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Former U-M President Little Dies

Former U-M President Little Dies image
Parent Issue
Day
23
Month
December
Year
1971
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Dr. Clarence Cook Little, who was president of the University of Michigan from October, 1925, to June, 1929, and a prominent leader in cancer research, died yesterday at 83 following a heart attack at the Maine Coast Memorial - pital, Ellsworth, Me. Dr. Little was named president of the U-M at age 37, making him the youngest man to hold that position. He had previously been president of the University of Maine for three years. His resignation from the U-M in 1929 climaxed what the U-M's official history describes as a "brilliant and tactless" and "stormy term" in the presidency. Dr. Little went from the U-M to the directorship of the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor, , Me., a position he held until his retirement in 1956. At the Jackson Laboratory, Dr. Little directed research in genetics related to cancer in which he had been a pioneer at the U-M and, previously, at Harvard University, where he was an assistant History Prof. Howard H. Peckham notes in his book, "The Making of the University of Michigan," that the U-M regents appointed Dr. Little as president "at $15,000 a year, plus $2,000 for living and entertainment, plus an unprecedented $5,000 for research assistance." Dr. James V. Neel, chairman of the U-M's Department of Human Genetics, recalled today that "one of Dr. Litüe' s stipulations when he carne was that the regents provide support for his research. "He was one of the early prominent geneticists who worked with small animals. They had used rabbits at Harvard, and Dr. Little developed the use of mice. He had as much as anybody to do with developing the inbred mice strains now so widely used in cancer research. We don't think in terms of momentous contributions in his later years, when he became increasingly preoccupied with administrative concerns, but you have to give a great deal of credit. He did very good early work." Dr. Lee R. Dice, a former chairman of the U-M Human Genetics Department, now retired, similarly described Dr. I tle today as "very energetic, really a leader in genetics research. "He worked with the common house mouse, and he had many, many inbred strains," Dr. Dice recalled, adding that "he kept his stocks mostly in the East Medical Building." Three years ago, that structure was renamed by the U-M regents as the Clarence Cook Little Science Building. Asked if he recalled any feeling at the time of Dr. Little's presidency that his research work interfered with his administrative duties, Dr. Dice said, "It did not . . . He was definitely the leader, but the details were carried out by a staff of three or four principal investigators and three or four assistants, plus a number of other faculty members who joined in." Dr. Neel said, "I think one of the issues that did lead to his downfall in the presidency, although he was certainly on the right track, is that he was an out spoken advocate of birth control." Prof. Peckham, in a chapter of his book titled "President Little Embattled," cites that issue and these others as contributing factors leading toward Dr. Little's resignation: -"The innovation that he proposed in his first year was to enroll all freshmen and sciihomores in a separate University College under its own dean. The aim was to provide the students with some common knowledge in several fields of learning and to winnow out those who would be satisfied with two years of general courses." The proposal was formally opposed by the faculty of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, and was still in abeyance at the time of Dr. Little's resignation. - "Further, Little did not think that the curriculum for men and women should be the same. He advocated a different group of studies for women, which should include physiology, general science, nursing hygiëne, human behavior, and heredity and genetics. His reasoning was that most of the girls would become homemakers and mothers, and he thought it foolish not to prepare them for these roles." At the same time, Dr. Little was an early advocate of construction of U-M dormitories, with the goal of improving students' living conditions. During his tenure as president, campus construction projects included Michigan Stadium, first used in 1927 with seating for 85,000, since expanded to I 101,001. The School of Music, previously a V vate institution, and the Department oL Journalism were also established during his presidency. Immediately following his resignation from the U-M, Dr. Little worked with Edsel B. Ford, J. L. Hudson Co. president Richard H. Webber and Mrs. Roscoe Jackson in establishing the Jackson Memorial Laboratory. Jackson was a 1900 alumnus of the U-M and head of Hudson Motor Car Co. In 1950, Dr. Little received the American Cáncer Society's Distinguished Service Award. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Science. He was born in Brookline, Mass., on Oct. 6, 1888. He received his AB, MS and PhD degrees from Harvard between 1910 and 1914. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War I. j He is survived by his wife, Beatrice, J and four grown children. t (1951 Photo- Michigan Historical Collections)