James Stacy Coles: administrative records

Record Group

Identifier: A01.02.09

Staff Only
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Scope and Content

The collection contains correspondence, subject files, reports, and speeches. In addition to general administrative records, there are records concerning the Senior Center, the Capital Campaign, the Bowdoin Plan, R.O.T.C., and the College's self-study. Also included are files concerning WCBB, the Maine educational television network, A.C.H.E.S., the Advisory Commission for Higher Education Study, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Science. For related James Stacy Coles materials, see the James Stacy Coles Papers.

Dates

Creation: 1946 - 1979

Acess Restrictions

No restrictions.

Biographical/Historical Note

James Stacy "Spike" Coles (1913-1996) was Bowdoin's ninth President, (1952-1967). He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University in 1941. Before coming to Bowdoin, he taught chemistry at the City College of New York from 1936-1941, at Middlebury College from 1941-1943, and at Brown University from 1946-1952. During World War II, he worked with the Underwater Explosives Research Laboratory at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was the author, with Robert Cole of Brown University, of "Physical Principles of Chemistry," published in 1964. During the administration of President Coles, the Senior Center Program was inaugurated, the curriculum was strengthened, and there was significant growth in the size of the student body, faculty, and campus facilities. Coles resigned his position at Bowdoin in 1967 to become President of The Research Corporation, based in New York City, a foundation for the advancement of science. Coles retired in 1982, and died in 1996 at age 83 in Falmouth, Massachusetts.