{{Short description|American academic}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} '''James Isbell Armstrong''' (April 20, 1919 – December 16, 2013) was an American academic who was President of Middlebury College. He was born in 1919 in Princeton.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8yifAAAAMAAJ&q=%22James+Isbell+Armstrong%22+1919|title=The strength of the hills|publisher=|isbn=9780874517323|accessdate=18 December 2015|last1=Stameshkin|first1=David Mitchell|year=1996}}</ref> Armstrong was appointed as Middlebury's 12th president in 1963 and served until 1975.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/node/464874 |title=James Armstrong, Middlebury's 12th President, Passes Away |publisher=Middlebury.edu |date=2013-12-13 |accessdate=2013-12-17}}</ref> Armstrong graduated from Princeton University in 1941 and completed his Ph.D. there in 1949.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/college_presidents.html|title=College and University Presidents.|publisher=|accessdate=18 December 2015|archive-date=29 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229140830/http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/college_presidents.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He served as a professor of classics and Associate Dean without Portfolio at Princeton prior to his arrival at Middlebury.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.princeton.edu/~gchouse/ref/list.html |title=Lists of People |publisher=Princeton.edu |date= |accessdate=2013-12-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016052223/http://www.princeton.edu/~gchouse/ref/list.html |archive-date=2012-10-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Armstrong led Middlebury through the national political upheaval of the 1960s. On campus, student life for men and women was fully integrated for the first time.<ref>[http://www.middlebury.edu/about/president/emeriti/james_armstrong.htm ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724004851/http://www.middlebury.edu/about/president/emeriti/james_armstrong.htm |date=July 24, 2008 }}</ref> He created the month-long Winter Term which allows students to spend four weeks in January to enroll in one intensive course or pursue independent research or internships.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://middleburycampus.com/2003/11/13/alumni-reminisce-on-winters-past/|title=Alumni Reminisce on Winters Past|work=The Middlebury Campus|accessdate=18 December 2015|archive-date=January 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116170353/http://middleburycampus.com/2003/11/13/alumni-reminisce-on-winters-past/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Armstrong is credited with laying the groundwork for Middlebury's emergence as a nationally renowned institution, significantly growing the college's enrollment, endowment and physical plant.
During Armstrong's tenure, the campus saw new styles of architecture reflecting changing national taste, including several controversial buildings. These include the Christian A. Johnson Memorial Building, the Science Center (demolished in 2001), and what has become known as Freeman International Center; all departed from the campus' traditional Georgian Revival style by adopting Brutalist architectural forms and exposed concrete.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://midddigital.middlebury.edu/walking_history/college_campus/page_5.html|title=A Walking History of Middlebury / The College Campus|publisher=|accessdate=18 December 2015|archive-date=July 24, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724002204/http://midddigital.middlebury.edu/walking_history/college_campus/page_5.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Armstrong died on December 16, 2013, aged 94.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/node/464874|title=James Armstrong, Middlebury's 12th President, Passes Away|work=Middlebury|accessdate=18 December 2015}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{succession box|title=President of Middlebury College|before=Samuel Somerville Stratton|after=Olin Clyde Robison|years=1963–1975}} {{s-end}} {{Middlebury College presidents}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, James Isbell}} Category:1919 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Princeton University faculty Category:Presidents of Middlebury College Category:Princeton University alumni Category:People from Princeton, New Jersey
{{US-academic-administrator-1910s-stub}}