The former president of Harvard University who led the institution for nearly two decades through liberalizing times.
Under his watch the university recruited more minority students and women, with less Northeast prep-school graduates entering its ranks.
In 1969, a group of students led by the radical group of Students for a Democratic Society took over the administrative building. Pusey had them ousted by the police.
He grew up one of three children who were born to John and Rosa Pusey in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Though usually staying above the fray of politics, he steadfastly defended university faculty accused by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy of communist loyalties.