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November 19, 2001
Sp 35
Contact: Sarah Maxwell
Director of Media Relations
507.646.4183
Former Carleton College President John W. Nason Dies
Northfield, Minn.—John William Nason, a 1926 Carleton College graduate and president of Carleton from 1962–70, died on Saturday, Nov. 17, at his home in Kennett Square, Pa. He was 96. Nason, a respected member of the Carleton community, had recently returned to campus for commencement ceremonies and his 75th class reunion.
"John Nason’s legacy at Carleton is a rich one indeed," said President Stephen R. Lewis, Jr. "He presided during the turbulent 1960s, the time of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, urban crises, the rejection of authority on many levels of American society and the sexual revolution. In a time of often vitriolic rhetoric, President Nason was a calm, deliberative and consultative leader of the campus."
A native of St. Paul, Nason was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy from Carleton. A student leader, athlete and debater, Nason studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He attended Yale Divinity School for one year and received a master’s degree from Harvard in 1928. He taught philosophy at Swarthmore College and served as president there from 1940–53. He was president of the Foreign Policy Association before serving as Carleton’s fifth president.
Nason was most proud of his work as chair of the National Japanese American Relocation Council, an agency that tried to get Japanese American college-age students out of War Relocation Authority internment camps and back into colleges and universities. The agency helped 4,000 students leave the camps and continue their education.
Nason married Bertha White in 1935, and they had two children, Charles Kirby and Robert White, before Bertha died in 1955. Nason met Elizabeth Mercer when he was president of the Foreign Policy Association and she was in charge of hospitality for visiting dignitaries at the United Nations. Elizabeth and John were married in 1957 and their family included her three children, Whitman, Caroline and Marion, as well as his two sons.
Nason led major changes to student residential life and created the College Council—a broadly representative system of faculty, students and staff governance for major campus issues and policies. During his tenure, Carleton instituted an Asian studies program and began more aggressive recruiting of minority students.
Following his retirement from Carleton, Nason served as director of studies for the Association of Governing Boards, director of the Study of Foundation Trustees for the Council on Foundations and director if the Study of Presidential Selection and Assessment for the Association of Governing Boards.
Nason is the author of seven books, and he has served as a trustee of several educational institutions and foundations, including Phillips Exeter Academy, Vassar College and the Danforth and Bruce L. Crary Foundation, and he has served as a Senator of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and of the Fulbright-Hays Committee on International Exchange.
Nason is survived by his two sons, Charles of Wayland, Mass., and Robert of Williamston, Mich.; a stepson, Whitman Knapp of Brookine, Mass.; and two stepdaughters, Caroline Hines of New York and Marion Knapp of Eau Claire, Wis. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1998. The family invites those who knew John Nason to visit www.JohnWNason.com to share memories and thoughts. A memorial service for Nason will be held at Carleton later in the winter.
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