Julius A. Stratton; MIT, Ford Foundation Head

Julius Adams Stratton, 93, former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, onetime chairman of the Ford Foundation, and a developer of navigation devices. After World War II, Stratton helped establish the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, becoming its first director. In 1949, he was appointed MIT’s first provost. He became chancellor in 1956, acting president in 1957 and president in 1959. He was chairman of the Ford Foundation from 1966 to 1971, a trustee for RAND and a director of several major corporations. A physicist and electrical engineer, Stratton helped develop LORAN, a system of long-range navigation for ships and airplanes. His books include “Electromagnetic Theory” and a book of his speeches, “Science and the Educated Man.” In Boston on Wednesday of pneumonia.