Yale University - Banner / Pot Pourri Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

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DEDICATIO ADLAI EWING STEVENSON, 1900-1965 CHUBB FELLOW FELLOW OE MORSE COLLEGE The first time I saw Adlai Stevenson was in 1951 when he suddenly walked into my cubby- hole ollice and announced he wanted to have me work for him in his coming campaign for re- election as Governor of Illinois. He was full of bounce and sparkle and he seemed constantly in motion even when he was seated and speaking quietly of personal niatters. Alert, quick, spon- taneous, warmly responsive to spirited people and conversation, he left you on the edge of your chair with expectation for the wit and exciting conversation to come. The last time I saw Adlai Stevenson was a month before he died when he managed to squeeze in four hours from his dizzying pace for a relaxing evening in the country. His qualities of old were there but he had been changed con- siderably by the long years of labor for mixed rewards. In between these times is the story of the growth of a public man and the compressing of a private individual. What happened during this decade and a half is the story of a most un- usual human being coming to live as a responsi- ble, wise and witty public voice, Without ulti- mate public success and with less private success, but as a revered, valuable, wise and important political figure. His road was an enormously difficult one, which his ready humor made ap- pear easy and self-deprecation made appear in- signihcant. The tale of these years, however, is indeed a significant one for us personally and publicly. -

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I MEMORIAM WILLIAM CLYDE Devi-,NE When men die it is society's custom to construct a monument to them, that they may not be forgotten. For William Clyde De Vane that monument already exists, and it is one that he had a considerable role in building-it is Yale. As Dean of Yale College for a quarter of a century, XVilliam De Vane was instrumental in the development of ideas and programs that became synonymous with liberal education. He was scholar, teacher and administrator, and never failed to recognize the necessity and balance of these three aspects of education, if the modern university was to achieve the high ideals he set for it. Dean De Vane was born in Savannah, Georgia, on june 17, 1898, and first came to Yale in 1916. His undergraduate studies were interrupted by services in World YVar I, but he returned to complete his undergraduate workg and he turned down an offer to become a Hollywood script writer, choosing instead to enter the Yale Graduate School where he earned his Ph.D. From 1922 to 1934 he taught English at Yale. His special field was Tennyson and Browning, about whom he wrote numerous books and articles. After a four year period as Chairman of the Cornell University English Department, he was recalled in 1938 to become Sanford Professor of English, and Dean of Yale College, a position he held for twenty-five years. During these years he turned down the pres- idencies of at least twenty-live colleges and universities to remain as Yale's main Dean. Dean De Vane held twelve honorary doc- torates, and had been, at various times, Chairman of the American Council of Learned Societies, President of the Academic Deans of America, and National President of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. Underlying Dean De Vane's many and significant changes in undergraduate education at Yale, were two chief aims: first, that all undergraduates, no matter what their eventual field of study, should have a strong foundation in the liberal arts, and secondly, that the highly capable student should be given every opportunity to move ahead on his own, do creative research, and not be hinder- ed by traditional class and course schedules. These principles were implemented by several programs, in- cluding the Honors Program, the Scholar of the House, and Direct- ed Studies. Under Dean De Vane's influence, the separate units of the undergraduate Engineering and Sheffield Scientific Schools and the Freshman Year were abolished in favor of a single all-inclusive program under the jurisdiction of Yale College. The problem of the faculty was a pressing interest for Dean De Vane. He believed that the most serious question facing Amer- ican colleges was not money, but how to recruit a first-rate faculty, and, more importantly, how to keep the professors in the classroom. True to his own words, he managed to teach during all his years as Dean, despite the stringent demands of administration duties. Dean De Vane died on August 16, 1965, while vacationing in Vermont, but his ideas and his inliuence did not perish with him. We may remember himf' said George May, present Dean of Yale College, Hfor his gentleness and wit, for his courtesy and compas- sion, but also, for the strength of his convictions, for his devotion to high ideals, and for his firmness as one of America's greatest academic leaders.

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Curiously, his several visits to Yale highlight his later career. In the Presidential Campaign of 1956, he was booed, hissed and spattered by Yale students, as well as applauded. One of the worst mob scenes of the campaign occurred on the Yale campus. His patient comment was that Yale students seemed less well-behaved than students at his alma mater, Prince- ton. His next visit was in 1959 under different cir- stances. He was a private citizen with weak prospects for public office. He was named a Chubb Fellow and embarked on a week's activities at a pace which he called more murderous than a campaign. But later he very often spoke of that happy week before a combination teacher-student, and he was delighted and refreshed by the informal give and take with a new political generation. There was little he did not wish to do. He even listened with determination, being tone-deaf, to the Yale Russian Chorus and be- came a warm supporter ever after. Writing about his week at Yale, he was much more favorable this time in comparing Yale to his alma mater, As a Prince- ton man, I found to my surprise, much more at Yale than I expected-much, much more. His final visit to Yale was at the end of May, 1965, less than two months before his death. By now he had been an oflicial of the United States for more than a Presidential term, and had had moments of real satisfaction and glory and the many more moments of frustration, trial, disappointment, and more defeat. Yet he retained his wry Wit and hope and easy grace, though he had become more ready with temper, anger and fatigue, and was pre- occupied with money, expanding waist line and concern about what he had accomplished in life. Having been named a Fellow of Morse College, he came, on this last occasion, to Yale to pay his respects to the fellowship. XVe had arranged an informal evening and a fitting reception. He toured the College with Professor John Hall and spoke with students in small groups throughout the courtyard. A shoe with a hole in the sole was presented to him by a group of students. He ac- cepted the gift, obviously touched, but grinningly quipped that he really wouldn't need that any- more and it would be more useful repaired! He told a number of stories about himself in the course of the evening, evoking great laughter, and he traded jokes with Professors Arthur Wright, joseph I.a Polambara, Phillip Bondy, Wendell Bell, and David Martin. He was a gay com- panion throughout, obviously enjoying his role as a visiting Fellow. But when he left he was plainly tired and feeling pressed to be back on the job. While the life of Yale was not intimately connected with the course of the life of Adlai Stevenson, all of us at Yale have been in some measure affected by the things he did and the things he said and the kind of political figure he was. Both his successes and his failures, and especially the manner in which he had them, illuminate the problems, the fears and the pros- pects involved in the search by an educated man for a dignihed responsible path to follow in serv- ing himself, his fellow man, and his society. For the example he provides, we warmly salute the life and the memory of Adlai Ewing Stevenson. ROBERT LYNN FISCHELIS Dean, Morse College