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

Page 9 text:

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.

Page 8 text:

. v? 551 ' If',1g '.- 1 III J-sy 9 I' Luxe.-f FOUNDED Ill! A YALE BANNER PUBLICATION George M. Levin, Jr. CHAIRMAN Thomas Williams EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Henry N. Chrisfensen, Jr. VICE CHAIRMAN Thomas W. Brookover PHOTOGRAPHY CHAIRMAN 1965-66 YALE BANNER STAFF ARMSTRONG, R. SCOTT LAZARUS. GEORGE ATKINS, HENRY AZOFF, ELLIOT BARNES, KURT BANCKS, NICK BERSON, FRANK BLAND, RICHARD BYRON, ROBERT CHANG. DANIEL DEVEREUX, RICHARD DORET, DAVID FENTON, BRUCE FERGUSON, LEWIS FLEISSNER, PHILIP KIRKLAND, SAMUEL KOSTER, PETER LATIMER, JAMES LONDON, ALAN MCLAUGHLIN. JOHN MARSHALL, KEITH NEDAS, NICHOLAS NELSON, PETER NEWBOLD, NICHOLAS RABEN, JOHN ROSENBLATT, WILLIAM SANDS, THEODORE SCHULDER, ELLIOT SHEEI-IAN. ROBERT THEODORE, TEDWILLIAM TREVOR, SANDY VICIC, WILLIAM WIEST, DONALD WILLIAMS, JOHN

Page 10 text:

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. -