Harold T. Shapiro

By Anne Levin

When considering speakers for the fourth annual Kenneth and Audrey Gould Lecture at Princeton Public Library, Audrey Gould had a feeling that Harold T. Shapiro, former president of Princeton University, would be a perfect fit.

The lecture series is given in honor of Kenneth Gould, who died three years ago. A psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Gould knew Shapiro, who was president of the University from 1988 to 2001. Currently, Shapiro is a member of the executive committee and associated faculty of the Princeton Environmental Institute Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach. “Dr. Gould would have been very much interested and affected by what is going on with the environment, especially in regard to children. So I know he would have approved,” said Audrey Gould. 

She invited Shapiro to speak, and he agreed. His talk, “The Environment: Understanding the Nature of The Challenge,” is Sunday, December 10 in the library’s Community Room. “He is a wonderful teacher and speaker and his topic is very relevant,” Gould said.

Shapiro was Princeton University’s 18th president. He earned a PhD at Princeton in 1964. He returned after serving on the faculty of the University of Michigan for 24 years, and as its president from 1980 to 1988. His fields of special interest include econometrics, mathematical economics, science policy, the evolution of higher education as a social institution, and bioethics.

The Goulds had previously endowed an annual lecture series at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where Kenneth Gould was a professor of clinical psychiatry. The couple also sponsored lectures at the New York University School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree.

In addition to being a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Kenneth Gould was also a pediatrician. Previous topics for the Princeton lecture series have focused on the wellbeing of children. Dr. Benedict Carey delivered the inaugural lecture of the series just a few months before Gould died in December 2014.

A financial analyst and a library trustee, Audrey Gould established the lecture series with her husband and their daughters, Ellen Gould Baber and Georgeanne Gould Moss. “We wanted to have a tribute to his life’s work,” she said. “That was the real impetus. He was with us but no longer able to practice medicine. He liked the idea that there would be a lecture series right in town.”

The family has also dedicated two rooms in the library — one in memory of Kenneth Gould; the other in memory of son-in-law Charles Baber, who died in 2012. “The library is the center of the town,” Gould said. “It offers the community an extraordinary array of services, and it is an inspiration for people who want to learn. I really am so grateful that it’s here.”

Shapiro’s talk is at 1 p.m. on Sunday, December 10. Visit www.princetonlibrary.org for more information.