John R. Silber, Who Led Boston University’s Renaissance, Dies at 86 (D candidate for MA gov 1990)
Source: NYT
John R. Silber, who transformed a faltering Boston University into one of the nations leading private schools in a volcanic 25-year presidency that promoted innovation, crushed opposition and made him Americas highest-paid educator and one of its most divisive, died on Thursday morning at his home in Brookline, Mass. He was 86.
His daughter Ruth Silber-Belmonte confirmed the death. Dr. Silber had been treated for kidney disease.
A philosopher by training but a fighter by instinct, Dr. Silber believed in old-fashioned hard work and academic excellence. He arrived in Boston when protests against every value he cherished were sweeping campuses across the country. He waded in, and from 1971 to 1996 ruled B.U. with a tigerish ferocity that delighted admirers and enraged critics...
He took a leave in 1990 to be the Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts. While he lost narrowly to the Republican candidate, William F. Weld, there was talk of a presidential race. But he returned to academic life, was the university chancellor from 1996 to 2003, and retired as president emeritus with a multimillion-dollar package that touched off one more controversy in a career filled with them.
(...)
His 1989 book, Straight Shooting: Whats Wrong With America and How to Fix It, was a manifesto for his gubernatorial race, attacking Communism, sexual promiscuity and other targets. After his defeat, he was named chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education by Governor Weld, a post he held until 1999. In 2007 he wrote Architecture of the Absurd, a scathing critique of that profession.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/us/john-r-silber-who-led-boston-universitys-renaissance-dies-at-86.html?pagewanted=all
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)I'm going to just keep my mouth shut and my thoughts private here.
MADem
(135,425 posts)that gentleman. A mixed bag, to be sure.
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)He was good for BU but his politics were scary.
gabeana
(3,166 posts)but is this the guy that had run-in with Howard Zinn?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29zinn.html
DavidL
(384 posts)The year Silber ran for Governor. I was working in a small town in W. Mass. The Dems there were having problems voting for him.
He lost, and basically never was heard from again, except on a few Boston TV channels for commentary for 2-3 years.
Bill Weld was much more socially liberal, and not that bad a Republican Governor, even Jesse Helms hated Weld and opposed his appointment for an Ambassadorship to Mexico or somewhere, was that under Clinton or Bush, I can't recall.
Silber was the closest to a Blue Dog Dem that Massachusetts ever came to. Somewhat socially liberal, but certainly no Dukakis.
valerief
(53,235 posts)alp227
(32,094 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I did it once. Never again. Silber was a DINO. I'm sorry for his family, but he was quite a nasty man.
Wolf Frankula
(3,609 posts)He once insulted my friend Harry at a student/administration confrontation. Harry. a long time fencer, challenged Silber to a duel. Silber didn't have the guts to answer.
Wolf
midnight armadillo
(3,612 posts)Or, since Silber was born with a withered right arm, perhaps he took such a challenge as a petty attack on his disability that was not worth dignifying with a response.
DavidL
(384 posts)Silber had little or nothing but hoopla to add to the transformation of the university.
A large, rather comparatively expensive university, less than 3 miles from Harvard, MIT, BC, New England Conservatory of Music, and several other prestigious private and a few public colleges, in a very academically oriented city, (Boston), it was inevitable that BU would gain a quality faculty and staff, and acquire real estate to make it a rather better-than-average private residential facility.
Silber had little to do with that. The university transformed itself in an age of growing universities in a city friendly to their growth.
MADem
(135,425 posts)It's got high rise dorms, majors that never existed back in my dark ages of learning, and it's all spiffy and active--and the neighborhood isn't the sort of place you want to hurry through anymore, preferably with a bicycle chain or some other implement of improvised protection.
I was over that way recently and was absolutely stunned at what they've done with the place and the surrounding environs. Even the once-crappy neighborhoods are full of thirty-somethings pushing strollers -- I was quite amazed.
Paladin
(28,297 posts)I remember him from my days at U.T. Austin---he was controversial there, as well.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)....and there have been some doozys until Patrick came along.
alp227
(32,094 posts)But from what I've read so far, William Weld and Mitt Romney were more like Nelson Rockefeller than Rick Perry. Weld even endorsed Obama in 2008. And we all know how Romney overhauled health care in Mass. only to run for president and attack Obama for doing nearly the same thing nationally. How could a state with Ted Kennedy and John Kerry as senators and such a liberal reputation produce such incompetent Democrats to run for state governor?
From this list of Mass. governors, it seems that every 10-15 years the governor's seat shifts from blue to red.
Oh, if you wonder why former Mass. Speaker of the House Tom Finneran (D) got a morning show (2007-2012) on Boston right wing noise station WRKO (home of Howie Carr), it's because Finneran was a DLC/Third Way type as the Boston Phoenix described in 2003: "In a sense, Finneran has crafted his own version of former president Bill Clintons infamous "third way" in politics. In the past six years, Finneran has triangulated with a series of Republican governors and a wing of progressive Democrats whove dominated the state Senate under the leadership of former Senate president Tom Birmingham."
MADem
(135,425 posts)excuse for a "chief executive."
With the collusion of the legislature, a governor can look like a hero who gets shit done. Without the collusion of the legislature, he will look like a doorknob or one of those wedges that holds the door open--he's there, but so what? The legislature will still pass laws and continue on its merry way, overriding every veto that a "Governor No" (like rMoney) can slap down.
Romney was pretty well ignored when he tried to pull shit that the Beacon Hill gang didn't care for. Hell, he spent more time in NH than he did MA--plenty of State Troopers served more than their share of duty ferrying that asshole to his lake home in NH.
Also, MA is very pedestrian and backwards--and, bluntly, sexist-- in some ways--women are underrepresented in political life, and they have a hard time breaking certain glass ceilings (gubernatorial/senatorial, specifically).
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)Mark Roosevelt (lightweight, very Mondale-ish)
Scott Hoshbaugh (I pronounce his name Hoshbaugh, OK
Shannon O'Reilly (the incompetent nincompoop who allowed Mitt Romney in there)
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)alp227
(32,094 posts)Like saying "Conan O'Reilly"
MADem
(135,425 posts)She wasn't incompetent at all--she was outspent and exhausted. She didn't get help from the sexist bastards in her own party. Had the other women in the race not run (there were FOUR women on the gubernatorial ballot and only one man, Mittsy--nicely confusing for low-information voters) , she probably would have won in a squeaker, despite being outspent massively by rMoney. He ran an ad on TV every five fucking minutes. He spent many millions to get that job, and he viewed it solely as a stepping stone to national ambitions.
Do you realize she was the FIRST woman to EVER be elected to state-wide office on her own steam? In the 20th Century?
MA has a "sexist" problem--it needs to be acknowledged.
Characterizing her as an "incompetent nincompoop who allowed Mitt Romney in there" is just not accurate, it is viciously unfair, and I can't allow it to stand without a sharp and strong retort--particularly when you couldn't even be bothered to get her fucking name right.
I urge you to do a little research before you make cavalier comments like that.
fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)I said it for you all
byeya
(2,842 posts)Good riddance to the asshole.
Gargoyle22
(69 posts)Bill Weld got my vote that year.
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