Homer D. Babbidge Jr.

Babbidge was born on May 18, 1925, in West Newton, Massachusetts, the son of a merchant sea captain and his wife. His family moved to New Haven when he was 4 years old and then to Amherst, New York, when he was 12. Babbidge graduated high school in Amherst. Babbidge earned three degrees in history from Yale University. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1945, his master's degree in 1948, and his doctorate in 1953. His doctoral dissertation examined the founding and early years of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. While appreciative of football, Babbidge never played sports. He was blind in his left eye from a childhood accident. == Career ==

Babbidge taught American studies at Yale and became director of financial aid. He then joined the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, where he served as special assistant to the commissioner of education (1955–1956), assistant to the secretary of the department (1957–1958), and finally as assistant U.S. commissioner of education and director of the Division of Higher Education (1959–1961). Babbidge received the department’s Distinguished Service Medal in 1961 before he moved to become vice president of the American Council on Education (1961–1962). The U.S. Junior Chamber named him one of the “ten outstanding young men of the nation” because of his work administering the National Defense Education Act. Babbidge established new dental and medical schools, and began construction on an $85 million complex that became the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington. Babbidge also raised faculty salaries, thereby making UConn more competitive in attracting talent. Babbidge collected corkscrews, and with a British physician, Bernard Watney, he wrote in 1981 an authoritative work on the subject, Corkscrews for Collectors. == Death ==

Babbidge died of cancer at UConn's medical center in Farmington on March 27, 1984. He was 58 years old. He was survived by his wife, Marcia, and children Aimee, Sandra, and Alexander. == See also ==