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Gregory B. Wolfe Papers & Ephemera, 1954-1991

 

Summary

Creator:
Wolfe, Gregory B.
Extent:
4 boxes
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The materials in this collection represent the subject's career as an academic administrator. Some personal correspondence is present, however, the majority of the collection contains awards, appointment books, and other ephemera.

Of special note are documents and reports related to campus protests at Portland State University during May of 1970. Strikes and protests were held in opposition to the Invasion of Cambodia and the shooting of student-protesters at Kent State University in Ohio.

Biographical / historical:

Gregory Baker Wolfe (January 27, 1922 - December 12, 2015) was the third president of Florida International University. He was born in Los Angeles, California to Russian immigrant parents. He received a Bachelor's degree from Reed College in Oregon, and a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts. Dr. Wolfe was a veteran of World War II, where he served as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. State Department and commanded an LST (Landing Ship/Tank) in the Western Pacific Theater of Operations.

Dr. Wolfe served in the administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. He was responsible for the direction of the Latin American Program of the private Committee for Economic Development. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson asked him to serve as federal negotiator of the Interstate Compact Commission charged with planning, organizing and financing the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority. He concurrently served as the chief of the Department of State's Intelligence Bureau for Latin America.

In 1968 he was appointed president of Portland State University in Oregon, a post he held until 1974. This was an unsettled time in American history, especially on college campuses, and President Wolfe dealt with a few challenges during his tenure. In 1979 he was appointed as the third president of Florida International University in Miami. FIU was a young university, having opened for classes in the fall of 1972, which gave him an opportunity to build a university almost from the ground up. "Gregory brought a level of cosmopolitan, global vision of things but he was a realist at the same time. He was very good at turning the impossible into the inevitable," said former FIU President Mark Rosenberg. "He was the one who convinced the Legislature and Board of Regents to allow FIU to have a robust graduate program offering. He is the father of a lot of our graduate programs. The Latin American and Caribbean Studies program took off largely because of his presence and his contacts in Washington — he was a Washington insider for a time — and that really helped us."

In addition to his 20 years in university administration, Gregory held teaching appointments on the faculties of Pomona College, the Claremont Graduate School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Portland State University, American University, and Florida International. He was a Fulbright Lecturer in Ecuador and Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University, England. He received the Order of Civil Merit from the King of Spain for his role in creating a national Economic Study Center.

(Biographical information provided by Wikipedia, Reed Magazine (of Reed College) obituary, and the collection)

Acquisition information:
Materials were donated by Dr. Wolfe
Arrangement:

This collection is organized into 4 boxes. The 5" archival boxes contain documents and awards. The two banker file boxes contain the appointment books and the Japanese schoolhouse.

Physical facet:
2 5" Legal-Size Archival Document Containers 2 Banker Style Document Boxes

Access and use

Restrictions:

The Collection is Open for Research

Terms of access:

Rights: In copyright. Standardized rights statement: https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/

Special Collections & University Archives provides copies of materials in our collections for private study, scholarship, or research. Patrons are responsible for determining the proper copyright holder and securing permission to publish, quote, broadcast, exhibit, or perform that work. FIU Special Collections will provide all available information about the copyright holder of materials found in our collections.

For more information please visit: https://library.fiu.edu/find/copyright/general

Location of this collection:
Florida International University
11200 SW 8th Street
Miami
FL
33199
USA