In Memoriam: Professor Robert F. Goheen (1919-2008)

It is with a profound sense of loss that we note the passing of Professor Robert F. Goheen, President Emeritus of Princeton University, and the Chairman Emeritus of CASI’s International Advisory Board (IAB), on March 31, 2008. He was 88.

Prof. Goheen was born in India and raised there until he was 15. He returned to serve as the United States’s ambassador to India from 1977 to 1980.

He was closely associated with the Center for the Advanced Study of India as Chairman of the Center’s IAB (1993-2004) when the Center was trying to realize its vision as the first world class research institution on contemporary India in the United States.

Prof. Francine Frankel, the founding director of CASI and Professor of Political Science at Penn, remembers Prof. Goheen’s long association with the Center:

“Robert F. Goheen was a rare combination of great intellect, complete integrity and principled determination. A man of personal modesty who accomplished great things, such as his early transformation of Princeton University, it was his natural humanity that touched all who worked with him.

Bob Goheen, born in India and appointed ambassador to India during the Carter Administration, voluntarily took up his role as Chairman because he believed India was important to the world and that our efforts were important to America’s understanding of India’s role. He not only believed in the Center, but he offered the encouragement to persist against great odds that made the dream prevail over the practical difficulties that came in our way. Bob had no other ties to Penn than to the Center. It was Bob who made the argument to the Deans of the School of Arts and Sciences for an act of confidence in CASI’s future that turned around our finances and paved the way for our first successful endowment drive. He was always with us and he gave his selfless support simply because it was the right thing to do. His legacy is a living memory that sustains our efforts to build on a larger scale for the future.”

Our prayers are with the family in this time of great loss.

Prof. Devesh Kapur and the staff at CASI.