Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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David CSfarr Jordan, LL. D. M. S., Cornell University, 1872 ; M. D., Indiana Medical College, 1875 ; Ph. D., Butler University, 1878; LL. D., Cornell University, 1886. Instructor in Botany, Cornell University, 1871-72 ; Professor of Natural History, Lombard University, Illinois, 1872-73 ; Principal of the Appleton Collegiate Institute, Wisconsin, 1873-74 ; Student and afterward Lecturer on Marine Botany, Anderson School, at Penikese, 1874 ; Teacher of Natural History, Indianapolis, Ind., High School, 1874-75; lecturer on Zoology, Harvard Summer School, Cumberland Gap, 1875; Professor of Biology, Butler University, 1875-79; Naturalist of the Geological Surveys of Indiana and Ohio, 1877; Assistant to the U. S Fish Commission, 1877-91 ; Student of Ichthyology, British Museum, Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, etc., 1879-81 ; Professor of Zoology, Indiana University, 1879-85; Special Agent of the IT. S. Census Bureau, Investigating Marine Industries of Pacific Coast, 1880; lecturer on Comparative Anatomy, Indiana Medical College, 1885 ; President of Indiana University. 1885-91 ; President of Leland Stanford Junior University, 1891. Publications of Dr. Jordan : “A Manual of the Vertebrate Animals of the Northern U. S.;” “Science Sketches;” “A Synopsis of the Fishes of North America,” etc.; also contributor to current scientific literature. “As a teacher, Jordan makes the impression of weight, sincerity, and simplicity. He rests down confidently upon the subject, and makes that speak. He has the instinct attributed by Matthew Arnold to Wordsworth; he lets Nature speak through him ' with her own bare, sheer, penetrating power.’ Students say he is the simplest of lecturers. Others may seem more profound l eeause less lucid ; Jordan strikes for the centre. As an administrator, Jordan is a man of distinguished performance and splendid promise. In the course of six years he raised the state university of Indiana from a condition of obscurity and ineffectiveness to its present position in the front rank of Western colleges. His success was due largely to his policy of surrounding himself with a faculty of young, energetic, progressive men, and of keeping the university in touch with society at large. At Stanford University he has drawn a large number of diverse and energetic personalities into abiding harmony touching matters that pertain to educational salvation. Jordan’s favorite quotation is the saying of Ulrich von Hutten, ‘ Die Luft der Freiheit wcht ’ (‘ Freedom is in the air ’).”— Melville Best Anderson in Popular Science Monthly, Feb., 1894.

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ambitions was to found a museum; and it is in view of this fact that the building bearing his name is held one of the most important of the whole University. In it is a room modeled exactly from his own room in the San Francisco home, and here we find his own collection. A recent article says, “ His taste for arms and trophies of war and the chase, at this period of his life, is apparent.” Weapons of all kinds reveal his tastes, as like those of many another bright boy of today. In addition to brilliant promises intellectually, young Leland possessed a remarkably generous and loving disposition. Unspoiled by wealth and by the advantages following in its train, he remained unaffected. ” Mamma, that is the best thing you ever did in your life,” he said one day when Mrs. Stanford entered upon the first of her now extensive charitable enterprises; and from that time on he was her constant co-worker, so far as a child could be, in her philanthropic labors. So for sixteen bright, happy years the boy, with his loving nature, more than rewarded the tender care of Mr. and Mrs. Stanford. And then — Senator Mitchell has said : 44 First came the remorseless reaper, and beneath the sunny skies of Italy, far away from home, snatched from loving parents the sole child, the idolized son on whom so many high hopes were centred, and, without request or consent, bore him away.” Just how much the University owes to the boy who died so young, it is hard to tell. Perhaps his desire some day to found such an institution was, in a measure, reflected from his father. At any rate the deed of foundation says: “Since the idea of establishing an institution of this kind for the benefit of mankind came directly and largely from our son and only child, Leland, and in the belief that if he had been spared to advise as to the disposition of our estate he would have advised the devotion of a large portion thereof to this purpose, we will that for all time to come the institution hereby founded shall bear his name, and shall be known as the Leland Stanford Junior University.” 3 S. C.

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DAVID 8TARR JORDAN,' LL. D.