Former GSD Dean Dies at 70

Former Dean of the Graduate School of Education Paul N. Ylvisaker died last Tuesday of heart failure.

Ylvisaker, 70, who was Eliot professor of education, led the school smoothly through the turbulent 1970s, serving as dean from 1972 to 1982. While dean, he raised the percentage of minorities and women on the school's faculty to the highest level in the University.

In a prepared statement, former President Derek C. Bok said that Ylvisaker restructured the faculty "to concentrate on the needs of public education at a time of wide dissatisfaction over the quality of the nation's schools."

Extensive Teaching

The professor's extensive teaching experience included positions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Universities and at Swarthmore College.

He also headed the Task Force on the Cities initiated by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 and directed the Ford Foundation's public affairs program. Ylvisaker was New Jersey's first commissioner of community affairs.

Fulbright Scholar

Ylvisaker, who earned a doctorate in political economy and government from Harvard, was a former Fulbright scholar. He received a number of honorary degrees and published articles on topics in ethics, philanthropy and public policy.

President Neil L. Rudenstine joined Bok in praising Ylvisaker in the statement, saying that the professor will be missed. "Paul was a wonderfully humane and thoughtful person, and his work on behalf of the disenfranchised as well as his dedication to teaching made him an exceptional person in the field of education," according to Rudenstine.

Ylvisaker's involvement with the University continued steadily until the time of his death. This year, he was teaching courses in philanthropy and ethics and heading a seminar for doctoral students in educational administration. Ylvisaker was also a faculty advisor to the Education School's Outward Bound Project, a program he originated in 1989 in order to apply educational theory to the nation's schools.

Ylvisaker leaves four children, Elizabeth, Mark, Peter, and David; two brothers, John and David; two sisters, Elizabeth Brush and Barbara Newsom; and four grandchildren. His wife, Barbara, died last year.

The University is planning a memorial service to be held later this spring.