Richard Middleton Freeland (born May 13, 1941) was president of

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

from 1996 to 2006 and served as the Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts from 2008 until 2015.

Early life and career

Freeland grew up in

Mountain Lakes, New Jersey Mountain Lakes is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and a suburb of New York City. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,472, an increase of 312 (+7.5%) from the 2010 census count of 4 ...

, and was a 1959 graduate of Mountain Lakes High School; he was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2014. He was granted a bachelor's degree in American Studies from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

and a doctorate in American Civilization from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. Freeland is married to Elsa Nunez, and has two children. Freeland's maternal grandmother Georgie Boynton Child was the author of ''The Efficient Kitchen: Definite Directions for the Planning, Arranging, and Equipping of the Modern Labor Saving Kitchen; A Practical Book for the Homemaker'' (1914) During Freeland's tenure, Northeastern University went through major institutional changes, including becoming a more selective institution, moving to semesters from quarters, and the opening of over $400 million worth of new facilities.

Books

*
The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism
' (1972) *
Academia's Golden Age: Universities in Massachusetts, 1945-1970
' (1992) *''Transforming the Urban University: Northeastern, 1996-2006'' (2019)

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press, also known as Penn Press, is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. History The press was originally incorporated with b ...

References

1941 births Living people Amherst College alumni Clark University faculty Mountain Lakes High School alumni People from Mountain Lakes, New Jersey People from Orange, New Jersey University of Massachusetts Boston faculty University of Pennsylvania alumni Presidents of Northeastern University {{US-academic-administrator-1940s-stub