6/4/1975, Burlington Free Press

GODDARD NAMES HARVARD EDUCATOR

PLAINFIELD -- Richard A. Graham, director of Harvard University's Center for Moral Development and Education, has been named president of Goddard College.

The Goddard trustees reached the decision Monday night at a meeting in New York City, but it wasn't announced until Tuesday.

Graham becomes the college's third permanent president, succeeding Gerald S. Witherspoon, Vermont's former tax commissioner, who resigned about a year ago.

Graham will begin working with Goddard's acting president, John S. Andrews, about July 1 and will assume full-time responsbilities in the late summer, a college spokesman said.

He will earn a salary of about $30,000; details of his contract and term in office have not been worked out, according to Benjamin Collins, Goddard's director of public relations.

Graham, 54, lives in Cambridge, Mass. He has been director of Harvard's Center for Moral Development and Education for about a year. He has a diversified background in education, government service and industry.

He will be assuming the presidency of an experimental liberal arts college founded in 1938 under the leadership of Dr. Royce S. Pitkin who was president until 1969.

Collins said Graham's background will make him well prepared to work in the college's tradition of combining learning with experience and emphasis on independent, student-centered studies.

The college enrolls about 1,800 students.

Among the positions held by Graham are: Federal executive fellow, The Brookings Institution, 1973-74; director of education programs, ACTION, 1971-72; director of The Teacher Corps, U.S. Office of Education, 1966-71; deputy associate commissioner of education for educational personnel, 1967-1968; and lecturer and professor of adult education, Federal City College, 1969-1973.

He's also been: Commissioner Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1965-66; Director, Peace Corps Tunisia, 1963-1965; director of recruitment and acting associate director for public affairs, Peace Corps, 1961-1963; and he's held several positions in industry, most of them related to engineering.

Graham holds a B.S. degree from Cornell University in mechanical engineering, M.A. from Catholic University in administration and higher education, and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Union Graduate School, Antioch College.

Graham was selected from among some 200 candidates for the job, including two other "finalists." George Heim, a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Jacqueline Snelling, special assistant to the New York City chancellor of education.

Miss Snelling is the daughter of Rep. Richard Snelling, House minority leader, and Mrs. Barbara Snelling, a vice president at the University of Vermont.