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One of the great paradoxes of the Penn State scandal is evident on the face of Graham B. Spanier, the university’s ousted president.

“You know how he’s got that prizefighter’s nose?” said Michael Oriard, an associate dean at Oregon State and a close friend. “It’s from his father breaking it for him several times.”

Spanier earned academic renown with research on family relationships. Oriard said he has seen his friend lose his composure just once, after witnessing one child hurting another. A man like that, then, might be keenly attuned to protecting the powerless, the downtrodden, and Spanier’s defenders say he...

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