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Distributed February 9, 1991
Contact Mark Nickel

Brown University has named its Institute for International Studies in honor of Thomas J. Watson Jr., a 1937 Brown graduate, chairman emeritus of IBM and former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. (See additional background on Watson.)

Thomas J. Watson Jr. chairman emeritus of IBM, fellow of the Brown Corporation, member of the Class of 1937 and honorary chairman of the forthcoming capital campaign at Brown University, has made a personal gift of $25 million to the University. His gift, in the form of cash and bequests to support his many ongoing commitments to Brown, is the largest ever made to the University.

The gift was announced on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2001, by Brown President Vartan Gregorian during the Corporation’s winter meeting. The gift, combined with Watson’s previous generous gifts to Brown, make him the University’s leading donor with total contributions of more than $42 million.

“Tom Watson is an extraordinary man,” Gregorian said. “His devotion to higher education in general and to Brown in particular is exemplary and legendary. Once again, he has given generosity a good name. The entire institution is indebted to Mr. Watson – past, present and future generations of faculty and students.”

In view of Watson’s contributions to the world of academic life throughout the Brown community since 1946 as trustee, vice chancellor and fellow, and in view of his very generous support of the University’s mission, the Corporation has accepted Gregorian’s recommendation that the Institute for International Studies be renamed the Thomas J. Watson, Jr., Institute for International Studies.

“Naming the Watson Institute is an especially fitting recognition,” said A.O. Way, chancellor of the University. “Tom’s international contributions as chairman and CEO of IBM, his service as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, and his contributions to U.S. thinking on nuclear weapons have had a profound effect both upon the nation and upon his alma mater.”

Watson has been a consistent and unusually creative force at Brown since the 1940s. As an officer and benefactor, he has been deeply involved in the process which has given Brown its current shape and definition. From 1971 to 1974, for example, his Committee on Plans and Resources (the “Watson Committee”) solidified support for Brown’s new curriculum, reversed a potentially detrimental trend toward a larger student body, and reinvigorated the University’s commitment to excellence in instruction as well as research.

Watson has also directed his philanthropy toward academic excellence, creating or supporting scholarships for study abroad, fellowships for development of junior faculty, programs for recognition of excellence, and improvements in the academic environment, including computing. His philanthropy has been extensive, but the scope of his giving has not always been apparent; Watson has given much of his support anonymously.

Watson joined IBM soon after his graduation. After distinguished military service as a pilot in World War II, including six months’ duty in the Soviet Union, he returned to lead his company into the computer era. He became president in 1952, CEO in 1956, and chairman in 1961. He was named chairman of the executive committee in 1971 and became chairman emeritus in 1981. Watson held a variety of public service positions during his business career, including appointments to government service by U.S. presidents dating to Dwight D. Eisenhower.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Watson chairman of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament in 1978 and named him ambassador to the Soviet Union the following year. During his years as ambassador, Watson conceived the idea for an academic research center which would develop new ideas for U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union and explore potential approaches for reducing the danger of nuclear war. Watson’s ideas took shape in 1981, when he founded the Center for Foreign Policy Development at Brown University, now a key affiliate of the Watson Institute.

“Tom Watson’s idea was to bring scholars and practitioners together on the issues crucial to our country’s future,” said Mark Garrison, director of the Center for Foreign Policy Development. “He is always ready to put his own shoulder to the wheel, whether the object is to engage our specialists with the U.S. public or with high-level Soviet officials.”

Five years later, Watson’s ideas were again at work when Brown created the institute which now bears his name. The Watson Institute has nearly a dozen affiliated policy centers, interdisciplinary programs and academic offices and creates a University-wide focus on teaching and research related to international relations and foreign cultures and societies.

“Tom Watson has once again demonstrated his generosity and dedication to his alma mater and to the pursuit of understanding in the world,” said Howard R. Swearer, Brown University president emeritus and director of the Watson Institute. “His vision and his careful, thoughtful support for academic programs have given Brown a deeply rooted dedication to higher education with an international scope.”

Many of the Watson Institute centers have a global reach, including the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Program, which sponsors an annual worldwide hunger research conference; the International Health Institute, which provides clinical services and conducts health research in China, the Philippines, Nicaragua and elsewhere; the Office of International Programs, which arranges study abroad for hundreds of Brown faculty and students each year; and the Population Studies and Training Center, which studies migration, fertility, urbanization and development in developing countries around the world.

“In years past, it has always been desirable that people of various nations know, understand and respect one another,” Watson wrote in a 1964 letter to Dean of the College Robert W. Morse. “In our present world of thermonuclear warheads and intercontinental missiles, that which was formerly desirable is now vital. Unless we can maintain the peace, we will certainly do away with the kind of world we understand and believe in today. I hope this modest effort [creation of a fellowship program to support students studying abroad] will make a small contribution toward better international understanding and toward peace.”

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