MIT Elects New President: Provost Jerome Wiesner

The M. I. T. Corporation yesterday named provost Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner the 13th president of the huge Cambridge university, effective July 1.

The move-like the appointment two months earlier of Derek C. Bok to the presidency of Harvard-is viewed by many observers as a step by the university towards more aggressive, responsive leadership.

Student Relations

The Corporation, which held its regular quarterly meeting yesterday, also named Paul E. Gray, former dean of the Engineering School, to the post of chancellor. The chancellorship was created specially by the Corporation yesterday to aid the president in the maintenance of close student relations.

The 79-member governing body endorsed the recommendations of a special committee-headed by Bell Telephone president Dr. James B. Fisk-which has been in operation since September.

Following the election, both Wiesner and Gray attended a special faculty meeting and then a press conference.

Wiesner greeted the press with an air of informality and warmth usually missing at such high-powered affairs. While photographers scurried at his feet, he smiled and joked, blowing long streams of smoke rings over their heads.

Outspoken

At the conference, Wiesner, who has been extraordinarily outspoken in his views on issues such as the Indochina war and disarmament. said that the job of the presidency will probably force him to quiet down a little. "I'll have to take into account the views of the whole university community ... I feel I shouldn't speak out on partisan politics as I have been," he said.

He emphasized that he would attempt to have "great contact with students," while at the same time trying to explore new sources of income for a university which would depend less and less on government money.

He indicated, too, that he would lead M. I. T. toward the solving of civilian rather than military problems of science and technology.

Campaigned Against ABM

An electronics engineer who helped develop numerous radar systems during World War II and instrumentation for the 1946 Bikini atomic bomb tests. Wiesner most recently led a nationwide campaign against the ABM system.

Serving as President Kennedy's science advisor from 1961-63, he worked for Senate-passage of the 1963 treaty banning unclear testing in the atmosphere, oceans, and outer space.

The new president, who is 55, was dean of the M. I. T. School of Science prior to becoming provost, the post he has held for the past five years. He is a native of Detroit who did graduate and undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan.

His first contact with success came when he was a caddy for Henry Ford at the Dearborn Country Club. His first contact with publicity came when, attempting to set up his own telephone system, he accidentally blacked out the whole neighborhood.

"HoJo"

Wiesner succeeds Howard W. Johnson-known as "HoJo" to students-who will become chairman of the Corporation upon the retirement of James R. Killian Jr. on June 30.

He and his wife, Laya, have four children: Stephen J., 28, a graduate student in physics at Columbia University; Zachary K., 24, an artist who lives in Stockbridge; Elizabeth A., 21,a student at Radcliffe: and Joshua A., 18. a student at Cambridge School in Weston.

The new chancellor, Gray, is an authority on semiconductor electronics and circuit theory. He studied at M. I. T. and has been a member of the teaching staff since 1957. He became associate provost in 1969 and was appointed dean of the Engineering School last year.