One Touch of Gaiety

Four hundred faculty members at Massachusetts Institute of Technology were hastily convened to hear the news. President Karl T. Compton, 61, was leaving for a new job after 18 years: he would succeed Vannevar Bush as boss of the nation's military research organization, the Research and Development Board. Faculty members, some with tears in their eyes, rose to salute Compton after he made the announcement. Then Compton introduced his 44-year-old successor, Dr. James R. Killian Jr.

A man who likes hard work, hiking and collecting the works of George Meredith, Killian has been Compton's right hand for nine years, M.I.T.'s vice president for the last five. Most M.I.T. students think they have to study hard enough already ("Tech is hell! Tech is hell!" says the school yell), but Killian hopes to add to their academic burdens more civilizing courses in liberal arts. Also, says Killian solemnly, "A little gaiety might be appropriate."

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