Faculty honors Bradford, Cone

The University faculty honored recently-deceased professors David Bradford of the Wilson School and Edward Cone '39 of the music department at a faculty meeting in Nassau Hall Monday afternoon.

Professors and administrators listened to resolutions praising the late scholars' lives and work, then stood for separate moments of silence commemorating each professor.

The memorial resolution for Bradford was read by fellow economist and Wilson School professor Uwe Reinhardt. Reinhardt fondly recalled Bradford's intellectualism and humility.

"He would provide an early welcome to new faculty members," Reinhardt said, explaining that Bradford would invite newly-arrived professors to his house for "good food, fine wines, guitar music and intellectual discussion."

Reinhardt also described Bradford's embarrassment at having an economics concept he pioneered with William Baumol named after him, since this didn't give credit to the economists from whose work he had drawn.

"[Bradford] was uncomfortable to have [his and Baumol's] names on a form of pricing that had a rigorous intellectual history," Reinhardt said, praising Bradford's "keen intellect and sense of fair play."

Bradford, a Wilson School associate dean and former White House adviser, died Feb. 22 from severe burns he suffered two weeks earlier when he tried to remove a Christmas tree that had caught fire in his home.

Tilghman appeared moved after Reinhardt finished the speech, mouthing "thank you."

After she regained her voice, she asked those present to stand for a moment of silence to honor Bradford.

Music professor emeritus Peter Westergaard then read a resolution honoring Cone, who passed away Oct. 23 at age 87 following complications from open heart surgery.

Westergaard praised Cone's academic writing, musicianship and teaching ability.

"Ed . . . was many things," Westergaard said, reading from the resolution. "[He was a] composer, writer, pianist, teacher, editor, advocate. His depth, breadth and versatility made him hard to classify; he did everything brilliantly. When pushed on this point during an interview in 2003, he simply called himself a musician."

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The memorial resolution was also signed by professors Paul Lansky and Scott Burnham and professors emeriti Milton Babbitt, Kenneth Levy and James Randall.

Following a moment of silence for Cone, Tilghman asked Rapelye to briefly discuss the University's 2009 regular decision admits, requesting that she "say a few words about the marathon she has been engaged in for the last three months and its recent successful conclusion."

Rapelye reported that the University had offered admission to 1,807 students out of a record 16,516 applicants to the class of 2009 and said she was pleased that 18 percent of admitted students plan to study engineering, a slight increase from last year.

She also said the number of legacy admits is down from last year, while the percentage of minority admits — 41 percent — increased slightly.

The number of students accepted from countries from which the University has not commonly received applications, such as Brunai and Bolivia, also went up, Rapelye said.

Rapelye thanked professors who had agreed to open their classes to prefrosh during the upcoming April hosting weekend for admitted students and urged them to correspond with prospective students via email when the opportunity arises.

"We want [prospective students] to experience academic life at the University," she said.

Earlier in the meeting, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel proposed changes to departmental course offerings, including the elimination of several courses in the religion department and the addition of photography and film courses to the visual arts department.

The changes were approved unanimously.