Professor on Leave

Despite his other achievements, the U.N.'s Ralph J. (for Johnson) Bunche, Palestine mediator and 1950 Nobel Peace Prizewinner, likes to list his profession as "educator." At 46, Schoolman Bunche, grandson of a slave, has spent more than half his life on college and university campuses. A graduate of the University of California in 1927 (where he was a crack basketballer), he took his Ph.D. at Harvard. Later, he studied anthropology at Northwestern, The London School of Economics, and Capetown University, finally became professor of government at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Teacher Bunche used no histrionics, lectured quietly from his chair. He won the reputation of being the most exacting professor on the Howard campus (a Bunche exam was apt to last four to five hours). But students flocked to hear him, found him always ready to help them.

Since 1941, Ralph Bunche has been on leave from Howard. Last spring, however, when it seemed as if he would never be able to get away from the U.N., he resigned his academic post. But that did not mean that he was getting away from teaching for good. Last week Harvard University announced the appointment of Ralph Bunche as professor of government; he was the second Negro to win a full professorship in Harvard history.*

Just when Harvard's new professor would be able to take up his duties, nobody could say. He would not be leaving the U.N., Bunche indicated, until he was sure that his job was done.

* The first: the medical school's Dr. William A. Hinton, 66, appointed professor of bacteriology last year.

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