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Former University President Robert Goheen '40 dies
Published: Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Former University President Robert Goheen ’40, who steered Princeton through the tumult of the 1960s and oversaw dramatic changes, including the implementation of coeducation, died of heart failure yesterday morning at the University Medical Center at Princeton. He was 88 ...
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This is very sad news. President Goheen made so many wonderful and lasting changes at Princeton and served this country in many ways with distinction.
Goheen was an amazing man, and one of the few men in the history of Princeton I am 100% proud to follow after. I cherish his contributions and am wholly grateful to him, and all those who contributed to making him who he was. I wish the family, a set of equally wonderful people, all the strength they'll need and hope they know how proud of his life they can be. This was a great man. I hope his life and work and all that he stood for, is continually remembered with clarity.
I entered as a freshman his last year as president and met him at orientation. Months later, I saw him again at a reception for his departure and he remembered my name, remembered my hometown, etc. I was amazed, humbled, and uplifted.
I remember -- gratefully -- President Goheen's support for the University Chapel services. On Sundays when he was not traveling for Princeton, he would "process" behind the choir and, with the Dean of the Chapel, sit in the chancel of the chapel during the Sunday morning worship service. For undergraduates who loved the service in the chapel (and there were, and are, some who do), it was a powerful statement of his support for faith on the campus.
I entered Princeton in September 1956 as one of the earliest graduate students in Electrical Engineering Department, which was opposite to the Firestone Library. I was one of the very few students from India. Dr. Goheen was an assistant professor of classics. Being born and had his early education in India, Dr. and Mrs. Goheen used to invite the four or five Indian students to his home in 1, Orchard Circle. We used to enjoy these meetings and mingle with his children. Later that year we heard an announcement that Dr. Goheen will be the next President of Princeton when Harold Willis Dodds retired. It came as a total surprise to everybody, how such a young assistant professor of classics could be elevated as President of a great university. I still remember that this news was the talk of the town. I graduated with a Master's degree from Princeton in 1958 with the diploma signed by Robert Francis Goheen and this is still my prized possessions. I went on to University of Pennsylvania and took my doctorate in Electrical Engineering. I always came back to Princeton during the early years and vigorously campaigned for John F. Kennedy.
Dr. Goheen had laid the foundations for Princeton to be one of the greatest universities making innovative changes by admitting women. I watched with awe the moving of the old Woodrow Wilson School to accommodate the new Woodrow Wilson School with the beautiful architecture of Minoru Yamasaki.
I went back to India and I heard that Dr. Goheen was appointed as Ambassador to India from the US. I wrote to him a letter welcoming him to India as the emissary of USA. He graciously responded to my letter and to my surprise remembered me!
Dr. Goheen was indeed a very gracious man with endearing mannerisms.
We will sorely miss him.
Dr. Goheen was my adviser for my Junior and Senior theses back in the 80's. I will say that few professors -- and I have had the pleasure of knowing many good ones -- elicited the depth of respect and even love that he did. He was extraordinary in many ways and has stayed in my memory all these years. I recently exchanged emails with him, in fact, to let him know that my son, who is just about to begin college, wants to be a classics major. "But, Mom, what will I do with a major in classics?" I laughed and told him about Robert Goheen. What can you do with a classics major? Be a classics professor, an Ambassador, a university President; be fully and compassionately engaged in the world. I am extremely saddened by Dr. Goheen's passing and feel that those of us who were influenced by him are in his debt to carry on some of the very qualities we saw in him that made such an impact on us. I'm glad to know his legacy will be a strong and positive one.