The Importance of Being Ernest

By Ann Bradley

Photos by Benjamin Tice Smith

Princeton, N.J.

Two grade school girls recently paid Ernest L. Boyer, the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a visit in his impressive office on the campus of Princeton University. It was "Take Our Daughters to Work Day," and the children--the daughter of a foundation staff member and her friend--were investigating just what adults in the elegant French-style stucco building did all day.

Boyer showed the girls proudly around his quarters, with its thick carpeting, polished wood furniture, drapes in hues of mint and terra cotta, and two-story desk nook. On one wall, they saw the colorful quilt fashioned by Boyer's mother-in-law from the academic hoods he received along with his dozens of honorary degrees. Nearby, they scrutinized framed photographs of Boyer with a parade of U.S. Presidents, including one with Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary. They noticed stacks of reports issued by the Carnegie Foundation, a force in American education for nearly a century. Crystal awards honoring Boyer's contributions to the field glittered on...