Richard Middleton Freeland (born May 13, 1941) was president of Northeastern University 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, and was a 1959 graduate of Mountain Lakes High School; he was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2014.Alumni Hall of Fame Richard Freeland Class of 1959 , Mountain Lakes High School. Accessed September 8, 2019. He was granted a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College and a doctorate in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.The Carol R. Goldberg Seminars: Steering Committee Biographies, The Boston Foundation, backed up by the Internet Archive as of September 27, 2007. Accessed January 11, 2015. "Born and raised in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, Freeland received a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1963 and a doctorate in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968."
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, switching from quarters to semesters, and opening over $400 million in 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
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