From Fletcher’s First Moments to Its Emerging Future

Lee E. Dirks Professor of Diplomatic History Emeritus Alan Henrikson.

Lee E. Dirks Professor of Diplomatic History Emeritus Alan Henrikson.

With the centennial of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy less than a decade away, Fletcher’s Lee E. Dirks Professor of Diplomatic History Emeritus Alan Henrikson is thinking of its beginnings. During the Great Depression, President John Cousens of Tufts had a dilemma. The former chair of his board of trustees, Austin Barclay Fletcher, had passed away in 1923 and generously bequeathed to Tufts the funds for the establishment of a school of law or a school of law and diplomacy. Cousens consulted with the dean of Harvard Law School, Roscoe Pound, who weighed in that “‘There’s already a law school in the region, but there’s something new under the sun: international relations,’” said Henrikson. Tufts ultimately set forth to establish The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in cooperation with Harvard University in 1933. The Fletcher School was the first graduate school of its kind in the United States.

Ninety years later, at a 50th reunion luncheon for the Class of 1973, Henrikson shared his vision of a comprehensive history of the school. Now, he’s working with alumni, faculty, and staff to ensure the school’s pioneering spirit and its institutional history are captured in an ambitious two-phase multimedia history project. A digital version is planned for the school’s 95th anniversary in 2028, and a print one will mark the centennial in 2033.

The project will serve as more than a chronology of milestones and will convey not only Fletcher’s institutional arc, but also its intellectual and structural evolution. “It will showcase Fletcher’s educational and intellectual entrepreneurship and its creative involvement in international diplomacy and international education,” Henrikson said. The history will feature interviews and essays written by alumni such as Winston Lord, F60, H87, former U.S. ambassador to China.

When Mark Nichols, F71, F73, a former Board of Advisors member, heard Henrikson’s idea, he immediately thought other friends and graduates of the school would want to get involved. Nichols, who is managing director and principal at Global Capital Advisors, LLC, has been spreading the word about the project among fellow alumni. Dean Kelly Sims Gallagher encouraged Henrikson and Nichols to raise $250,000 to seed the project. That effort is well underway, thanks in part to founding gifts from Nichols and Nihal Goonewardene, F73, a past president and CEO of International Science and Technology Institute.

Support for the project will help celebrate the school’s ability to meet everchanging global needs. “What we at Fletcher do is articulate and think through what law and diplomacy mean, specifically and in practical ways,” Henrikson said. Recently, for example, thanks to support from the Cummings Foundation, the school created the Cummings Foundation Professor of One Health Diplomacy to address global health crises such as SARS, the Ebola virus, and COVID-19.

Perhaps most importantly, the project will highlight the real-world global impact of the school’s tightknit alumni community. “Fletcher is a school with very strong academic credentials and research credentials, but it’s also a school of practitioners,” Nichols said. “So, Fletcher has done a great job traveling down a path that has some aspects of tradecraft—training people to do things in the world—combined with absolutely first-rate academic credibility, and that is somewhat unique.”

To make a gift to support this project, please contact Patricia Brown, Fletcher’s director of development, at patricia.brown@tufts.edu or 617-627-6082.