Brewster Castberg Denny (1924 - June 22, 2013) was an American academic from

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

known for his long association with the University of Washington.

Early life and education

The great-great-grandson of Seattle founder

Arthur A. Denny Arthur Armstrong Denny (June 20, 1822 – January 9, 1899) was one of the founders of Seattle, Washington,, Special Collections, Washington State Historical Society (WSHS). Accessed online 8 March 2008. the acknowledged leader of the pioneer Den ...

, Brewster Denny graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1942 and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1945, before joining the U.S. Navy. In the Navy, he was posted to

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, serving as an intelligence analyst in a unit preparing for the land invasion of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Denny left naval service at the end of the war and went on to earn a master's degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and Ph.D. from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

Career

From 1952 to 1960, Denny was an intelligence analyst in the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

, and, in 1960 worked as a national security adviser on the presidential transition team of

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

. He then served a year as a staff member with the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

Subcommittee on National Policy Machinery and, in 1962, became the first director of the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, a post he held until 1980. In 1992 Denny was named dean emeritus, but continued teaching courses in

American foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

Varsity Bell

From 1961 until his death in 2013, Brewster Denny was responsible for the annual ringing of the

Varsity Bell The Varsity Bell (also called the Denny Bell) is a large bell that, as of 2016, is installed in the cupola of Denny Hall at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. The bell was cast in Troy, New York in 1861 and purchased by the Terr ...

, a , 1861 bell installed at

Denny Hall Denny Hall is a building on the main campus of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, United States. Built between 1894 and 1895, it is named after Arthur A. Denny. Design Denny Hall was designed by Charles Saunders and constructe ...

on the University of Washington campus which is rang once per year, on

Homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

, to ceremonially summon the university's alumni to campus.

Personal life

Denny married Patrica Virginia Sollitt in 1950 and, with her, had a daughter. Denny served as a trustee of

The Century Foundation The Century Foundation (established first as The Cooperative League and then the Twentieth Century Fund) is a progressive think tank headquartered in New York City with an office in Washington, D.C. It was founded as a nonprofit public policy ...

, a member of the board of directors of the Seattle Historical Society, and as a vice-president of the Seattle Opera Association.

Bibliography

* ''Seeing American Foreign Policy Whole'' (1985)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denny, Brewster 1924 births 2013 deaths Educators from Seattle University of Washington alumni University of Washington faculty Harvard University alumni Tufts University alumni