Dr. Moses I. Finley
Born Moses Isaac Finkelstein in New York City on May 20, 1912, Dr. Finley became one the world's best known experts in the study of Ancient Greek civilization and the classics. Initially he worked as a staff writer for an encyclopedia firm and legal researcher, before being hired as a part-time lecturer for Yeshiva College. Having received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1951, Rutgers appointed Finley as an Assistant Professor of History in 1950. During World War II, Finley served as an executive in the American Society for Russian Relief. Mentioned as a communist in two testimonies in 1951, Finley met with the HUAC in March 1952. Although very candid throughout much of the interview, he would not answer whether or not he or his associates were communists according to the Fifth Amendment. While teaching at Rutgers, Finley resided in Englewood.
Fired by Rutgers University with Heimlich on Dec. 31, 1952, Finley could not secure a position in the country. He immigrated to Great Britain in 1954 and established a respectable reputation in Cambridge University's history department. In a 1964 interview, he stated that he became a British citizen and did not plan on returning to the U.S. He published an article detailing his experiences with anti-communism in the February 1969 edition of the New Statesman. Invited by Rutgers University, Finley returned to New Brunswick to open a series of lectures on Apr. 3, 1972. The campus community issued a public apology to Finley during his visit. He died in 1986.
Mr. Simon W. Heimlich
Born on Oct. 17, 1903, in Elizabeth, N.J., Heimlich received a B.A. from Rutgers and finished his M.A. at Columbia University in 1926. Beginning his teaching career as an instructor for the College of Pharmacy in Newark in 1925, Rutgers promoted Heimlich to the tenured title of Associate Professor in Mathematics and Physics in 1946. Heimlich's best known academic work, An Outline of College Physics, was published in 1950. His testimony before the McCarran Committee prompted widespread suspicions and public concerns about the presence of communists within the Rutgers faculty. Like Glasser, Heimlich permanently left academic life after his dismissal. He managed a very successful investment brokerage firm in Elizabeth until his death in February 1970.
Dr. Lewis Webster Jones
Born in 1899 in Emerson, Nebraska, Dr. Jones served as the fifteenth President of Rutgers University (1951-58) during the controversial cases involving Heimlich, Finley and Glasser. Raised near Portland, Oregon, Jones earned a Ph.D. from Brookings Institute in Economics in 1926. After completing post-graduate research in Cambridge University and the London School of Economics, Jones for the League of Nations in Europe as an economist. Beginning in 1932, Dr. Jones taught economics full-time at Bennington College in Vermont for nine years. He served as the president of Bennington College (1941-47) and the University of Arkansas (1947-52). In the postwar era, he became known in academic and administrative circles for his stalwart speeches against communism. Having resigned from Rutgers on Aug. 15, 1958, Jones led the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ), an organization supporting tolerance and understanding between religious groups, until retiring in 1965. Jones died in Sarasota, Florida, on Sept. 10, 1975.
Sources:
Frusciano, Thomas J. The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries. 53.1 (June 1991).
'Lewis Webster Jones, 1951-1958." Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives, 2001. Available online at: http://www.rutgers.edu/about/history/past-presidents/lewis-webster-jones.
Richards, Thomas F. The Cold War at Rutgers: A Case Study of the Dismissals of Heimlich, Finley, and Glasser. Diss. Rutgers University, 1986, pp. 35-38, 46-47, 185-186, 211-219.