Ray L. Heffner, President at Brown University, Dies at 87 Ray L. Heffner, who guided Brown University through the political turmoil of the late 1960s before stepping down as president after less than three years, unhappy about continuing campus tensions, died on Nov. 28 in Iowa City. He was 87. The cause was cancer, his wife, Ruth, said. Dr. Heffner became Brown's 13th president in October 1966 as anti-Vietnam War protests were gathering force on campuses and black students were pressing colleges to admit more African-Americans and expand black studies. Violence broke out on some campuses, but tensions never rose to that level at Brown, in Providence, R.I. One issue roiling higher education was whether college students should receive deferments from being drafted into the military. Critics of the policy said it largely benefited well-off white men while discriminating against black and lower-income men. Dr. Heffner favored ending the deferments, telling a meeting of freshmen in 1967 that the system made students a "privileged class." Yet, eight months later he spoke out against a Selective Service proposal to deny deferments to students who protested against military recruiting. Dr. Heffner said the plan would have impinged on academic freedom. President Richard M. Nixon did away with student deferments in 1971, and the draft ended in 1973. In December 1968, black students at Brown boycotted classes to protest what they considered a lack of commitment to their needs. The boycott ended when Dr. Heffner announced an affirmative-action enrollment plan and a $1.1 million program "for development of the black students." Brown, part of the Ivy League, also instituted a program that gave students responsibility for charting their own academic programs and the option to take courses on a pass-fail basis. A tipping point for Dr. Heffner came in April 1969 when he signed an agreement with the Navy to continue its Reserve Officer Training Corps program on campus, despite a vote by faculty members to phase it out. "That was one of the central issues, from his point of view, for leaving," his wife said. In announcing his resignation, Dr. Heffner said, "If there is tension in society it is going to be maximized in the university," adding that the tension is "greatest in the office of the president." "I have simply reached the conclusion that I do not enjoy being a university president," he said. The Brown Alumni Monthly magazine wrote that Dr. Heffner had been "besieged from many sides." "He was criticized by some students and some faculty for moving too slowly; he was assaulted by others for moving too quickly - for "giving in on everything," " the magazine wrote. But, it added, "what so few people have conceded to Ray Heffner has been his ability to chart a course for Brown in a violent era without violence." Ray Lorenzo Heffner Jr. was born in Durham, N.C., on March 7, 1925, to Ray and Gladys Heffner. The family later moved to Seattle, where his father became a professor of English at the University of Washington. His mother was a high school English teacher. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Mr. Heffner completed his bachelor's degree in English literature at Yale in 1948. He went on to earn a master's degree and a doctorate at Yale. While teaching English at University of Kentucky, he met Ruth Adele Cline, who was also teaching there; they married in 1951. Besides his wife, he is survived by two sons, David and Christopher, and three grandchildren. Before being named president of Brown, Dr. Heffner had been a vice president and also taught at both Indiana University and the University of Iowa. After leaving Brown, he returned to the classroom at Iowa. He retired in 1996.