James W. Armsey, a Ford Foundation executive from 1956 through 1977, died on Nov. 2, 2008, at Clark-Lindsey Village, a retirement community near the University of Illinois in Urbana, where Mr. Armsey had lived since 1981. He was 90.
Mr. Armsey was born in Olney, Ill., on Dec. 13, 1917, the son of William H. and Mary Ann Abbeehl Armsey. He was married in 1941 to Beth L. Loveless. She survives him.
During his 21-year tenure at the foundation as consultant, adviser, assistant to the president and director of programs in higher education, public broadcasting (then called educational television), journalism education, and miscellaneous domestic and international activities, Mr. Armsey was responsible for grants totaling almost a half billion dollars ($497 million). By personal choice he received no acclaim for his greatest accomplishment: a key role in the desegregation in the early 1960s of private higher education in the Southern United States.
After he had designed, developed and begun to administer a program of massive unrestricted grants to selected private universities and colleges in the United States, totaling $362 million between 1960 and 1967, he successfully urged the foundation trustees to refuse consideration of any institution then racially segregated in its undergraduate degree-granting curricula.
With the approval of the trustees, no announcement was made of this policy. All negotiations were handled without publicity. As a result, undergraduate black students were admitted for the first time at Emory, Duke, Tulane and Vanderbilt universities and a cluster of major private colleges that had previously enrolled only white students.
The seven-year grant program was designed by Mr. Armsey and approved by the then-president of the foundation, Henry T. Heald. Both had been officials at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and at New York University, Heald as president, Armsey as his assistant.
In these positions they became convinced that some of the top private higher-educational institutions could make major advances in quality and performance only if their presidents and trustees had substantial unrestricted funds to work with.
All of the grants required substantial matching funds, and by the time the program ended, more than one billion dollars had been raised by the grantees from other sources. As a result, the recipients' fundraising capacity and programs were greatly enhanced. Two universities in particular, Notre Dame and Stanford, built on the initial grants and later launched much larger and more ambitious successful fund drives. When the program was terminated in 1967, grants to 16 private universities totaled $222.5 million, to 68 liberal arts colleges, $126.5 million and to 13 historically black colleges, $13 million.
Later, from 1967 to 1971, Mr. Armsey was in charge of a special foundation unit primarily concerned with the higher education of under-represented minorities in American society. In four and a half years as head of this unit, he initiated and supervised grants of more than $36 million. These programs included fellowships and scholarships for blacks and other minority individuals, both men and women, and a wide range of institutional grants to historically black colleges for general support and curricular, management, financial, administrative and fund-raising assistance. Concurrently with his university and college program, Mr. Armsey from 1959 through 1966 was in charge of a major share of the foundation's extensive grant-making activities in the activation, development and programming of the nation's noncommercial television stations. In this area his grants totaled more than $90 million.
The television grants included funds to enable noncommercial stations licensed by educational nonprofit agencies across the country, including stations in New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Chicago, to get on the air and to provide a noncommercial program service. One of the special programs initiated and carried out by Mr. Armsey was an $8 million series of grants for careers in journalism. It included funds to start the Columbia (University) Journalism Review, to launch an urban affairs program at Northwestern University, later further financed by and named for the Gannett newspapers, for a fellowship program at Stanford University, later further financed and named for the Knight newspaper, to create a mid-career journalistic seminar program, sponsored and still operated by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, to refinance with a one million dollar grant, the Nieman Foundation program at Harvard University and to provide a series of Washington, D.C., seminars for young journalists, conducted by the American Political Science Association.
Before joining the Ford Foundation staff, Mr. Armsey was assistant to the president (earlier called chancellor) of New York University from Feb. 1, 1952, until Oct. 1, 1956. From 1947 to 1952, he was director of public relations at Illinois Institute of Technology. During the first two of those years, he was also editor of the Illinois Tech Engineer, and during the last two, director of public relations of Armour Research Foundation, an affiliate of Illinois Tech. Before going to Illinois Tech, he was the manager of public information for the University of Illinois professional colleges (medicine, dentistry and pharmacy) in Chicago from July 1946 to April 1947.
During World War II, he served five years with the U.S. Army as a public relations officer (PRO) in the United States in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Washington, D.C.; PRO at the Western Signal Corps Training Center at Camp Kohler, Sacramento, Calif.; assistant PRO, Ninth Service Command, Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah; and overseas, assistant PRO, India-Burma Theatre, New Delhi. His rank in India was major.
During his undergraduate years, Mr. Armsey was editor of the Daily Illini in 1940-1941, and a member of Phi Eta Sigma, the freshman scholastic honorary, Tomahawk, Sachem and Mawanda, the men's sophomore, junior and senior honorary organizations. Mr. Armsey received a B.S. in journalism (1941) and a M.A. in political science (1946) from the University of Illinois. He was awarded three honorary degrees for his activities on behalf of higher education: a doctor of laws by Alaska Methodist University in 1965, a doctor of humane letters by New York University in 1975, and a doctor of laws by the University of Notre Dame in 1976.
Mr. Armsey joined the Ford Foundation on Oct. 1, 1956, as assistant to the president. He was named associate director of the Education Program, July 1, 1958; director of the Special Program in Education, Feb. 19, 1960; director of Special Programs, Aug. 1, 1964; program officer in charge, Special Projects in Education, Jan. 1, 1967; program adviser, International Division and Education and Research Division, June 1, 1971; program adviser, Office of the Vice President, Education and Research Division, Oct. 1, 1971. From April 30, 1975, until Jan. 1, 1978, he served as Consultant to the Education and Research Division.
Since his retirement, Mr. Armsey has been active as a member of the Illinois Arts Council (1978-88) and of its Executive Committee; the University of Illinois Foundation (1978-present) and of its President's Council; the University of Illinois Friends of the Library (1981-present) and of its Executive Committee; the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (1983-87) as a public member; the Southern Illinois University Foundation (1983-89), member of its Board of Directors; and a variety of educational, cultural and artistic organizations and activities in the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago areas.
News-Gazette, The (Champaign-Urbana, IL) - Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Mr. Armsey was born in Olney, Ill., on Dec. 13, 1917, the son of William H. and Mary Ann Abbeehl Armsey. He was married in 1941 to Beth L. Loveless. She survives him.
During his 21-year tenure at the foundation as consultant, adviser, assistant to the president and director of programs in higher education, public broadcasting (then called educational television), journalism education, and miscellaneous domestic and international activities, Mr. Armsey was responsible for grants totaling almost a half billion dollars ($497 million). By personal choice he received no acclaim for his greatest accomplishment: a key role in the desegregation in the early 1960s of private higher education in the Southern United States.
After he had designed, developed and begun to administer a program of massive unrestricted grants to selected private universities and colleges in the United States, totaling $362 million between 1960 and 1967, he successfully urged the foundation trustees to refuse consideration of any institution then racially segregated in its undergraduate degree-granting curricula.
With the approval of the trustees, no announcement was made of this policy. All negotiations were handled without publicity. As a result, undergraduate black students were admitted for the first time at Emory, Duke, Tulane and Vanderbilt universities and a cluster of major private colleges that had previously enrolled only white students.
The seven-year grant program was designed by Mr. Armsey and approved by the then-president of the foundation, Henry T. Heald. Both had been officials at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and at New York University, Heald as president, Armsey as his assistant.
In these positions they became convinced that some of the top private higher-educational institutions could make major advances in quality and performance only if their presidents and trustees had substantial unrestricted funds to work with.
All of the grants required substantial matching funds, and by the time the program ended, more than one billion dollars had been raised by the grantees from other sources. As a result, the recipients' fundraising capacity and programs were greatly enhanced. Two universities in particular, Notre Dame and Stanford, built on the initial grants and later launched much larger and more ambitious successful fund drives. When the program was terminated in 1967, grants to 16 private universities totaled $222.5 million, to 68 liberal arts colleges, $126.5 million and to 13 historically black colleges, $13 million.
Later, from 1967 to 1971, Mr. Armsey was in charge of a special foundation unit primarily concerned with the higher education of under-represented minorities in American society. In four and a half years as head of this unit, he initiated and supervised grants of more than $36 million. These programs included fellowships and scholarships for blacks and other minority individuals, both men and women, and a wide range of institutional grants to historically black colleges for general support and curricular, management, financial, administrative and fund-raising assistance. Concurrently with his university and college program, Mr. Armsey from 1959 through 1966 was in charge of a major share of the foundation's extensive grant-making activities in the activation, development and programming of the nation's noncommercial television stations. In this area his grants totaled more than $90 million.
The television grants included funds to enable noncommercial stations licensed by educational nonprofit agencies across the country, including stations in New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Chicago, to get on the air and to provide a noncommercial program service. One of the special programs initiated and carried out by Mr. Armsey was an $8 million series of grants for careers in journalism. It included funds to start the Columbia (University) Journalism Review, to launch an urban affairs program at Northwestern University, later further financed by and named for the Gannett newspapers, for a fellowship program at Stanford University, later further financed and named for the Knight newspaper, to create a mid-career journalistic seminar program, sponsored and still operated by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, to refinance with a one million dollar grant, the Nieman Foundation program at Harvard University and to provide a series of Washington, D.C., seminars for young journalists, conducted by the American Political Science Association.
Before joining the Ford Foundation staff, Mr. Armsey was assistant to the president (earlier called chancellor) of New York University from Feb. 1, 1952, until Oct. 1, 1956. From 1947 to 1952, he was director of public relations at Illinois Institute of Technology. During the first two of those years, he was also editor of the Illinois Tech Engineer, and during the last two, director of public relations of Armour Research Foundation, an affiliate of Illinois Tech. Before going to Illinois Tech, he was the manager of public information for the University of Illinois professional colleges (medicine, dentistry and pharmacy) in Chicago from July 1946 to April 1947.
During World War II, he served five years with the U.S. Army as a public relations officer (PRO) in the United States in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Washington, D.C.; PRO at the Western Signal Corps Training Center at Camp Kohler, Sacramento, Calif.; assistant PRO, Ninth Service Command, Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah; and overseas, assistant PRO, India-Burma Theatre, New Delhi. His rank in India was major.
During his undergraduate years, Mr. Armsey was editor of the Daily Illini in 1940-1941, and a member of Phi Eta Sigma, the freshman scholastic honorary, Tomahawk, Sachem and Mawanda, the men's sophomore, junior and senior honorary organizations. Mr. Armsey received a B.S. in journalism (1941) and a M.A. in political science (1946) from the University of Illinois. He was awarded three honorary degrees for his activities on behalf of higher education: a doctor of laws by Alaska Methodist University in 1965, a doctor of humane letters by New York University in 1975, and a doctor of laws by the University of Notre Dame in 1976.
Mr. Armsey joined the Ford Foundation on Oct. 1, 1956, as assistant to the president. He was named associate director of the Education Program, July 1, 1958; director of the Special Program in Education, Feb. 19, 1960; director of Special Programs, Aug. 1, 1964; program officer in charge, Special Projects in Education, Jan. 1, 1967; program adviser, International Division and Education and Research Division, June 1, 1971; program adviser, Office of the Vice President, Education and Research Division, Oct. 1, 1971. From April 30, 1975, until Jan. 1, 1978, he served as Consultant to the Education and Research Division.
Since his retirement, Mr. Armsey has been active as a member of the Illinois Arts Council (1978-88) and of its Executive Committee; the University of Illinois Foundation (1978-present) and of its President's Council; the University of Illinois Friends of the Library (1981-present) and of its Executive Committee; the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (1983-87) as a public member; the Southern Illinois University Foundation (1983-89), member of its Board of Directors; and a variety of educational, cultural and artistic organizations and activities in the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago areas.
News-Gazette, The (Champaign-Urbana, IL) - Tuesday, November 11, 2008
James W. Armsey, a Ford Foundation executive from 1956 through 1977, died on Nov. 2, 2008, at Clark-Lindsey Village, a retirement community near the University of Illinois in Urbana, where Mr. Armsey had lived since 1981. He was 90.
Mr. Armsey was born in Olney, Ill., on Dec. 13, 1917, the son of William H. and Mary Ann Abbeehl Armsey. He was married in 1941 to Beth L. Loveless. She survives him.
During his 21-year tenure at the foundation as consultant, adviser, assistant to the president and director of programs in higher education, public broadcasting (then called educational television), journalism education, and miscellaneous domestic and international activities, Mr. Armsey was responsible for grants totaling almost a half billion dollars ($497 million). By personal choice he received no acclaim for his greatest accomplishment: a key role in the desegregation in the early 1960s of private higher education in the Southern United States.
After he had designed, developed and begun to administer a program of massive unrestricted grants to selected private universities and colleges in the United States, totaling $362 million between 1960 and 1967, he successfully urged the foundation trustees to refuse consideration of any institution then racially segregated in its undergraduate degree-granting curricula.
With the approval of the trustees, no announcement was made of this policy. All negotiations were handled without publicity. As a result, undergraduate black students were admitted for the first time at Emory, Duke, Tulane and Vanderbilt universities and a cluster of major private colleges that had previously enrolled only white students.
The seven-year grant program was designed by Mr. Armsey and approved by the then-president of the foundation, Henry T. Heald. Both had been officials at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and at New York University, Heald as president, Armsey as his assistant.
In these positions they became convinced that some of the top private higher-educational institutions could make major advances in quality and performance only if their presidents and trustees had substantial unrestricted funds to work with.
All of the grants required substantial matching funds, and by the time the program ended, more than one billion dollars had been raised by the grantees from other sources. As a result, the recipients' fundraising capacity and programs were greatly enhanced. Two universities in particular, Notre Dame and Stanford, built on the initial grants and later launched much larger and more ambitious successful fund drives. When the program was terminated in 1967, grants to 16 private universities totaled $222.5 million, to 68 liberal arts colleges, $126.5 million and to 13 historically black colleges, $13 million.
Later, from 1967 to 1971, Mr. Armsey was in charge of a special foundation unit primarily concerned with the higher education of under-represented minorities in American society. In four and a half years as head of this unit, he initiated and supervised grants of more than $36 million. These programs included fellowships and scholarships for blacks and other minority individuals, both men and women, and a wide range of institutional grants to historically black colleges for general support and curricular, management, financial, administrative and fund-raising assistance. Concurrently with his university and college program, Mr. Armsey from 1959 through 1966 was in charge of a major share of the foundation's extensive grant-making activities in the activation, development and programming of the nation's noncommercial television stations. In this area his grants totaled more than $90 million.
The television grants included funds to enable noncommercial stations licensed by educational nonprofit agencies across the country, including stations in New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Chicago, to get on the air and to provide a noncommercial program service. One of the special programs initiated and carried out by Mr. Armsey was an $8 million series of grants for careers in journalism. It included funds to start the Columbia (University) Journalism Review, to launch an urban affairs program at Northwestern University, later further financed by and named for the Gannett newspapers, for a fellowship program at Stanford University, later further financed and named for the Knight newspaper, to create a mid-career journalistic seminar program, sponsored and still operated by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, to refinance with a one million dollar grant, the Nieman Foundation program at Harvard University and to provide a series of Washington, D.C., seminars for young journalists, conducted by the American Political Science Association.
Before joining the Ford Foundation staff, Mr. Armsey was assistant to the president (earlier called chancellor) of New York University from Feb. 1, 1952, until Oct. 1, 1956. From 1947 to 1952, he was director of public relations at Illinois Institute of Technology. During the first two of those years, he was also editor of the Illinois Tech Engineer, and during the last two, director of public relations of Armour Research Foundation, an affiliate of Illinois Tech. Before going to Illinois Tech, he was the manager of public information for the University of Illinois professional colleges (medicine, dentistry and pharmacy) in Chicago from July 1946 to April 1947.
During World War II, he served five years with the U.S. Army as a public relations officer (PRO) in the United States in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Washington, D.C.; PRO at the Western Signal Corps Training Center at Camp Kohler, Sacramento, Calif.; assistant PRO, Ninth Service Command, Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah; and overseas, assistant PRO, India-Burma Theatre, New Delhi. His rank in India was major.
During his undergraduate years, Mr. Armsey was editor of the Daily Illini in 1940-1941, and a member of Phi Eta Sigma, the freshman scholastic honorary, Tomahawk, Sachem and Mawanda, the men's sophomore, junior and senior honorary organizations. Mr. Armsey received a B.S. in journalism (1941) and a M.A. in political science (1946) from the University of Illinois. He was awarded three honorary degrees for his activities on behalf of higher education: a doctor of laws by Alaska Methodist University in 1965, a doctor of humane letters by New York University in 1975, and a doctor of laws by the University of Notre Dame in 1976.
Mr. Armsey joined the Ford Foundation on Oct. 1, 1956, as assistant to the president. He was named associate director of the Education Program, July 1, 1958; director of the Special Program in Education, Feb. 19, 1960; director of Special Programs, Aug. 1, 1964; program officer in charge, Special Projects in Education, Jan. 1, 1967; program adviser, International Division and Education and Research Division, June 1, 1971; program adviser, Office of the Vice President, Education and Research Division, Oct. 1, 1971. From April 30, 1975, until Jan. 1, 1978, he served as Consultant to the Education and Research Division.
Since his retirement, Mr. Armsey has been active as a member of the Illinois Arts Council (1978-88) and of its Executive Committee; the University of Illinois Foundation (1978-present) and of its President's Council; the University of Illinois Friends of the Library (1981-present) and of its Executive Committee; the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (1983-87) as a public member; the Southern Illinois University Foundation (1983-89), member of its Board of Directors; and a variety of educational, cultural and artistic organizations and activities in the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago areas.
News-Gazette, The (Champaign-Urbana, IL) - Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Mr. Armsey was born in Olney, Ill., on Dec. 13, 1917, the son of William H. and Mary Ann Abbeehl Armsey. He was married in 1941 to Beth L. Loveless. She survives him.
During his 21-year tenure at the foundation as consultant, adviser, assistant to the president and director of programs in higher education, public broadcasting (then called educational television), journalism education, and miscellaneous domestic and international activities, Mr. Armsey was responsible for grants totaling almost a half billion dollars ($497 million). By personal choice he received no acclaim for his greatest accomplishment: a key role in the desegregation in the early 1960s of private higher education in the Southern United States.
After he had designed, developed and begun to administer a program of massive unrestricted grants to selected private universities and colleges in the United States, totaling $362 million between 1960 and 1967, he successfully urged the foundation trustees to refuse consideration of any institution then racially segregated in its undergraduate degree-granting curricula.
With the approval of the trustees, no announcement was made of this policy. All negotiations were handled without publicity. As a result, undergraduate black students were admitted for the first time at Emory, Duke, Tulane and Vanderbilt universities and a cluster of major private colleges that had previously enrolled only white students.
The seven-year grant program was designed by Mr. Armsey and approved by the then-president of the foundation, Henry T. Heald. Both had been officials at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and at New York University, Heald as president, Armsey as his assistant.
In these positions they became convinced that some of the top private higher-educational institutions could make major advances in quality and performance only if their presidents and trustees had substantial unrestricted funds to work with.
All of the grants required substantial matching funds, and by the time the program ended, more than one billion dollars had been raised by the grantees from other sources. As a result, the recipients' fundraising capacity and programs were greatly enhanced. Two universities in particular, Notre Dame and Stanford, built on the initial grants and later launched much larger and more ambitious successful fund drives. When the program was terminated in 1967, grants to 16 private universities totaled $222.5 million, to 68 liberal arts colleges, $126.5 million and to 13 historically black colleges, $13 million.
Later, from 1967 to 1971, Mr. Armsey was in charge of a special foundation unit primarily concerned with the higher education of under-represented minorities in American society. In four and a half years as head of this unit, he initiated and supervised grants of more than $36 million. These programs included fellowships and scholarships for blacks and other minority individuals, both men and women, and a wide range of institutional grants to historically black colleges for general support and curricular, management, financial, administrative and fund-raising assistance. Concurrently with his university and college program, Mr. Armsey from 1959 through 1966 was in charge of a major share of the foundation's extensive grant-making activities in the activation, development and programming of the nation's noncommercial television stations. In this area his grants totaled more than $90 million.
The television grants included funds to enable noncommercial stations licensed by educational nonprofit agencies across the country, including stations in New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Chicago, to get on the air and to provide a noncommercial program service. One of the special programs initiated and carried out by Mr. Armsey was an $8 million series of grants for careers in journalism. It included funds to start the Columbia (University) Journalism Review, to launch an urban affairs program at Northwestern University, later further financed by and named for the Gannett newspapers, for a fellowship program at Stanford University, later further financed and named for the Knight newspaper, to create a mid-career journalistic seminar program, sponsored and still operated by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, to refinance with a one million dollar grant, the Nieman Foundation program at Harvard University and to provide a series of Washington, D.C., seminars for young journalists, conducted by the American Political Science Association.
Before joining the Ford Foundation staff, Mr. Armsey was assistant to the president (earlier called chancellor) of New York University from Feb. 1, 1952, until Oct. 1, 1956. From 1947 to 1952, he was director of public relations at Illinois Institute of Technology. During the first two of those years, he was also editor of the Illinois Tech Engineer, and during the last two, director of public relations of Armour Research Foundation, an affiliate of Illinois Tech. Before going to Illinois Tech, he was the manager of public information for the University of Illinois professional colleges (medicine, dentistry and pharmacy) in Chicago from July 1946 to April 1947.
During World War II, he served five years with the U.S. Army as a public relations officer (PRO) in the United States in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Washington, D.C.; PRO at the Western Signal Corps Training Center at Camp Kohler, Sacramento, Calif.; assistant PRO, Ninth Service Command, Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah; and overseas, assistant PRO, India-Burma Theatre, New Delhi. His rank in India was major.
During his undergraduate years, Mr. Armsey was editor of the Daily Illini in 1940-1941, and a member of Phi Eta Sigma, the freshman scholastic honorary, Tomahawk, Sachem and Mawanda, the men's sophomore, junior and senior honorary organizations. Mr. Armsey received a B.S. in journalism (1941) and a M.A. in political science (1946) from the University of Illinois. He was awarded three honorary degrees for his activities on behalf of higher education: a doctor of laws by Alaska Methodist University in 1965, a doctor of humane letters by New York University in 1975, and a doctor of laws by the University of Notre Dame in 1976.
Mr. Armsey joined the Ford Foundation on Oct. 1, 1956, as assistant to the president. He was named associate director of the Education Program, July 1, 1958; director of the Special Program in Education, Feb. 19, 1960; director of Special Programs, Aug. 1, 1964; program officer in charge, Special Projects in Education, Jan. 1, 1967; program adviser, International Division and Education and Research Division, June 1, 1971; program adviser, Office of the Vice President, Education and Research Division, Oct. 1, 1971. From April 30, 1975, until Jan. 1, 1978, he served as Consultant to the Education and Research Division.
Since his retirement, Mr. Armsey has been active as a member of the Illinois Arts Council (1978-88) and of its Executive Committee; the University of Illinois Foundation (1978-present) and of its President's Council; the University of Illinois Friends of the Library (1981-present) and of its Executive Committee; the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (1983-87) as a public member; the Southern Illinois University Foundation (1983-89), member of its Board of Directors; and a variety of educational, cultural and artistic organizations and activities in the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago areas.
News-Gazette, The (Champaign-Urbana, IL) - Tuesday, November 11, 2008
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