[ASPA] Ferrel Heady Passes Away

[Erik Bergrud]

Remembrance: Former UNM President Ferrel Heady dies  Protests during tenure drew blood on campus
 By Associated Press
August 23, 2006
 Ferrel Heady, who was president of the University of New Mexico during the tumultuous era of Vietnam War protests, died Thursday. He was 90. A memorial service is planned Saturday at 11 a.m. at the UNM Student Union Ballroom.  
Heady was president of the state's largest university from 1968 to 1975, a period marked by student demonstrations against the war. 
One of the protests turned bloody on May 8, 1970, when New Mexico National Guardsmen marched onto campus, and 10 people were bayonetted. 
The Guard's intervention ended four days of protests on campus in the wake of the shootings of four people at Ohio's Kent State University. About 150 students had marched to Heady's home late on May 4 to present him with a list of demands that ranged from removing ROTC from campus to providing more scholarships for American Indian students. 
Heady, in an interview for the 10-year anniversary of the protest, said he didn't meet with the protesters, but agreed the Student Union Building could remain open for people who wanted to talk. The next day, leaflets appeared on campus urging students to go on strike. 
On May 6, 1970, students took over the student union, leading to the National Guard on campus and the eventual arrests of more than 100 people occupying the SUB. 
Heady, in an interview 20 years later, said events at UNM were a microcosm of what was happening on campuses nationwide. And he said the student movement of the times "probably had the net effect of improving the university and improving society, somewhat at least. I'd say, on the whole, that was a positive era rather than a negative one." 
Another series of anti-war protests occurred two years later, when demonstrators were on the receiving end of tear gas and birdshot pellets from city police. Heady had spent time with the protesters, who were mostly UNM students, but refused to sanction a strike. 
Heady, who held a doctorate in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, came to UNM in 1967 as academic vice president after 20 years with the University of Michigan, including seven as director of its Institute of Public Administration. 
After his tenure as president, he was a professor of public administration and political science at UNM from 1975-1981 and received UNM's outstanding graduate teacher award. He remained a professor emeritus at UNM's School of Public Administration. 
Heady served in the Navy during World War II, commanding submarine chasers in the Pacific.  
He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Charlotte; sons Richard and Thomas Heady, both of Albuquerque; daughters Judith August of Austin, Texas, and Margaret Heady of Cheney, Wash., a brother and a sister. 

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