James Stacy Coles (June 3, 1913 – June 13, 1996) was the ninth president of

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

Life and career

After having graduated from Columbia University in 1936, Coles earned a PhD in chemistry at Columbia and taught at several educational institutions including

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

and

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

before becoming president of Bowdoin. Additionally, for his work in anti-submarine warfare during World War II done at the Underwater Explosives Research Laboratory at Woods Hole, he was awarded the President’s Certificate of Merit. Coles became president of Bowdoin in 1952 and served until 1968. Coles was the first president to build dormitories for seniors and saw the sizes of his student body, faculty, and campus grow dramatically. Notably, the Coles Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Maine, was built during his tenure. Originally known as the Senior Center, the 16-story building was an educational experiment that brought virtually the entire senior class into a single residence hall and made a senior seminar part of each semester's course offerings. After he left Bowdoin, Coles became president of Research Corporation, a private foundation for the advancement of science and technology. During his occupancy, the foundation’s assets increased from $11 million to $46 million.

References

External links

*https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/15/us/james-s-coles-83-ex-head-of-bowdoin-college.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20080720141713/http://www.bowdoin.edu/academics/students/fellowships/james-coles.shtml {{DEFAULTSORT:Coles, James S. 1913 births 1996 deaths Educators from Pennsylvania Middlebury College faculty Presidents of Bowdoin College Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni People from Mansfield, Pennsylvania Brown University faculty American people of World War II 20th-century American academics