| 1 | Name: | Dr. William G. Bowen | |
| Institution: | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation | ||
| Year Elected: | 1978 | ||
| Class: | 3. Social Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 302. Economics | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1933 | ||
| Death Date: | October 20, 2016 | ||
William G. Bowen was president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation from 1988-2006. Previously he served as President of Princeton University from 1972-88, where he was also Professor of Economics and Public Affairs. A graduate of Denison University and Princeton University, he joined the Princeton faculty in 1958, specializing in labor economics, and served as provost there from 1967-72. In 1988 Dr. Bowen joined the Mellon Foundation, where his tenure was marked by increases in the scale of the foundation's activities, with annual appropriations now exceeding $180 million. To ensure that Mellon's grant-making activities would be better informed and more effective while also following his interest in studying questions central to higher education and philanthropy, he created an in-house research program to investigate doctoral education, collegiate admissions, independent research libraries and charitable nonprofits. Dr. Bowen's special interest in the application of information technology to scholarship has led to a range of initiatives including the foundation-sponsored creation of JSTOR (a searchable electronic archive of the full runs of core journals in many fields), the Mellon International Dunhuang Archive, ARTstor (a repository of high-quality digitized works of art and related materials for teaching and research) and Ithaka Harbors, Inc. (a new organization launched to help accelerate the adoption of productive and efficient uses of information technology for the benefit of the worldwide higher education community). Dr. Bowen was the author or co-author of 20 books, including most recently Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education. His other works include (with Sarah A. Levin) Reclaiming the Game: College Sports and Educational Values; The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values; (with Derek Bok) the Grawemeyer Award-winning The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions; and (with Neil L. Rudenstine) In Pursuit of the Ph.D. He was honored with the 2012 National Humanities Medal by President Obama. William G. Bowen died October 20, 2016, at age 83, at home in Princeton, New Jersey. | |||