Harold T. Shapiro, a Princeton University alumnus who served as his alma mater’s president after more than two decades as an accomplished economist and higher-education administrator, transferred to emeritus status on January 16, 2023.

After earning his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton in 1964, Harold went to the University of Michigan as an assistant professor. He worked his way up the faculty ladder in Ann Arbor and was named provost of the university in 1977. Harold held the post for only two years before being named Michigan’s president. He served in that role until 1988, when he was named the eighteenth president of Princeton.

While he was president, Harold continued to teach courses in the history of American higher education and in bioethics. After retiring from the presidency, he returned to full-time teaching and research in the Department of Economics and the School of Public and International Affairs.

Harold’s Princeton presidency was a success by virtually any measure. The University celebrated its 250th anniversary during his tenure, and he led the drive to expand its motto from “Princeton in the Nation’s Service” to “Princeton in the Nation’s Service and in the Service of All Nations.” The University completed what was at the time the most successful fundraising campaign in its history, garnering $1.14 billion, with contributions from an astounding 78 percent of all undergraduate alumni.

Under Harold’s leadership, Princeton expanded undergraduate teaching and increased opportunities for students to study abroad. The quality and diversity of the undergraduate and graduate student bodies increased, and with that came a considerable boost in the University’s financial aid efforts through the substitution of grants for loans to meet more effectively the needs of lower- and middle-income families. The percentage of international undergraduates nearly doubled, and there were significant increases in graduate fellowship support.

The faculty, too, grew in size and stature, and numerous new academic programs were launched, including the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, an interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Religion, the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, the University Center for Human Values, and new master’s programs in finance, engineering, and public policy.

Harold’s tenure also saw substantial capital improvements, with renovations of residence halls leading the way. New projects included the construction of the Frist Campus Center; Scully dormitory; new academic space for the social sciences in Fisher, Bendheim, and Wallace halls, for physics teaching in McDonnell Hall, for engineering education in the Friend Center, for genomics in Icahn laboratory, and for the Center for Human Values in what was then Marx Hall; new athletic space at Princeton Stadium, the Weaver track, the Shea Rowing Center, and 1952 field; and the Berlind Theatre addition to the McCarter Theatre.

A national leader in education, Harold served two U.S. presidents: George H.W. Bush (as a member and vice chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) and Bill Clinton (as chair of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission). His public service was not limited to the White House. Harold has served as a consultant and advisor to the U.S. Treasury, the Bank of Canada, the Economic Council of Canada, and several other bodies.

His elected memberships include the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among others. Additionally, Harold has served on the boards of dozens of nonprofit and private-sector institutions, including Educational Testing Service, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the American Council on Education, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Association of American Universities, the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, Kellogg Company, and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Harold is a prolific author, publishing a plethora of papers and commentaries over more than half a century on topics ranging from bioethics and science policy to energy, climate issues, and the evolution of postsecondary education. In his 2005 book A Larger Sense of Purpose: Higher Education and Society (Princeton University Press), he outlined the history of the modern research university, writing on such issues as ethics, the differences between private and public higher education, and the relationship between universities and corporations.

“For a long time, I’ve had this notion of a university both providing society with what it needs in terms of education, research, scholarship and technology, but also serving as society’s critic,” Harold told the Princeton Weekly Bulletin after the book’s publication. “As society’s critic, we are responsible for evaluating current arrangements — whether in the art world, humanities or science, for example — and asking ourselves if there is a better set of arrangements. We serve society in that sense by pushing it and always being slightly uncomfortable with the status quo.”

In 2000, Harold received the Council of Scientific Society Presidents Citation for Outstanding Leadership. In 2008, he was awarded the Clark Kerr Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education, presented annually by the University of California-Berkeley Academic Senate. He also received the William D. Carey Lectureship Award for Leadership in Science Policy from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Science’s Public Welfare Medal in 2012.

Harold was born in Canada in 1935 and earned his bachelor’s degree from McGill University, in Montreal. In addition to his doctorate, he holds a master’s degree, also in economics, from Princeton. He has also received more than a dozen honorary degrees, including one from the University of Edinburgh, the alma mater of former Princeton presidents John Witherspoon and James McCosh.

Throughout his lengthy and distinguished career, Harold placed particular emphasis on the student experience, and on the institution’s responsibility to make that experience as meaningful as possible.

“One aspect of a student’s moral education lies not in the curriculum,” he said, “but in the behavior of the faculty, staff, and administration and in the policies of the institution.”

He reinforced this perspective in a comment he made to his successor, Shirley Tilghman, upon departing his Princeton presidency in 2001.

“Everything we do could be done better,” Harold told President Tilghman. “There’s nothing we’re doing here at Princeton that shouldn’t be re-examined to try and find a better way to accomplish it or to take a different direction.”

Written on behalf of the Department of Economics and the School of Public and International Affairs faculty.