Nicholas Murray Butler

For 43 years, Butler stood at the helm of Columbia University, its longest-serving president. During his tenure, the campus blossomed, adding numerous buildings and new departments, including the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He transformed Columbia into a global academic powerhouse. Yet, this era of growth was not without shadow. In 1919, Butler implemented a quota system limiting Jewish student enrollment, a policy he defended despite criticism. He also famously intervened in the 1941 Pulitzer Prize, overruling the jury's selection of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, deeming the novel offensive. Hemingway would wait until after Butler's death to finally receive his Pulitzer.

Beyond his academic empire, Butler harbored a deep commitment to international peace. He chaired the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration and was instrumental in securing Andrew Carnegie's initial $10 million funding for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Leading the Endowment's European branch from Paris, he championed global understanding. His tireless advocacy for peace, particularly his promotion of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, shared with Jane Addams. He truly believed in the power of diplomacy.

Butler's public pronouncements often sparked debate. He strongly opposed Prohibition, arguing it had negative effects on the nation, and actively worked for its repeal in 1933. However, his views on global politics were sometimes clouded by his own biases. He expressed admiration for Benito Mussolini and delayed condemnation of Nazi Germany until after Kristallnacht. He even welcomed the German ambassador to Columbia in 1933, refusing to appear with a prominent German dissident, and expelled a student for leading an anti-Nazi protest. These actions underscored a complex figure whose pursuit of order sometimes overshadowed a commitment to freedom.

A prolific writer and speaker, Butler's thoughts on education, politics, and world peace filled two volumes of autobiography, Across the Busy Years, published in 1940. His annual Christmas greeting to the nation was a tradition in The New York Times for decades. Though revered by many, he was not universally beloved; one former student famously spelled out “Nicholas Murray Butler is a horses ass” in an acrostic poem published in Poetry magazine. Blindness ended his active career in 1945. He died two years later, leaving behind a university reshaped by his will and an international peace movement he helped define. He was a force, for better and worse, in American life.