Henry Townley Heald

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Henry Townley Heald (1904–1975) was the first president of Illinois Institute of Technology and the Ford Foundation.

Career[edit]

Heald was president of Armour Institute of Technology from 1937 to 1940, at which time it became the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT); he served as its president until 1952.[1] He is credited with bringing architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to Chicago in 1938 to direct IIT's architecture program.[2] He led a team that investigated the idea of a research institute on the west coast and made proposals that would result in the creation of SRI International.[3]

He left IIT in 1952 to become president of New York University. In 1956 he became the president of the Ford Foundation, where he served until 1965.

Honors and legacy[edit]

He appeared on the cover of Time in 1957. In 1959, Heald was awarded the Hoover Medal, which recognizes civic and humanitarian achievements by engineers. A scholarship at IIT is named after him.[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Past Presidents". Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Henry T. Heald". Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
  3. ^ Nielson, Donald (2006). A Heritage of Innovation: SRI's First Half Century. SRI International. pp. F1-4. ISBN 978-0-9745208-1-0.
  4. ^ "First-Year Student Scholarships". Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 14 July 2022.

External links[edit]

Academic offices
Preceded by President of the Illinois Institute of Technology
1937–1952
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of New York University
1952–1956
Succeeded by