Alum, Former Dartmouth President Passes Away

James O. Freedman ’57, former President of Dartmouth College and a legal scholar, died Tuesday at his Cambridge, Mass. home. He was 70.

The cause of death was non-Hodgkins Lymphoma—a form of cancer—according to a press release from Dartmouth College.

Freedman’s longtime friend David Halberstam ’55, an author and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, told The Crimson yesterday that Freedman was a “great humanist” and “one of the most courageous men I have ever met.”

“Ethics and living an ethical life were critically important to him,” said Halberstam, who is also a former Crimson managing editor.

“He did exceptionally well in everything he tried,” Halberstam said, explaining that his friend went “from the son of a school teacher in New Hampshire to the president of two great universities”—Dartmouth and the University of Iowa.

As president, Freedman wanted to “make sure that there was a sense of openness on campus, and that nobody would feel marginalized for who they were or what they believed,” said Dartmouth College Provost Barry P. Scherr ’66.

Freedman himself “found being president isolating” at times, Sherr added.

Halberstam remembered Freedman as a bibliophile and an “incredibly shy man.”

Freedman’s son Jared O. Freedman ’91 echoed Halberstam in saying that his father was a “self described nerd” and a true intellectual.

He added that he will remember his father as a “great listener” and as someone “who always made [me] feel respected and loved.”

Freedman was also a devoted Red Sox fan, according to Halberstam, who took him to a World Series game in 2004.

After graduating cum-laude from Harvard College, Freedman briefly attended Harvard Law School before dropping out. He eventually received his law degree from Yale, and went on to clerk for then-U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurgood Marshall, who became a lifelong friend, according to his son.

After practicing law for a year in New York, he joined the faculty of University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1964 and was named dean 15 years later, according to the press release.

In 1982 he left for the University of Iowa where he served as president for five years.

As president of Dartmouth from 1987 to 1998, Freedman oversaw an extensive curricular review, the most successful capital campaign in the school’s history, and a large expansion in facilities, according to the press release.

Freedman is also the author of several books, and his autobiography will be published posthumously, Halberstam said.

Freedman is survived by his wife, two children, and four grandchildren, according to the release. A memorial service will be held today in Brookline.