Eisenhower, Milton Stover, 1899-1985

Milton Stover Eisenhower was born on September 15, 1899 in Abilene, Kansas, the son of local creamery worker David Eisenhower and Ida Stover. His younger brother, Dwight D. Eisenhower, became U.S. President (1952-1960). Milton Eisenhower graduated from Kansas State College in 1923 with a B.S. in industrial journalism before serving as the American vice-consul in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 1924 to 1926. In 1926, he entered the Department of Agriculture as an administrative assistant and became its director of information. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Milton Eisenhower to establish and facilitate the War Relocation Authority whose primary task was to relocate 120,000 Japanese-Americans from the West Coast to internment camps inland. In his memoir, Eisenhower described this assignment to be the "most difficult and traumatic task of my career." In 1943, Eisenhower accepted the position as president, first at his alma mater, Kansas State College (1943-1950), then at The Pennsylvania State College (1950-1956). His administration at Penn State ushered in an age of modernity and prosperity. Eisenhower successfully managed the change of the institution's name from Pennsylvania State College to Pennsylvania State University, establishing and acknowledging the research mission of the institution. He fought for increased financial support from the state and put forth new initiatives in research, particularly nuclear engineering. He also played an active role in international peacekeeping as a goodwill Ambassador to Ecuador in 1953, and he advocated the research and implementation of peaceful nuclear energy after the advent of the atomic bomb. Eisenhower was known to be an approachable and accessible university president and official. In 1956, Eisenhower left Penn State to become president of Johns Hopkins University, where he served until 1969, and again for a brief stint in 1971. He helped Johns Hopkins become one of the country's elite institutions, and while he served as president of the university he also acted as a negotiator to Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. In 1968, Eisenhower spearheaded Lyndon Johnson's National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Eisenhower was married to Helen Elsie Eakin in 1927; the Helen Eakin Eisenhower Chapel on the University Park campus is named after her. Their children were Ruth and Milton Eisenhower Jr. Milton Eisenhower died in 1985 at the age of 85.