LENOX, Mass. (AP) – Jean Paul Mather, former president of the University of Massachusetts, died at a residential care facility Thursday after a brief period of failing health. He was 92.
Mather was appointed the university’s 16th president in 1954, a year after joining the university as provost.
His tenure, which ended in 1960, saw the founding of the College of Arts and Sciences and the creation of the School of Education and the School of Nursing.
He also lobbied hard for a “freedom bill” that passed in 1956 and allowed the university’s trustees to hire professors. Before that, hiring was subject to state control and didn’t allow the school to compete for teachers by offering competitive salaries.
Mather then hired professors and deans, reorganized the campus and nearly doubled the operating budget. Enrollment at the school rose from about 4,100 to 6,000 in the fall of 1959.
Mather, who was born in Del Norte, Colo., worked at several schools after leaving UMass and finished his career at the Colorado School of Mines, where he founded the mineral economics department and taught.
A memorial service will be held Aug. 18 in Amherst at a location to be determined.
AP-ES-06-23-07 1712EDT
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