Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

R. I. P. John Silber

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Former Boston University President and 1990 Democratic gubernatorial nominee passed away this morning at his home in Brookline at the age of 86.  He considered himself a liberal in many ways and I for one have never quite understood the intense dislike some in our own party have had for him.  He did after all get our party’s nomination, though someone else will have to remind me how he did at the more activist-heavy convention as opposed to the primary.  For a while several years ago he had a regular column that appeared in the Lowell Sun, mostly discussing education matters, and I recall agreeing with him more often than not.

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  2. But I cannot share your enthusiasm for his particular brand of self-styled “liberalism. My fondest memories of BU are walking those now-forgotten picket lines with my wife…and Howard Zinn.

  3. I will avoid further comment about John Silber for the time being. It doesn’t sound like you or any of your associates knew him or had any dealings with him.

    • I will give credit where credit is due. He managed to rescue BU from the brink, financially, early in his tenure, at a time when it may have become Kenmore Community College without a change.

      The following two decades might be viewed differently, to put it mildly.

      • This morning’s Globe includes a letter expressing a different view:

        We’ll need a little time and detachment before anyone can really evaluate John Silber’s contribution (“John Silber, terrain-changing BU leader, political force, dies,” Page A1, Sept. 28). Did he “transform” Boston University? He certainly convinced everyone that he did. He might have been more interested in branding the institution — and himself.
        …
        He raised a great deal of cash, left BU far behind other institutions in endowment, invested and lost a fortune in a failed pharmaceutical venture, and gave BU, and himself, an enormous visibility.

        Time will tell if he was actually a transformer or an image maker.

  4. Was the visceral antipathy WCVB, especially Natalie Jacobson had for him throughout the gubernatorial race. It was journalistic malpractice of the highest order, and still the reason why I can’t watch channel 5 news even though it’s all different people.

  5. Generally, I hear that the other way around, specifically that Silber lost the election the moment he snapped at Jacobson over an interview question.

  7. I was only 15 and not living in Mass. at that time. As a budding political junkie I followed the race to some extent. Never saw that. He makes (2012) Romney look like a polished candidate.

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