Harold Taylor

Harold A. Taylor (1914–1993) was the president of Sarah Lawrence College. He is remembered for his writing on education and philosophy, and his stand against McCarthyism's interference with American education. However he transferred to the University of London and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1938 with his dissertation "The Concept of Reason and Its Function in 17th and 18th Century Philosophy and Literature." Taylor was offered a teaching position with the University of Wisconsin's Department of Philosophy in 1939, where he taught "social philosophy, aesthetics and the philosophy of George Santayana" for six years. Taylor was the youngest president of an American college at the time. While president of the college, Taylor continued teaching courses in philosophy at Sarah Lawrence and also at the New School for Social Research. and the approval of the college's first M.A. programs.

Taylor became a well-loved president and teacher at Sarah Lawrence and was "renowned for remembering the name of every student on campus." Taylor was also known for his "movie star looks," which may have contributed to rumors of his affairs with female students, faculty, and staff. He married Grace Muriel Thorne in 1941, but divorced later on. Harold Taylor was also known for walking around campus accompanied by his giant dog, a friendly and unofficial mascot at Sarah Lawrence College.

In 1950, Taylor edited and published a collection of essays, called Essays in Teaching (1950), collecting works by Esther Raushenbush, Horace Gregory, Helen Merrell Lynd, Rudolf Arnheim, Stephen Spender, and Norman Dello Joio.

In November 1951, Louis Budenz published the article "Do Colleges Have to Hire Red Professors?" in the magazine The American Legion, which was the first accusation of Sarah Lawrence hiring Communist professors. After the publication of the article, which accused Sarah Lawrence College and other colleges of hiring Communist professors, the Americanism Committee of the Westchester County American Legion began accusing and investigating professors at the college. In 1953, eleven faculty members of Sarah Lawrence College were issued subpoenas to attend a hearing by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee: Finally, McCarthyism began its decline, with the Senate's decision to censure Senator McCarthy.

Subsequent career Taylor resigned his presidency at Sarah Lawrence College in 1959. He traveled internationally to meet with political and intellectual leaders and to speak on education and the problems the world faced. Taylor traveled to the Soviet Union, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He became a visiting professor at overseas universities and lectured in social philosophy and education. From 1962 to 1963, Taylor hosted the ABC television series Meet the Professor. He published The World and the American Teacher: The Preparation of Teachers in the Field of World Affairs (1968), a declaration urging for an education on world affairs and Students without Teachers: A Crisis in the University (1969) which emphasized the role of the university in the global context, and its potential for encouraging real change. Of his other works in this period, The World as Teacher (1969) proposed that answers to many of the world's problems can be found in the field of education and How to Change Colleges: Notes on Radical Reform (1971), declared the necessary changes that the American college system needed to undergo.

Taylor held many leadership positions in dance and theater in New York, including president of the American Ballet Theatre, president of the Agnes de Mille Dance Theater, a trustee of the New York Studio School, and Vice Chairman of the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.

In the 1960s, Taylor founded and chaired the Committee of Peace Research, which was sponsored and funded by the Institute for World Order and the National Research Council on Peace Strategy, for which he also served as a chairman. Taylor also cofounded the Peace Research Institute, which combined with the Institute for Policy Studies He also served as an advisor on human rights for the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation.

Taylor founded and served as director for the Center for International Service at Staten Island College and cofounded the National Committee for the Support of Public Schools. In the 1970s, he founded and chaired the United States Committee for the United Nations University, and continued to work on a pilot for a "World College in collaboration with twenty-three United Nations member countries." Taylor's vision of a "World College" is described in his book The World as Teacher (1969), and includes information on "a three-year study of teacher education, combined with Taylor's interests in the development in the early 1960s of the World College program and the International Baccalaureate," and his works The United Nations University (1973) and A University for the World: The United Nations Plan (1974). Taylor was a John Dewey scholar and supporter and was "instrumental in arranging for the preservation of the John Dewey professional papers."

Taylor died in 1993 at the age of 78 years in St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center in New York City.

Works by Harold Taylor Essays in Teaching (1950) (Editor) Moral Values and the Experience of Art (1952) On Education and Freedom (1954) Art and the Intellect (1960) The Goals of Higher Education (1960) (Co-Author) The World and the American Teacher: The Preparation of Teachers in the Field of World Affairs (1968) The Humanities in the Schools: A Contemporary Symposium (1968) Students without Teachers: A Crisis in the University (1969) The World as Teacher (1969) Art & the Future (1969) How to Change Colleges: Notes on Radical Reform (1971) The United Nations University (1973) A University for the World: The United Nations Plan (1974)