McGrath, Earl J., 1902-1993

Earl James McGrath, a Commissioner of Education under two Presidents, died on Jan. 14 in Tucson, Ariz. He was 90.

Dr. McGrath's death was reported to The New York Times yesterday by Dr. Robert S. Webber, a friend of Dr. McGrath's and the president of Western International University in Phoenix. Dr. Webber had just returned from a trip to the Far East.

Dr. McGrath was appointed Commissioner of Education by President Harry S. Truman in 1949 and retained by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1953 Dr. McGrath resigned in protest over cuts in the Federal education budget.

From 1956 to 1968 he was executive director of the Institute of Higher Education at Columbia Teachers College in New York. In that position he urged major changes in liberal arts colleges.

Among them was the institution of the year-round college. Under his proposal, students would attend college for three 14-week terms a year, graduating in three years instead of four. The system was proposed in response to a need to accommodate more students amid a shortage teachers. Headed Eisenhower College

Dr. McGrath was chancellor of the newly founded Eisenhower College in Seneca Falls, N.Y., from 1966 to 1968.

From 1968 to 1973 he was director of the Higher Education Center at Temple University in Philadelphia. The mission of the new center was to undertake research on problems facing college and university administrators.

Dr. McGrath was also associated with a number of other universities. Among the posts he held were dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the State University of Iowa, 1945-48; chancellor of the University of Kansas City, 1953-56, and professor at the University of Arizona, 1974-80.

He was also chairman emeritus of Western International University.

Dr. McGrath was Born in Buffalo and graduated from the University of Buffalo in 1928, where he received a master's degree in psychology in 1930. He earned his Ph.D. degree in education from the University of Chicago in 1936.

In World War II he was lieutenant commander in the Navy.