NewsBriefs

Knight pens book on embattled years

Former Duke President Douglas Knight has published a memoir, "The Dancer and the Dance," that reflects on his tumultuous years as the University's fifth president and the circumstances that led to his forced resignation in 1969.

In the book, the erudite scholar discusses his brief tenure as president and how his affiliation with academia came to a screeching halt amidst a backdrop of civil rights conflict and internal infighting among top Duke administrators in the 1960s. A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University and a former president of Lawrence College, Knight moved into business and foundation work after his tenure at Duke turned sour.

"I was pulled between what I knew the university needed over the decades and what the times demanded immediately," he writes. "It was a schizophrenia with only one inevitable outcome, and I would reflect on its meaning for years, always in the recognition that my whole career had put me in a place and point of time from which there was no honorable escape."

Former A&S Dean Gillis plans Duke return

Outgoing Rice University President Malcolm Gillis, who served as Duke's dean of the faculty of arts and sciences from 1991 to 1993 and as a professor at Harvard University and Duke, will spend the 2004-2005 academic year on campus as visiting professor of public policy studies and distinguished research fellow for the Duke Center for International Development.

"We are pleased and honored to welcome Malcolm," said Sanford Institute for Public Policy Director Bruce Jentleson. "His scholarship and record of leadership are impressive, and it will be inspiring to have him back among us."

Gillis's research and teaching activities focus on national and international fiscal reform and environmental policy. During his stay at Duke, he plans to work closely with the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

John Hope Franklin is honored for life's work

James B. Duke professor emeritus of history John Hope Franklin, a celebrated scholar of African American and Southern history, received a lifetime achievement award from the newly formed Character Education Foundation at a March 18 ceremony.

He was honored along with former University of North Carolina President William Friday by the foundation, which describes its mission as "teaching compassion, honesty, courage, responsibility and respect." * * *