Former Public Safety director Kornblum GS '73 passes away

Allan Kornblum GS ’73, who was director of Public Safety from 1969 to 1975, died of cancer at age 71 last Friday at the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center in Gainesville, Fla.

Following his tenure at the University, Kornblum co-authored the landmark Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), which was passed after the Watergate Scandal to protect the rights of U.S. persons in electronic surveillance.

Kornblum came to the University during a time of pervasive campus unrest, following the era of student backlash against the Vietnam War. Then dean of students Neil Rudenstine '56 told The Daily Princetonian on Sept. 15, 1969, that the University appointed Kornblum because the position of director of security, in light of student activism and students' rights issues, had expanded.

During his years at the University, Kornblum employed his professional qualifications and his own originality to address a wide range of challenges, including several student protests.

In the "Snow Riot" of 1970, for instance, he quelled a crowd of naked students by starting a chant of "Dillon! Dillon!" and ushering the group to Dillon Gymnasium, where he offered them doughnuts and hot chocolate.

Since women were first admitted to the University the same year that he took his post, Kornblum also encountered the challenge of ensuring the safety of female students. Under his leadership, Public Safety approved a student-run service offering to escort women around campus at night following several assualts and six instances of exhibitionism on campus in 1974.

Amid these challenges, Kornblum also earned a doctorate from the Wilson School during his time as director of Public Safety, writing his dissertation on corruption and ethics within the New York City Police Department. Kornblum then leveraged his position as a graduate student to fulfill his professional responsibilities. By attending student-only meetings that were closed to other administrators, he was able to gauge student concerns and implement policies accordingly.

"He drew on his formal experience from law enforcement as well as his creativity and innovation," said Aaron Kornblum ’93, Allan Kornblum's son. "Both were essential to his success [as director]."

Despite the changes he oversaw at the University, Kornblum's stint as director of Public Safety was only a small segment of a career in law enforcement and federal policy.

But, "He loved Princeton. He was very fond of his time there," Aaron said, noting that his father returned to campus every fall to watch the football team from the press box.

After working at Princeton, Kornblum joined the U.S. Department of Justice and developed domestic security and counteringelligence guidelines for the FBI. He then became deputy counsel for the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review in 1978, overseeing all Justice Department wiretap applications.

Then, in 2000, Kornblum rose to national attention as the first official legal adviser for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees the processing of surveillance warrants.

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In 2003, Kornblum testified in court about a conversation he had more than 30 years ago — in his capacity as an FBI agent — with Ernest Avants, a former Ku Klux Klansman accused of killing a black sharecropper in the 1960s. Though initially acquitted in 1966, Avants was convicted in 2003 on federal charges of aiding and abetting murder.

Kornblum moved to Florida in 2003 and became a federal magistrate for the northern district of Florida, a post he held until the week before his death.

Kornblum earned a master's degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1969, a degree from New York University Law School in 1961 and a degree in police administration from Michigan State University. He also worked for the New York City Police Department as a patrolman in the 1960s.

Kornblum then worked as a criminal investigator with the U.S. Treasury Department, as a military police officer for the Army, and finally as an FBI agent, before he came to the University.

"Allan was a passionate and devoted father, husband and patriot. He served his country in many ways, 110 percent every day," Aaron said.

Kornblum is survived by his wife, two sons and three grandchildren.