BINDER, Frederick Moore 1920-2004 (Andrew Moore)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born November 18, 1920, in Atlantic City, NJ; died January 28, 2004, in Hershey, PA. Educator, administrator, and author. Binder was a history professor who later went on to become president of Hartwick College in New York, Whittier College in California, and Juniata College in Pennsylvania. Completing his undergraduate work at Ursinus College in 1942, he joined the U.S. Navy, fighting in the Pacific theater during World War II and commanding a PT boat. He returned to his studies after the war, earning his doctorate in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. While working toward his degrees, Binder began his career as an educator, initially at a high school in Somerville, New Jersey, and then at Temple University, where he was assistant registrar from 1946 to 1947 and a history instructor from 1947 to 1955. In 1955, Binder joined the Thiel College faculty as an associate professor, becoming a full professor in 1957 and serving as academic vice president from 1957 to 1959. Binder served as acting president at Thiel in 1959 before accepting a post as president of Hartwick College, where he remained for the next ten years. A brief stint as associate commissioner for higher education for the New York State Education Department was followed by leadership positions as president of Whittier College from 1970 to 1975, and then of Juniata College from 1975 to 1986. When Binder accepted the position at Juniata, the college was struggling with enrollment and finances. Many have since credited him with increasing enrollment, balancing the budget, and adding many improvements to the College, including new buildings—the school's natatorium is named in his honor—and the creation of programs in computer science and early childhood education. In the 1980s, Binder also served on the Pennsylvania State Board of Education and the Council on Higher Education. Interested in both education and history, he was the author of several books, including The Color Problem in Early National America As Viewed by John Adams, Jefferson and Jackson (1968), Education in the History of Western Civilization: Selected Readings (1970), Coal Age Empire: Pennsylvania Coal and Its Utilization to 1860 (1974), The Age of the Common School: 1830-1865 (1974), The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History (1988; 4th edition, 2000), which he wrote with David M. Reimers, James Buchanan and the American Empire (1994), and All the Nations under Heaven: An Ethnic and Racial History of New York City (1995), also cowritten with Reimers; Binder was also a contributing editor to A Bibliography of American Educational History: An Annotated and Classified Guide (1975). Interestingly, Binder penned a spy thriller titled The Serbian Assignment (1972), which he published under the name Andrew Moore.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2004, p. B12.

ONLINE

Daily Star,http://www.thedailystar.com/ (February 2, 2004), "Frederick Binder."

Juniata College Campus News,http://services.juniata.edu/news/ (February 2, 2004), "Former Juniata President Fred Binder Dies at Age 83."