Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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HAROLD DODDS H HITNEY J. Oates ' 25 o fn the morning of December 7. ( )M . the I oiversitj lai uli was astonished l tin- announcemenl thai a Spe- cial Meeting on urgent business was being called for lun-thiiiy that afternoon. Rarely are special meetings convened and never, within the tnemorj of the oldest professors, for a Friday aflern i. I ' ai ull enriosity, always alert. was close to alarm, and wild rumors flour- ished. On! of the uellei o| speculation, came the general belief that the oid urjient hnsiness ' worthy of such a special and rather dramatic treatment was the impending announcement of Mr. Dodds successor. Shortly after two o clock the historic room in Nassau Hall began to lill up. Bj twenty-five minutes after the hour even sipiare foot of available space was filled with extra folding chairs. The SRO sign was out and the standee professors were numerous. In fact, the attend- ance exceeded appreciahh that of the well-rememhered emergenc) session called after the Japanese attack on Lefts I thaded tiger afford a welcome retting place before entering the ' - (« « a typically hot June day. Middle i hisi •utting the leant ' potential with George Sella, Princeton ' 1950 AU-American captain. Right : Looming on as Harvey J. Firestone % 20 takes part in the cornerstone laying ceremonies of six-million dollar Firestone Library. -. l». ■ ■ Ml mWBt Uiij:Pui Jhj m J- i •M T „ try t£ £ 1 fck«-J» » ' ' ' r w ' «

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FOURTH QUADRENNI ■945- Now peacetime Princeton exploded with pent-up energy and drove on towards her two hundredth birthday. These years saw the establishment of the program for returning servicemen, the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program, the NROTC, the University Research Fund to spur scholarly activity in the humanities and social sciences, the Higgins Trust for Scientific Research, a broadened scholarship program to fit new needs and times, the graduate program in the School of Public and In- ternational Affairs, the Center for Research in World Political Organizations, and the program (prophetically enough) in Near Eastern Studies. Now mind and body alike benefited as an outgrown um: reconversion 1949 Pyne yielded up its books to Firestone, and a gleam- ing Dillon replaced the burnt-out shell of the old gymnasium, heralding a golden age in Princeton MEANTIME: Men mourned the deaths sports. The FerrisThomp- j Qandhi, Roosevelt, Ford, Benes, son Faculty Houses now Forrestal, ftj George Herman Ruth. grew beside the stadium, Others departed unmourned: Hitler, and married veterans Mussolini, Quisling, Laval, Goebbels, .,..,. i 1 ft? Al Capone. Churchill named the raised families where polo r . , . Iron Curtain, Truman beat Dewey, players had once raised Faulkner won the N(jM Prhg dust. Now the University celebrated its Bicenten- nial with a year-long series of symposiums on the intellectual state of the nation and the world fifth quadrennium: consolidation I 949- I 953 Now the Bicentennial Preceptorships and the Christian Gauss Seminars in Criticism began to nourish the intellectual lives of the younger faculty and, incidentally, their students. Now the Forrestal Research Center was set up and developed, Wood- row Wilson Hall became the headquarters for the School of Public and International Affairs, the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program moved out into the national scene under the leadership of a classics professor named Robert F. Goheen. Now the Council of the Humanities became a vigorous reality. Now the new Special Program in European Civilization joined the programs in the Humanities, in American Civilization, and in Near Eastern sixth quadrennium: d J 953- The bell in Old North cracked and was retired, but the handsome and vigorous man in the pilot-house below continued with unimpaired faculties - and faculty - to ring useful changes on the Princeton scene. Yet he retained the core of mellow congeni- ality and friendship which drew alumni home to Princeton year after year. Liberal education for use was his watchword now as heretofore, and quality education in depth was his preferred emphasis. In his closing quadrennium as president, he built, as always, for the long future: permanent occupancy housing for his faculty; statesmanlike asssignment of the Ford Foundation grants; the blueprinting of campus building plans to benefit science, engineer- ing, and the humanities; the opening of graduate study in the Department of Religion; the inception and operation of the new Princeton Conferences; the organization of the Board of Science and Engi- Studies, while the Air Force ROTC joined the Army and Navy training programs on the campus. The Industrial Relations Section was endowed, the meantime: )? United Nations build- Architectural Laboratory in S was dedicated in New York fc? the developed, the Center of Korean war be S an - % ueen Elizabeth T . , „ .. . was crowned and Eisenhower beat International studies and „,. , . , . . Stevenson. 1 he first hydrogen bomb the Rockefeller Public decimated Eniwetok, and the New York Service Awards were wel- Yankees decimated their World Series comed, a new Student op-position a 5th time in as many years. Center gleamed in Chan- cellor Green, and the Gertrude Mathey faculty houses rose to ornament West College Road, just as the Doddses would do at a somewhat later time. EI SUB NUMINE VIGET 1957 neering Research; the steady development of plans for Corporate Giving. Now Annual Giving, through his inspiration and the immense loyalty of alumni, reached unprecedented heights. Now, in fitting cere- mony, he rededicated Nassau Hall for its next two hundred years, to the in- cidental delight of philat- „ j j ,1 1 ' meantime: Korea ended, the hur- elists. Now, on the oc- ricanes Carol Diane blew away casion of the centenary of $1,500,000,000, the Nautilus was Woodrow Wilson ' s birth, launched. Now Bannister beat the four- he looked back to the minute mile, Hemingway won the Nobel achievements of another Prize « Eisenhower returned to the „ . . . hite House for a second term. great Princeton President. And now he looked for- ward, as was his custom, with a generous and joy- ous welcome to the distinguished young scholar- administrator whom the Trustees had selected to be his successor in the difficult years lying ahead.

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June means Reunions — and not a few of the more than 12,000 who are graduates of the Dodds era return to Old IS assau. Pearl Harbor, which heretofore had been the largest on record. Promptly at two-thirty the President walked briskly to the rostrum, wearing an amiable if somewhat enigmatic smile. His first remark was a quip to the effect that clearly the way to get the Faculty to attend meetings was to call them on short notice and for odd times in the week. He then proceeded to the business at hand: Gentlemen, I have the honor to announce that the Trustees at a special meeting this morning elected as the sixteenth President of the University, Robert F. Goheen, who will assume office on July 1, 1957. Perhaps only a handful of persons in the room were aware of the Trustees ' action and there was a perceptible gasping for breath as the Faculty absorbed the full sig- nificance of the news. At this moment, Mr. Dodds slowly removed his glasses, and went on, But. gentlemen, let me remind you, this with a vigorous pointing to himself, that until eleven fifty-nine on the evening of June 30, I am the . . . His last w T ords were lost under a burst of laughter. The tension was gone and for the next thirty minutes the President described briefly the career of his successor, expressed his own deep satisfaction on the selection, then recounted briefly the solid and workmanlike procedure followed by the Trustees as they labored through the dozens of names which had been presented to them, and in particular underscored how closely the elected Faculty Committee had worked with the Trustees in the fullest spirit of cooperation. Mr. Dodds concluded his address with a few quiet words about the impossible demands the office placed on any man, — but at the same time he emphasized the rewards and sheer fun of the job — with the biggest reward of all being the kindliness and the understanding with which he had always been treated. This kindliness, he knew, would be awaiting his succes- sor. When the speech ended, the Faculty was brought to its feet spontaneously in a standing ovation — a tribute, to be sure, to the new President, but most of all an instinc- tive expression of regard for Harold Dodds, not only as President, but as man. The celebration of the University ' s Bicentennial in 1947 brought to Princeton world leaders of church, education, and state. Eisenhower, Truman, and Hoover were among them. The Doddses with Admiral and Mrs. Halsey before the Yale- Princeton baseball game — o traditional part of Reunions. The Big Three: Yale ' s Griswold. President Dodds. Harvard ' s Pusey. The past two decades have seen l ale and Harvard each under the leadership of three different presidents.