Grayson L. Kirk

He originally intended to become a foreign correspondent, but fell into educational administration when he served briefly as a high school principal in New Paris, Ohio during his senior year at college.

[3][4] Also in 1959, Kirk entered Columbia into its relationship with the Institute for Defense Analyses, which would draw much fire from the anti-war movement, particularly the Students for a Democratic Society, nearly a decade later.

The university and Kirk came under fire in 1967 for attempting to patent and promote a "healthier" cigarette filter developed by New Jersey chemist Robert Louis Strickman.

Construction was delayed for several years due to lack of funds, during which time community resentment over the university's crowding out its poorer neighbors festered.

When construction began in February, 1968, Harlem community activists and civil rights figures protested vigorously enough for the university to fence off the site and post a police guard.

[6] Kirk initially agreed to address some of the protesters demands, but ultimately filed trespass charges against them and called in police to clear the occupied buildings.

After the incident, Kirk resisted calls for his resignation, but stayed away from graduation and eventually announced his retirement before the start of the next academic year.

He also remained on Columbia's full-time faculty as the Bryce Professor of the History of International Relations, a position he had held since 1959, before retiring in 1973.