campus, student enrollment tripled, and the number of faculty, the total operating budget and number of books in the library quadrupled. The number of faculty grew from 366 to 1,157. Faculty salaries in the advanced academic programs and the overall number of programs doubled, while the number of graduate students increased by nearly 300 percent in this time period.

The UMass system was also expanded with the creation of the Medical School in Worcester in 1962 and a Boston campus in 1964.

President Jack M. Wilson says Lederle played a critical role in creating the UMass we know today. “The entire University of Massachusetts community is saddened to learn of the death of former UMass President John W. Lederle. His leadership of the university brought growth and expansion to the flagship Amherst campus as well as the establishment of UMass Boston and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The university’s current strength as a national educational and research leader is a tribute to his commitment to the University of Massachusetts decades ago.”

Lederle, reflecting on his career in 2005, wrote that one accomplishment of which he was very proud was that, “Our progress in the 1960s meant going to the governor and the legislature year after year with larger and larger budget requests for construction and facility expansion, not only in Amherst, but later in Boston and the UMass medical school in Worcester. Once, the Senate president in my presence remarked, I hope facetiously, that I had taken more money out of the state treasury than any other man in history,” he said. After his retirement, Lederle said, he was honored for service to the Commonwealth and the university by the same legislators who had supported his funding requests. “What a great surprise! No, I hadn’t worn out my welcome.”

Among the key programs begun during Lederle’s tenure are the Polymer Research Institute, the Research Computing Center, the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Water Resources Research Center, the Labor Relations Research Center, the Committee for the Collegiate Education of Black Students and establishment of overseas programs in England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France. The Lederle Graduate Research Center, a prominent building on campus, was named after him in 1983. Other innovations included the university press, a public radio station, and collaborative arrangements among the local colleges. The University’s first endowed professorship was established during his tenure. Attracting federal research dollars, the institutional budget grew by 700 percent to more than $100 million.

Lederle was extensively involved in civic life during his career. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Clarke School for the Deaf from 1975-86; was a member of the executive committee of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges from 1967-70; a member of the Board of Trustees of Hampshire College from 1965-70; a member of the Massachusetts Board of Regional Community Colleges from 1960-70; a member of the Advisory Board of Higher Education Policy from 1962-65; chairman of the Advisory Commission of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education from 1966-70; a member of the New England Board of Higher Education from 1961-73, and chairman of the National Conference of Directors of Bureaus of Government Research from 1958-61.

As a lawyer, Lederle was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1936, working with a Detroit law firm from 1936-1940. He was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1947; was a staff attorney with the Michigan Municipal League from 1945-48, and was general counsel to the Michigan Municipal League from 1948-51.

Lederle was the organizer and first director of the Institute of Public Administration at the University of the Philippines from 1952-53; was Michigan state controller and chairman of the Michigan Commission on Interstate Cooperation from 1953-54; and secretary of the Michigan Governor’s Committee on Intergovernmental Relations from 1954-55. He was chairman of the Massachusetts Governor’s Committee on Local Government Management Capacity from 1976-78.

He also served as a consultant to the U.S. Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee from 1944-46; was a consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on Campaign Expenditures in 1950; a consultant to the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules in 1952; and was a member of the Special Commission on Non-Profit Hospital and Medical Services Corporations and the Rising Cost of Hospital and Medical Care to the Public in 1962-64.

Lederle also wrote many articles on issues in the field of higher education and on national, state and local government politics and administration.

He was born May 26, 1912 in Royal Oak, Mich., son of the late Emil John and Minnie Louise (Shore) Lederle. His father was the superintendent of schools in Grand Marais, Hastings and Royal Oak, Mich., and was also superintendent in Oakland County, Mich. Lederle leaves his wife, Angie Lederle, a daughter, Pamela J. Marro of Florida, a son, Thomas Lederle of Pelham, and a grandson, John Lederle Marro.

Lederle earned his bachelor’s (1933), master’s (1934), law degree (1936) and doctorate (1942) from the University of Michigan. Lederle worked at Brown University from 1941-1944, serving as a professor of political science and assistant dean. He returned to the University of Michigan in 1944, filling a number of professional roles. Lederle remained at the University of Michigan until 1960, when the University of Massachusetts elected him president. He was inaugurated on Sept. 25, 1960. After his retirement in 1970, Lederle was honored with an appointment to the Joseph B. Ely Chair in Government at the University, a post he served in until 1982.

He received honorary doctorates from Amherst College in 1963; Hokkaido University in Japan in 1963; Northeastern University in 1964; Boston University in 1965; Holy Cross College in 1963, and Lowell State College 1970.

There are no plans for a memorial service.

February 16, 2007.

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