John Ely Burchard (December 8, 1898

Marshall, Minnesota Marshall is a city in Lyon County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,680 at the 2010 census. Marshall is a regional center in southwest Minnesota, and the county seat of Lyon County. It is the headquarters of the Schwan Food Com ...

- December 25, 1975

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

) was an American professor and dean at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT). He was a historian and architectural critic. He was President of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

from 1954 to 1957. He attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

for two and a half years, served in World War I, and returned to study at MIT, obtaining a bachelor's degree in 1923 and a master's in 1925. Burchard started his career at Bemis Industries as research director, vice president, and director. He was appointed professor at MIT in 1938. From 1940 to 1945, he was affiliated with the

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

and the

National Defense Research Committee The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the Un ...

. For his war work, he received a

Medal for Merit The Medal for Merit was, during the period it was awarded, the highest civilian decoration of the United States. It was awarded by the President of the United States to civilians who "distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious conduct i ...

in 1948. Burchard was the first dean of MIT's School of Humanities and Social Science, serving from 1950 to 1969. The John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities is an

endowed chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...

named in his honor. MIT holds his papers.

Works

* ''Bernini is dead? Architecture and the Social Purpose'', 1976, * with

Albert Bush-Brown Albert Bush-Brown (1926-1994) was an American architectural historian and university president. He was chancellor and president of Long Island University (1971–1985) and president of Rhode Island School of Design (1962–1968) He also taught a ...

, ''The architecture of America; a social and cultural history'', 3rd ed., 1967 * ''The voice of the phoenix; postwar architecture in Germany'', 1966 * with

Oscar Handlin Oscar Handlin (1915–2011) was an American historian. As a professor of history at Harvard University for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote social and ethnic history, virtually inventing the field of immigration ...

, ''The Historian and the City'', 1963 *

References

1975 deaths 1898 births People from Marshall, Minnesota Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Architectural historians {{US-historian-stub