LAFF Society

NEWSLETTER

A Logical Choice

 

 
John Gerhart, pictured here with Nelson Mandela after the South African president’s release from prison, was named the Foundation’s first representative in that country in 1993, a logical choice based on his long association with the region. He had traveled there during a year off from Harvard University as an undergraduate and returned several times while doing academic research. Previously he had been Ford’s representative for the Middle East at its office in Cairo.
 
As the South African program was structured, he made grants throughout southern Africa in human rights, land reform, maternal and child health, university development and economic planning. Individual grants were made to several authors who were writing books on South African history.  
 
He left Ford in 1998 to become president of the American University in Cairo.

 

 

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