Jon Westling (1942 – 15 January 2021)
was an American educator, and was president of
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
from 1996 until 2002.
Biography
Raised in
Yakima, Washington
Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, and the state's 11th-largest city by population. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The uninco ...
, he took his undergraduate degree from
Reed College and studied history at St. John's College,
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
on a
Rhodes scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
. Before joining B.U., Westling taught at Centre College in
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
, Reed College, the
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...
, and at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
. He was a
Freedom Rider. In 1963, his participation in a
sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
in southern
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
landed him several days in jail.
Westling joined the Boston University faculty in 1974. He was named provost in 1984. In this role he was controversial B.U. president
John Silber
John Robert Silber (August 15, 1926 – September 27, 2012) was an American academician and candidate for public office. From 1971 to 1996, he was President of Boston University (BU) and, from 1996 to 2002, Chancellor. From 2002 to 2003, he again ...
's top aide and twice served as acting president; first in 1987 while Silber was on sabbatical and again in 1990 while Silber was
running for Governor. In 1996, he was chosen to succeed Silber, who became Chancellor of the University after a 25-year tenure as president. Westling's tenure came to an end in July 2002, when he resigned the presidency to return to teaching and research as a Professor of History and Humanities. Silber stepped down as chancellor and reassumed the presidency on an interim basis until
Aram Chobanian
Aram V. Chobanian (born August 10, 1929) served as president ''ad interim'' of Boston University from 2003 until June 9, 2005, when, in recognition of Chobanian's work, the Board of Trustees voted to remove “ad interim” from his title and desi ...
was appointed president ''ad interim'' in October 2003.
During his tenure, he was instrumental in bringing
B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimm ...
and
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
to Boston University campus. According to Richard Towle, a former BU senior vice president, Westling, as president, had a "special focus on student-oriented programs," leading to the development and commissioning of various student centers, dormitories, and
Agganis Arena. Moreover, says Towle, as provost under John Silber, he played a pivotal role in the recruitment of four
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners to the faculty.
As a scholar and professor, Westling specialized in the histories of
Medieval Europe
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and
Tudor England
Tudor most commonly refers to:
* House of Tudor, English royal house of Welsh origins
** Tudor period, a historical era in England coinciding with the rule of the Tudor dynasty
Tudor may also refer to:
Architecture
* Tudor architecture, the fin ...
, the
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
and
Catholic Reformations, early modern philosophy and political theory, the development of the European state system, and the history and contemporary state of higher education.
After a career spanning 46 years, Westling died on January 15, 2021, at the age of 78. Beyond his tenure as president and provost, he was remembered as a professor within Boston University's Department of History and as an avid
motorcyclist. He left behind three children, Emma, Matthew, and Andrew, all graduates of Boston University.
Guckenberger v. Boston University
During a court case he was accused of making controversial statements about students with learning disabilities. "President Westling referred to students with learning disabilities as "a plague," and an indication of "a silent genetic catastrophe," and he has made similar statements in letters to the
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
, the
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
, campus newspapers, and students' parents."
References
Presidents of Boston University
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westling, John
1942 births
2021 deaths
Presidents of Boston University
Reed College alumni
University of California, Irvine faculty
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
Alumni of St John's College, Oxford