ATHENS, Ohio — Ohio University President Emeritus Vernon Roger Alden, the 15th president of OU from 1962 to 1969, is being remembered for doubling enrollment during his tenure, expanding academic programs including the Honors College, establishing the Ohio University Press and supporting area studies including funding a Black Studies Institute.
Alden died in Boston on June 22. He was 97.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Alden chairman of the Task Force Planning and the United States Job Corps and chairman of the Education Advisory Committee of the Appalachian Commission. Alden was given the responsibility of revitalizing the Southeastern Ohio economy. Some of his accomplishments included developing the Appalachian Highway Network, re-routing the Hocking River to cut down on OU flooding, and building six branches of the university throughout Southeast Ohio.
Alden Rainbow is a primary school in Nigeria named in his honor for his visits to Ohio faculty members teaching in Nigeria on USAID grants.
Upon his retirement from OU, trustees named the new library the Vernon Roger Alden Library. He also received the Governor’s Award, a citation from the Ohio Senate and the Outstanding Civilian Service award from the U.S. Army.
After leaving OU, Alden took over as chairman of the Boston Company and its subsidiary, the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, from 1969 to 1978. He served on several corporate boards and visiting committees and was very involved in U.S. and Japanese affairs and Japanese culture. For more than 40 years, he was president or chairman of the Japan Society of Boston.
Along with his late wife, Marion, Alden set up endowed funds at OU, Brown University, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Science Museum, Ohio Wesleyan University, MIT, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Northfield Mount Hermon School, the Boston Public Library and the French Library and Cultural Center in Boston.
Thirteen colleges and universities conferred honorary degrees upon Alden, who was elected to Ohio University Hall of Fame in 2006.
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