Kingman Brewster Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Britain who as Yale University president led a school demonstration against the Vietnam War in Washington and launched a black studies program, has died at age 69.
Brewster died Tuesday of a brain hemorrhage at an Oxford hospital, U.S. Embassy officials said.Since 1986, he had been master of University College, which dates from the 13th century and is Oxford University's oldest college.
Brewster, a lawyer and former Harvard University law professor, was appointed by former President Jimmy Carter as ambassador to the Court of James in 1977 and held the post until 1981.
The Times of London said in an obituary Wednesday: "Brewster . . . was an Anglophile and . . . was much admired by those with whom he came into contact for his perceptive analysis of the British political and social scene."
Born in Longmeadow, Mass., on June 17, 1919, Brewster graduated from Yale in 1941 and received a law degree from Harvard University in 1948.
He was a professor of law at Harvard from 1950 to 1960, was Yale provost from 1961 to 1963 and was president of Yale from 1963 to 1977 during a period of upheaval in many American universities.
"Kingman Brewster was the pre-eminent university president of his day - a man who stood for equity as well as excellence, change as well as continuity, and understanding as well as courage," said Yale President Benno C. Schmidt Jr. "Yale will ever be a better institution because of his spirited leadership."
During Brewster's tenure at Yale, the university admitted more women and more minorities and started a department of black studies. Brewster opposed the war in Vietnam and led a Yale anti-war demonstration in Washington.
During his ambassadorship, Brewster received 11 honorary degrees from British universities.