After the King

When wise and tolerant President William Allan Neilson kissed his "2,000 daughters" goodbye and retired after 22 years, Smith College searched hard for a successor (TIME, Oct. 30, 1939). British-born, Oxford-educated Herbert John Davis took the job with misgivings: "What can the man do that cometh after the king?" Like Neilson, Davis had been an English professor (his specialty: Jonathan Swift); Smith trustees hoped to see the Neilson miracle reworked. But in eight years as president, Davis proved more distinguished for his prose style than his administrative tact. Last week, at 55, Herbert John Davis announced from a Smith sickbed (appendicitis) that he would quit the presidency and go back to Lilliput.

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