Richard W. Lyman Papers Creator: Lyman, Richard W
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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt7b69s06d Online items available Guide to the the Richard W. Lyman, President of Stanford University, Papers SC0215 compiled by Stanford University Archives staff Department of Special Collections and University Archives March 2011 Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford 94305-6064 [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Note This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0. Guide to the the Richard W. SC0215 1 Lyman, President of Stanford University, Papers SC0215 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Title: Richard W. Lyman papers creator: Lyman, Richard W. Identifier/Call Number: SC0215 Physical Description: 365 Linear Feet Date (inclusive): 1965-1981 Abstract: This collection consists of records from Richard W. Lyman's term as President of Stanford University (1970-1980), along with the records of the Provost. Some of the records were generated by the previous administration of Kenneth Pitzer. Information about Access Files on student judicial cases and donor files are restricted. The collection is otherwise open for research; materials must be requested at least 48 hours in advance of intended use. Ownership & Copyright All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes. Cite As [Identification of item], Richard W. Lyman Papers (SC0215). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Biographical/Historical Sketch Lyman was born in Philadelphia in 1923 and raised in New Haven, Conn. His father, a chemist who lost his job during the recession that followed World War I, became an attorney. His mother taught French. His exposure to the world began with a summer visit to Belgium to visit his maternal grandmother. Later, in 1939 at the outbreak of WWII, he returned with his mother in an unsuccessful attempt to get permission for his stateless grandmother to leave Brussels. In 1940, Lyman entered Swarthmore College, a Quaker college near Philadelphia. He was drafted in 1943 and served in the Army Air Forces Weather Service for three years – a formative experience, by his account.. He returned to Swarthmore in 1946, and one day – as he loved to tell the story – noticed a "gorgeous creature asleep in the Friends Library." It was Elizabeth "Jing" Schauffler, the sister of a classmate. The couple married in 1947 in a ceremony on Great Spruce Head Island in Penobscot Bay, Maine, the summer after they graduated. That same year, Lyman began his graduate studies in history at Harvard University. In 1951 and 1952, Lyman was a Fulbright Fellow at the London School of Economics. He spent two summers writing for The Economist, a newsweekly based in London, and for a time thought he might become a journalist. But when the editor asked Lyman to become its permanent Washington correspondent, Lyman, who was teaching history at Swarthmore and writing his dissertation, declined. "By that time I was very near achieving the PhD, and I thought I had invested too much in an academic career to give it up, so I became a historian," he said. Lyman taught history at Washington University in St. Louis from 1954 to 1958. He arrived at Stanford in 1958, a year after his Harvard dissertation was published as a book, The First Labour Government, 1924. Lyman said one of the things that attracted him to Stanford was the British Labour Party history collection at the Hoover Institution – which he described as the "best one outside Britain." At the time, Lyman and his wife had four children – two girls and two boys – ranging in age from 1 to 8 years old. "I first knew him as a teacher," said David Kennedy, an emeritus professor of history. "He was a really great teacher; he was exceptionally rigorous, but he was also very supportive." "Even his 8:00 a.m. lectures received high evaluations from students," said Lyman’s son, Timothy. Guide to the the Richard W. SC0215 2 Lyman, President of Stanford University, Papers SC0215 Lyman, who was promoted to full professor in 1962, began his rise through the administrative ranks in 1964, when he became associate dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, a position he held for three years. It was an era of great social change across the country, marked by the battles for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. In 1965, Lyman agreed to chair a campus "teach-in" on the Vietnam War at Stanford – as long as the panel included speakers for and against the war. "Still I got blasted by the Winds of Freedom Foundation, a self-appointed bunch of right-wing guardians of Stanford's virtue, which believed it very sinful that I would even get within earshot of Vietnam objections," Lyman recalled in a 2004 interview in Sandstone & Tile, the quarterly journal of the Stanford Historical Society. Lyman, who served as president from 1970 to 1980, held many posts during the 25 years he spent at Stanford: history professor, associate dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, provost, president, and founder and director of the center now known as the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. In 1972, Lyman launched the $300 million Campaign for Stanford, then the largest fundraising campaign in the history of higher education. The successful five-year drive raised money for the endowment, buildings, endowed chairs and financial aid. "Dick Lyman was a man of great strength, integrity, common sense and good humor," said Stanford President John Hennessy. "It was a privilege to know him, and I am deeply saddened by his death. His impact on Stanford was profound. He guided the university through some of the most turbulent years in its history, and under his leadership, Stanford not only survived, it flourished. "He had an unswerving belief in academic freedom and universities, and he inspired that commitment in others. We are very fortunate – and certainly the better – for having known him and for having his courageous, committed leadership and service to Stanford." Lyman's Stanford legacy was largely shaped by his three years as provost and the early years of his presidency, a time he recounted in Stanford in Turmoil: Campus Unrest, 1966-1972, which was published by Stanford University Press in 2009. During those years, students demonstrated for racial equality and against military research, CIA recruiting and ROTC training on campus. "Whether I got it published or not, I wanted my version of what happened in those years on record, so that anybody writing the history of Stanford would have to stumble over what I had to say about it," Lyman told Stanford Report in 2009. The 200-page memoir gave a behind-the-scenes look at several watershed university decisions: to ban classified research on campus; to increase the admission of black students and to hire more black faculty; to summon police to quell violent anti-war protests; and to fire a tenured professor for allegedly inciting students to disobey a police order during a 1971 anti-war protest. Stanford magazine published an excerpt from the book under the title "At the Hands of the Radicals" in its January/February 2009 issue. Lyman opposed the Vietnam War – he sent a personal telegram to President Richard Nixon deploring the U.S. invasion of Cambodia in 1970 – and was an ardent advocate of free speech. But he was unwavering in his opposition to violent protests and the sit-ins – which he disparaged as coercive acts – that disrupted campus life. During the three years he was provost, from 1967 to 1970, Lyman grew increasingly frustrated with what he viewed as Stanford's tolerant, even sympathetic approach to students involved in anti-war protests. In 1969, hundreds of students occupied the Applied Electronics Laboratory for nine days in a peaceful protest over classified and war-related research on campus. Weeks after that sit-in ended, students broke into Encina Hall – the main administration building – and began breaking windows, rifling through desks and file cabinets and seizing files. Lyman persuaded Stanford President Kenneth Pitzer to summon riot police. It was the first time Stanford called police to campus. "One of the reasons why we called the police to Encina was because it came so soon after the protest at the Applied Electronics Laboratory, and it was clear there was just not going to be any peace as long as we had to tolerate these sit-ins," he said. When Lyman became president in 1970, he instituted a policy that student protesters would not be allowed to occupy a building overnight. "We have to preserve order, because if we do not, someone else who does not understand the delicate fabric of the university will come in and do it," Lyman told Time magazine after he took the helm at 46 as Stanford's seventh president. Donald Kennedy, who joined Stanford's faculty in 1960, served as provost under Lyman from 1979 to 1980, and succeeded him as president from 1980 to 1992. Guide to the the Richard W. SC0215 3 Lyman, President of Stanford University, Papers SC0215 "After a time as provost, during which he performed superbly, Dick undertook the presidency just when peace and civility were both among the missing here," said Kennedy, who is the Bing Professor of Environmental Science, Emeritus.