The Ohio Daily Express

Dr. Ralph Bunche Named Professor At Harvard

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Special)-- Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, senior director of the United Nations Trustee Council and 1950 winner of the Nobel peace prize, has been appointed professor of government at Harvard College.

The appointment makes Dr. Bunche the first Negro professor at the 314-year-old institution. He is not, however, the first Negro member of the Harvard faculty.

Dr. William A. Hinton, now retired, served as clinical professor of bacteriology and immunology in the university medical school.

Dr. Bunche accepted the position but was granted a leave of absence because of present commitments in the UN.

University Provost Paul H. Buck said the professorship was voted by the corporation on Jan. 16, and by the board of overseers on April 10.

Dr. Bunche was born 46 years ago in Detroit, the son of a barber, and was orphaned at the age of 14. He worked his way through school and through the University of California on athletic scholarships.

A former professor at Howard University, he won his masters degree at Harvard in 1928 and a doctorate in 1934. Because of his wide knowledge of colonial and far eastern affairs, he was "borrowed" from Howard and appointed to the Trustee Council of the UN.

He was with Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte as mediator in Palestine. After the assassination of Bernadotte, Dr. Bunche effected the peaceful settlement of differences between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. For this work he was awarded the Nobel peace prize.

On his return to the United States he was offered a vacancy in the State Department as Under-Secretary of State. He refused the appointment because of racial segregation in the nations capital. He has since been made director of the UN Trustee Council.