For all he did for the University during his time in Nassau Hall from 1957 to 1972, former University president Robert Goheen ’40 may have left an even greater impression on those who were privileged enough to develop personal friendships with him.
“[Goheen] would not have wanted to be remembered ... for such ‘tangibles’ as buildings built and dollars raised,” former University president William Bowen GS ’58 said, eulogizing Goheen at the official memorial service at the University Chapel yesterday afternoon.
Bowen was among the masses of Goheen’s admirers who filed into the pews, where the rich notes of Duke Ellington were followed by the inspiring text of the Prayer of St. Francis and the moving words of some of Goheen’s closest friends.
The service carried out a number of Goheen’s instructions, from the Chapel Choir’s performance of Ellington’s “It’s Freedom” to a reading of Max Ehrmann’s poem “Desiderata,” delivered by Dean of Religious Life Alison Boden.
Bowen emphasized the “spirit” Goheen infused into every one of his 70 years of association with Princeton. Goheen’s character, Bowen said, was “a wonderfully integrated set of personal qualities that informed all that he said and all that he did.”
During his tenure as University president, Goheen significantly expanded the Graduate School, campus size and the budget.
He also led the Princeton community through the national discontent during the Vietnam War and implemented coeducation at the University.
A classics scholar, Goheen deeply valued the past and tradition but constantly embraced the possibility of improving the future.
Goheen’s “qualities, bundled together, were a veritable arsenal of weapons that [he] used to produce profound change at Princeton,” Bowen said.
James Armstrong ’41, who referred to Goheen as “my closest friend,” delivered an ode from Sophocles’ “Antigone.”
The excerpt, Armstrong said, “represents Bob’s choice in his classical way.”
Bowen quoted President Tilghman, who said in 2006 that Goheen was integral to making Princeton an “intellectual powerhouse ... a place where tradition and innovation were skillfully, and some might even say miraculously, balanced at a time of disorienting social change.”

It was his levelheaded approach to complex issues, Bowen said, that allowed Goheen to succeed during such a difficult era.
“A highly intelligent, clear thinking man who respected evidence,” Goheen was also “straightforward and plain-talking,” Bowen said. Goheen would carefully consider all points of view and avoided oversimplifying or overcomplicating issues.
He was “free of even an iota of ego-mania,” Bowen said. “His capacity to be corrected, and to correct himself, was one of his great strengths.”
Originally opposed to the introduction of coeducation at Princeton, Goheen demonstrated his propensity to rethink and reevaluate, reviewing studies by his colleagues and eventually deciding that the admission of women to the University would indeed greatly enhance student life.
But beyond his impressive contributions to the University, and beyond the personality that was admired by just about everyone, Goheen was a family man at heart.
Bowen called Goheen’s wife Margaret “Bob’s great partner in life,” and underscored the great affection that Goheen had for his family.
Closing the ceremony, Stephen Goheen, one of the late president’s six children, extended thanks to the guests in attendance and reflected that the service demonstrated Goheen’s “love of God, love of music ... [and] how many people he touched.”
“He was just my dad, with all the usual complications that that relationship usually carries,” Stephen Goheen said.
Still, he said, he learned numerous lessons from his father, who taught him “to listen to others,” to value the importance of service and to be willing to compromise.
Above all, Stephen Goheen expressed his family’s indebtedness to the University.
“This is just what he would have wanted,” he said of the service. Then, carrying out his father’s wishes, he led the guests in a stirring rendition of “Old Nassau.”
Along with other University administrators, President Tilghman, a longtime admirer of Goheen’s, was in attendance.
“I thought it was a very moving and appropriate service for one of the finest human beings I have ever known,” she said.