John G. Palfrey

John Gorham Palfrey (March 12, 1919 – October 28, 1979) was an American academic, administrator, and government official. He was a professor at law at Columbia University and served as dean of Columbia College from 1958 to 1962. He also served on the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1962 to 1966. Biography Palfrey was born in Beacon Hill, Boston, and graduated from Milton Academy and Harvard College in 1940, where he was classmates with John F. Kennedy. He was a great-grandson of Massachusetts Congressman John G. Palfrey and the first dean of Harvard Divinity School. His grandfather, Francis Winthrop Palfrey, was an American historian and Civil War officer. His family is descended from William Palfrey, who served in the American Revolutionary War as aide-de-camp to George Washington. He also studied at Harvard Law School before his studies were interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Army Signal Corps and with the military intelligence at The Pentagon, retiring as a first lieutenant. After law school, he served on the staff of the Atomic Energy Commission's general counsel for three years and spent two years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Palfrey joined the Columbia faculty in 1952, becoming a full professor in 1956. He was appointed dean of the undergraduate liberal arts college before being appointed by President Kennedy to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission, and remained in that position under President Lyndon B. Johnson.