Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Office of the Chair of the Corporation, records of James R. Killian

James Rhyne Killian, 1904-1988, S.B. in management, 1926, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, remained at MIT as assistant managing editor, then managing editor, of Technology Review, the magazine of the Alumni Association; he was editor from 1930 to 1939, and helped found the Technology Press, now the MIT Press. In 1939 he became executive assistant to MIT President Karl Taylor Compton. During World War II, when Compton was involved with the National Defense Research Committee, Killian acted as Compton’s surrogate in directing the operation of MIT, which was also heavily involved in wartime research and development. He was appointed executive vice president in 1943, and vice president and member of the MIT Corporation in 1945. He became the tenth president of MIT in 1948 and served until 1959; he was then chair of the MIT Corporation, 1959-1971.

As special assistant for science and technology to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957-1959, Killian formed the President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) which was instrumental in initiating national curriculum reforms in science and technology and in establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He participated in many other government advisory and study groups including President Harry S. Truman’s Communications Policy Board, 1950-1951; the President’s Advisory Committee on Management, 1950-1952; the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Naval Academy, 1953-1955; the Army Scientific Advisory Panel (chair), 1951-1956; and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, 1961-1963. He was chair of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, 1965-1967, which led to the “Public Television Act of 1967″; he then served as director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1968-1974. He was a member of the General Advisory Committee of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1969-1974. Among his books are Sputnik, Scientists and Eisenhower (1977); Flash! Seeing the Unseen by Ultra-High Speed Photography, with Harold E. Edgerton (1939, 1954); and The Education of a College President (1985).

Prepared by the Institute Archives, MIT Libraries November 1995

The governing body of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a board of trustees known as the Corporation, over which the chair presides. Corporation members include approximately seventy five distinguished leaders in science, engineering, industry, education, and public service. The MIT Corporation consists of life members, term members, five persons nominated by recently graduated classes, and (ex officio) the chair, president, treasurer, and secretary of the Corporation. Three representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the president of the MIT Alumni Association also serve as ex officio members of the Corporation. Between quarterly meetings, the Corporation functions though its officers and its Executive Committee. Although the Corporation of MIT has functioned since the Institute was incorporated in 1861, the first chair of the Corporation was not appointed until 1930. Until that time the president of MIT presided over the Corporation meetings. The chairs of the MIT Corporation were: Samuel Wesley Stratton, 1930-1931; Karl Taylor Compton, 1948-1954; Vannevar Bush, 1957-1959; James R. Killian, Jr., 1959-1971; Howard Johnson, 1971-1983; David Saxon, 1983-1990; Paul Gray, 1990-1997; Alexander V. d'Arbeloff, 1997-2003; Dana Mead, 2003-2010; and John S. Reed, 2010-present (as of 2014) .