Philip J. Driscoll, 71: former dean at Brandeis, led board of education
[Published in Boston Globe July 13, 1993]
Philip J. Driscoll of Cincinnati, a longtime leader in education in Massachusetts and a formeer head of admissions and dean of students at Brandeis University, died of natural causes Sunday while vacatiorllng at Wing's Neck, Pocasset. He was 71.
Mr. Driscoll served as chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education in the 1960s, when it took its first steps toward achieving racial balance in the state's schools, and also had served on the board of the Collegiate Authority.
A gregarious man with a keen mind and a ready wit, Mr. Driscoll had been with Brandeis since its fledgling days and played a pivotal role in its expansion from modest beginnings in 1948 as America's first Jewish-sponsored, nonsectarian liberal arts university.
He joined the Brandeis faculty in 1953 as an assistant director of admissions and an instructor in English. In 1957 he was made director of admissions and in 1960 became the university's first dean of admissions, a position he held until 1966, when he became dean of students.
"He set the standard for us all in admissions in higher education," Michael Kalafatas, Brandeis' current director of admissions. said last night.
Mr. Driscoll was dean of students until 1969, when he resigned to become founding director of the Ten College Exchange (later Twelve College Exchange), a pilot educational program linking resources and student exchange among New England independent colleges such as Williams, Wheaton, Dartmouth, Wesleyan. He served in that capacity until 1973, when he was appointed assistant to the director of the Boston Public Library.
Two years later he was disabled by a major stroke and retired from the academic scene. In 1978 he moved from Dedham, where he had lived for many years, to Cincinatti, where his wife, Eileen (Rooney) Driscoll, became president of the Southern Hills Lotspeich School.
Mr. Driscoll was a native of West Roxbury, and graduated from the Cambridge School of Westo; and Amherst College in 1943. During World War II he seived in the Army as an interpreter, interiewing Italian prisoners of war. He received his master's degree in Irish literature from Harvard University in 1947 and was a candidate for a doctorate in 1949.
He taught at Notre Dame University 1947-48 and at Boston University School of Education from 1948 to 1953. A longtime member of the St. Botolph Club of Boston, he was a former member of the boards of troustees of the Beaver Country Day School, the Dedham Public Library and the International Students Center in Cambridge. He was chairman of the parents' association of Roxbury Latin School.
Besides his wife, Mr. Driscoll leaves a son, Philip J. Jr. of Belle Mead, N.J.; four daughters, Katharine D. Coon of Marshfield, Ellen Driscoll of Cambridge, Hope E.F. Driscoll of Washington, D.C., and Moira Je. Driscoll of Brooklyn, N.Y.; two sisters, Katharine Withington of Plymouth, and Sheila Cunningham of Needham; three brothers, Edgar J. of Boston, William M. of Jaffrey, N.H., and Robert M. of Westerly, R.I.; and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Dedham on Friday at 11 a.m.
