Professors to be on Corporation

Two professional scholars-a historian from Yale and a physicist from the University of Illinois-will be the new members of the Harvard Corporation.

President Pusey announced yesterday that John M. Blum '43 of Yale and Charles P. Slichter '45 of Illinois will take seats this year as Fellows of the Corporation.

They succeed William L. Marbury and R. Keith Kane '22, the two senior Fellows who are retiring this year. Blum will take Marbury's place on February 1, and Slichter will replace Kane on September 1.

The Board of Overseers met yesterday morning to approve the nominations. The Corporation-composed of the five Fellows plus the President and Treasurer-chooses its own successors, subject to approval by the Overseers.

Blum and Slichter will be the first actively-teaching professors to be made Fellows in nearly 100 years, and the Corporation they join will be the first since the late 18th century to have two university teachers as members.

They will also be the first faculty members from other universities ever to serve on Harvard's most powerful governing board.

The two men they replace are both lawyers. The other three Fellows-like most Corporation members since the 1780's-are also business and professional men: Albert L. Nickerson '33 is a retired executive of Mobil Oil; Francis H. Burr '35 is a lawyer with the Boston firm of Ropes and Gray; and Hugh D. Calkins '45 is a lawyer in Cleveland.

The choices of Blum and Slichter came after a four-month election process, beginning with the Corporation's announcement last September that it was seeking suggestions for its two new members.

Through November and December, the Corporation held a series of special meetings to review more than 500 names that were submitted by faculty, alumni, and others.

Blum said last night that he first learned he was under consideration four weeks ago, when President Pusey gave him a call.

"I was totally stunned when the invitation was first put to me," he said. "I didn't hear until this morning that the Overseers had voted to confirm."

Slichter was away from his Champaign, H1. home last night and could not be reached for comment.

Both Blum and Slichter did undergraduate and graduate work at Harvard, and both have built substantial academic records since then.

After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard in 1943, Blum served on Navy patrol craft in the Pacific during World War II. He then returned to Harvard to earn his A. M. in 1947 and his Ph. D. in 1950.

Blum joined the Yale faculty in 1957, after teaching for nine years at M. I. T. He has also taught in England, as the Pitt Professor at Cambridge University in 1963-64, and as Commonwealth Lecturer at University College, London, in 1967.

Blum's specialty has been twentieth century American history. He has written five books-including Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality, The Republican Roosevelt, The Promise of America, and From the Morgenthau Diaries-and edited several others.

For his work, Blum has been made a member of several honorary societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Historical Association.

Few Contracts

In the 20 years since he left Harvard. Blum has maintained few contacts here. "There's been no continuing connection at all." he said. "I've only been back for events like the 25th reunion."

"I don't pretend to know much about Harvard any more," he added, saying that he will come to his first few Corporation meetings "having had no experience in some of the matters. "

Corporation members must spend every other Monday in Cambridge for regular meetings. Although Blum has re-arranged his teaching schedule to leave Mondays free, he said he hopes Corporation duties will let him continue his work as a writing historian.

Still a Yalie

"I am, after all, still a Yale professor. That may mean that I have to cross the field at half-time at football games."

Slichter has also been away from Harvard for many years, serving on the University of Illinois faculty since 1950. In 1968, he became professor of Physics at Illinois' Center for Advanced Studies.

Slichter-son of Harvard economist Sumner Slichter-came here as a member of the Class of 1945 and graduated magna cum laude in 1946. A year later he earned his A. M.. and in 1949 he received his Ph. D. During World War II he worked at the Underwater Explosives Research Laboratory at Woods Hole.

In 1961, Slichter returned to Harvard to take the Morris Loeb Lectureship. While here, he wrote Principles of Magnetic Resonance, a widely-praised text.

At Illinois, Slichter has built a reputation as a brilliant experimenter in solidstate physics. He recently won the Irvng Langmuir Prize in chemical physics, and last year he was vice-chairman of the President's Science Advisory Committee.

Like Blum, Slichter is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has also served on committees to visit physics departments at Harvard and Princeton.

New Statistics

Along with their unusual status as teachers on the Corporation, Slichter and Blum bring several other statistical changes. Replacing men who are both in their 60's, they lower the Corporation's average. Blum is 48, and Slichter will be 46 later this month.

Slichter also sets a record for farthest-west Fellow. Until Ohioan Calkins was chosen in 1968, all Corporation members had been from the Eastern seaboard.

Aside from its normal duties of managing Harvard's day-to-day affairs, one of the first major decisions the new Corporation will face is choosing a successor to President Pusey, who will reach retirement age in 1972.