University of Virginia Library

7. SEVEN

Shannon Carries
the Institution Forward

THE FOURTH PRESIDENT of the University of Virginia, Edgar
F. Shannon, Jr., was a forty-year-old professor of English
who had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and had taken his
Ph.D. there as a specialist on the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
At Washington and Lee University he had made
straight-A grades in all subjects for his four undergraduate
years, with the exception of one B in Latin. A veteran of
bloody battles in the Pacific in World War II, Shannon went
down with the U.S.S. Quincy in the desperate engagement off
Savo Island and was in the water for several hours before he
was finally rescued. His principal administrative experience
was gained in the navy as assistant operations officer and task
group fighter director.

Shannon had been on the university faculty for three years
and had just been promoted to full professor when he was
elected president. He came to Virginia from Harvard, where
he was head tutor in the English department, "a sort of chairman
for the undergraduates," as he put it.

When the committee in search of a president for the University
of Virginia called on Henry Wriston, the noted former
president of Brown University, in the hope of getting advice,
he gave them some. "The only thing I have to say, gentlemen,"
declared Wriston, "is take a good look at his legs. If he happens
to have any brains, it's convenient, but not at all necessary.
Legs are the important thing." Wriston then proceeded
to outline the strenuous duties of a typical university president,

with all the foolish demands that are made upon him.
"After dinner in the evening you generally go out and dedicate
some damn garage," he said. And, he added: "For God's
sake don't look for a distinguished man. The day you make
him president of the University of Virginia he will be just as
distinguished as he can be. . . . Look for quality. . . . That's
ahead of everything."

Edgar Shannon was not well known, even to the faculty of
the university when he was chosen president. The selection,
made in full cooperation with the committee from the faculty
senate, headed by William S. Weedon, was kept completely secret
until it was announced on Feb. 28, 1959. Rector Frank
Talbott, Jr., presented Shannon to a faculty group without
mentioning his name, and one professor present was quoted
as remarking to a colleague, "This is all very fine, but who the
hell is he?"

Mrs. Shannon, the former Eleanor Bosworth of Memphis,
Tenn., had married Edgar three years before, after resigning
as dean of women at Southwestern College, Memphis. She was
a magna cum laude graduate of Sweet Briar, with an M.A. in
history from Cornell. Personally charming and good looking,
she was admirably qualified for her new and demanding duties.

Outgoing President Darden was altogether cooperative with
his successor and helpful in many ways in smoothing the latter's
path. The two men complemented each other, and their
administrations were rightly described as a continuum.

The new president was inaugurated Oct. 6. It was a beautiful
autumn day, and the ceremonies were held in bright sunshine
on the Lawn, with Rector Talbott presiding. Geoffrey
Reginald Gilchrist Mure, warden of Merton College, where
Shannon had studied as a Rhodes Scholar, was the principal
speaker. "Everybody in the college knew him, respected him
and liked him," Mure declared in referring to Shannon. "He
liked us and even, I think, respected some of us. He threw
himself into every strange British activity. He played village
cricket. He now and again played Rugby football." Gov. J.
Lindsay Almond also welcomed the new president. Responding,
Shannon reaffirmed the "Jeffersonian tenet that the University
of Virginia be not only an exceptional state and regional
university but also a great national university."

The university's new head got off to a rousing start with the
faculty by announcing that Governor Almond had approved
salary increases, effective for the session of 1959-60. Full professors
would receive an additional $1,000, associates $800,
assistants $600, and instructors $250.

Shannon had taken office at a propitious time for advancing
the university in all directions. "There was a thrust of interest
in education," he said, and the Federal government was beginning
to make large sums available through the National Science
Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. These
things coincided with the rapid rise in the population, which
brought an increase in the number of applicants to the university.
Higher entrance requirements could be instituted
without slowing the university's growth. These stiffer requirements
had an impact throughout the institution, especially in
the Schools of Engineering and Education, since before that
time an applicant rejected by the College could apply to either
of those schools. The larger enrollment also was significant in
making possible the building of a stronger faculty, for distinguished
professors could be obtained much more rapidly as a
result. This, in turn, attracted promising younger teachers,
and "the whole thing snowballed" as Shannon expressed it.

Another factor carrying the university forward was state
legislation enacted during the Darden regime, and at Darden's
instigation, which provided that it is the policy of the commonwealth
to encourage state institutions to develop endowments
from private funds. This enabled the university to build
a substantial endowment and to use it, along with other private
and federal resources, to give the institution its "margin
of excellence," Shannon declared. Then, somewhat later, Gov.
Albertis Harrison was instrumental in having the commonwealth
establish the Eminent Scholars Fund with state money,
to be matched by the various institutions. "That made it possible
for us to compete nationally with salaries for any faculty
member that we really tried to get," Shannon said. An anonymous
gift of $2,000,000 launched the fund at the university,
and it has been substantially increased. All this resulted subsequently
in putting the University of Virginia among the top
twenty institutions belonging to the American Association of
University Professors, with respect to median faculty compensation.

The only other state universities in the top twenty were
California, Michigan, and Iowa.

At the first Finals held during Shannon's presidency (June
1960) tablets in memory of the 321 Virginia men who died in
World War II and the 29 who died in the Korean War were
unveiled on the north portico of the Rotunda. Rear Adm. Lamont
Pugh, ret., '23, former chief of the navy's Bureau of
Medicine, delivered the address. The World War II plaque
was presented by the classes of 1943 and 1948, while that for
the Korean War was the gift of the Seven Society.

"Reading days," in effect at numerous other institutions,
were introduced at Virginia in 1960 at the suggestion of the
Cavalier Daily. Dean William L. Duren of the College stated
that May 27 and 28 would be set aside as a two-day review
period before final examinations, during which attendance in
class would not be required, but the professors would be available
for consultation. The plan was temporarily abandoned until
the 1962-63 session, when reading days were reinstituted
before exams in January and May. In 1969-70 each department
was authorized to grant up to five days for this purpose.

The Echols Scholar program, named in honor of the late
Prof. William H. Echols, was launched at the 1960-61 session
and has been a pronounced success. Under this program topflight
high school and preparatory school graduates are given
much more freedom in choosing their courses and much less
supervision than run-of-the-mine students. When the plan
was gotten under way, thirty-five students entered, twentyseven
of them from Virginia. They lived in Echols House, one
of the newer residence units, and were excused from first semester
classes in math and English, while courses not generally
open to first-year men were made available to them.
Echols Scholars were selected not only for their high academic
standing but also on the basis of "intellectual, cultural and
community interests other than those solely related to academic
work." There was a certain amount of jealous jeering at
this privileged group when they first entered the university,
and "Reserved for Echols Scholars" was painted on sidewalks.
This attitude was apparently short-lived. By 1963-64 there
were almost twice as many of these superior students as three
years before. In 1970-71 it was announced that most of the

eighty students who entered that year achieved combined college
aptitude test scores of at least 1,400 and were in the top
5 percent of their high school graduating classes. These exceptional
students had to meet fewer and fewer requirements
under the evolving rules, and there was an increased emphasis
on individual learning and initiative. They were encouraged
to spend a semester or session away from the university, since
"a high degree of restlessness" was prevalent among them in
that era of widespread campus turmoil. Echols Scholars were
not "mere" intellectuals and bookworms, the Alumni News
pointed out. "An Echols Scholar is president of the Student
Council," it declared, "another is an editor of the Cavalier
Daily, still others helped found and now administer the Experimental
University, which offers nonacademic courses to
the community. They work at the student radio stations, play
in the orchestra and participate in intramurals."

Pres. John F. Kennedy appointed three university alumni to
important positions. He named his brother Robert, '51, attorney
general of the United States; law Professor Mortimer F.
Caplin, '40, commissioner of internal revenue; and David
K. E. Bruce, '20, ambassador to the Court of St. James's. The
assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 caused postponement
until Thanksgiving Day of the university's football game
with Maryland, scheduled for Nov. 23, the day after the murder.
President Kennedy had promised to deliver the Founder's
Day address at the university in 1964.

When U.S. Sen. and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
was assassinated in 1968, Dean Hardy C. Dillard of the
Law School delivered a memorial tribute at the request of
President Shannon. He announced that the graduating class
in the Law School had, through voluntary subscriptions,
funded the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, with
preference to be given to members of minority groups when
the awards were made. In 1959 Kennedy had established in
the Law School the F. D. G. Ribble Scholarship Fund, under
which a yearly scholarship would be granted.

Mortimer Caplin, the newly appointed commissioner of the
revenue, had been editor of the Law Review in his student
days, a star on championship boxing teams, as well as president
of the Virginia Players and one of their most talented

actors. Upon graduation he was given the Southern Society
Award as the student who had contributed most to university
life. After practicing law in New York as a tax expert, he returned
to the university as a member of the law faculty.

David Bruce, one of the ablest diplomats of modern times,
was the only American ever to serve as U.S. ambassador to
London, Paris, and Berlin. His record in all three posts was
exceptional.

Appointment of Marvin B. Perry, Jr., as dean of admissions,
"a new position of vital significance to the university's future
development," was announced by President Shannon in 1960.
Perry was a university B.A. and a Harvard M.A. and Ph.D.
who had taught English at Virginia for four years and then
served in the Washington and Lee English Department for
nine years. He would remain as dean at the university until
1967, when he accepted the presidency of Goucher College.
Admission requirements for all the university's colleges were
placed under him and were sharply upgraded.

Paul Saunier, Jr., was appointed in 1960 as assistant to the
president for university relations and development. He was a
University of Richmond graduate who had served in Washington
for nearly a decade as secretary to Rep. J. Vaughan Gary
of the Richmond congressional district. Saunier was given responsibility
for all activities of the university affecting relations
with the public and for coordination of the development program.

Dean William L. Duren, Jr., of the College resigned that
post, after serving since 1955, to devote his full time to teaching
mathematics, and Irby B. Cauthen, Jr., who had been assistant
and associate dean, was named to succeed him. Dean
Cauthen was an able teacher of English as well as the author
of well-regarded works on English and American literature.
In addition to higher admission standards, said he, the student
body had come to accept the stiffer requirements covering
probation and suspension, put into effect two years previously,
although "there had been some initial bewilderment,
shock and disbelief." Dean Cauthen added that the number
graduating after four years in college had jumped from 59.5
percent in June 1959 to 75 percent four years later. He also
noted that 83 percent of those expecting to graduate in June

1964 planned to go on to graduate or professional schools, 18
percent more than in 1960. By the fall of 1963 almost threefourths
of the first-year students came from the top quarter
of their high school classes, and they also ranked well in extracurricular
activities, with numerous class presidents, captains
of athletic teams, and editors of school publications. Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT) scores rose markedly over those of the
preceding year, with average verbal scores of 606 and math of
646. A record number of Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Woodrow
Wilson fellowships were awarded to students and faculty.
The honors program, launched in the 1930s, was more firmly
established than ever and more widely incorporated into the
curricula of the various departments of the College.

A munificent gift of over $3,500,000 came to the university
in the early 1960s in the will of Robert Coleman Taylor, a Law
School graduate and prominent New York attorney. The
funds were unrestricted and were devoted principally to professorships,
but also to faculty disability insurance and honor
scholarships.

The position of dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
was created in 1962, with the occupant of that position responsible
to the president of the university for all matters affecting
the faculty, with special emphasis on faculty procurement.
The office of dean of the College, previously concerned
with administering faculty affairs, as well as advising undergraduates,
was reoriented to concentrate, with the assistance
of associate deans, on programs involving undergraduate students
and the significant changes in the curriculum that were
to follow. Deans of the Faculty, beginning in 1962, were: Rowland
Egger, 1962-63; Robert J. Harris, 1963-68; Fredson T.
Bowers, 1968-69; David A. Shannon, 1969-71; Robert D.
Cross, 1972-73; and Edwin E. Floyd, 1974-. More will be said
later concerning several of these men.

The university ranked first in 1962 among public institutions
in this country in the book value of its endowment in
proportion to enrollment, according to a survey by the American
Association of University Professors. Only a dozen institutions
in the United States rated higher in the AAUP tabulation
with respect to endowment, compensation of faculty, and
related aspects of fiscal strength. There were 545 faculty
members at the university, ranging from full professors to lecturers,

82. World Court Justice Hardy C. Dillard, former dean of the
Law School, in his judicial robes.

some part-time. A bill was introduced in the Virginia
General Assembly to limit out-of-state students to 25 percent
in all state-supported institutions of higher learning. Governor
Harrison opposed it, and the measure was defeated.
President Shannon said the following year that the university
would seek to maintain a top enrollment of 10,000.

Shannon spoke in 1961 of the need in Virginia for a system
of community colleges, and the suggestion was well received
in various quarters, including the sanctums of several Virginia
newspaper editors. He proposed that first-year and sophomore
courses be taught at a number of locations, with this
instruction expanded into a system of community colleges, as
needed. Several years later the General Assembly established
a system of nearly two dozen community colleges.

Two-year branch colleges of the university opened—Patrick
Henry College at Martinsville in 1962 and Eastern Shore at
Wallop's Island in 1964. George Mason and Clinch Valley were
already in operation as two-year university branches and
would be upgraded to four-year institutions. All these colleges,
except Clinch Valley, which now had 780 students,
would ultimately be separated from the university. George
Mason, with 3,100, became independent in 1972, and the
other two were absorbed into the statewide community college
system when it was established.

The university was becoming more and more distinguished as
a center of scientific research. There was increased emphasis
on science in virtually all U.S. institutions as a result of Soviet
Russia's putting a sputnik in space.

John Wesley Mitchell, a fellow of the Royal Society in London
and internationally known for his studies of large metal
crystals, joined the university faculty in 1960. Mitchell was
born in New Zealand and had worked at the University of
Bristol, England, with Spanish-born Professor Nicolas Cabrera,
who was already on the University of Virginia faculty,
and was also internationally celebrated. They pursued their
researches together in the physics laboratory at Virginia and
were hoping to find ways to strengthen structural materials.

The prestige of the university in the field of science was
already great, thanks to the presence on the faculty of such
men as John H. Yoe, Allan T. Gwathmey, and Randolph T.

Major, all in chemistry; Ralph Singleton in biology; Gordon T.
Whyburn and Edward J. McShane in mathematics; and Jesse
H. Binford, W. Dexter Whitehead, and Frank L. Hereford,
Jr., in physics.

Frank Hereford, although only in his late thirties, was already
known in Europe as a nuclear physicist and was in demand
as a speaker both in this country and overseas. Named
in 1962 to head the Physics Department at the university, he
was chosen by the magazine Industrial Development and the
Manufacturer's Record as one of three men to represent the
South's "new leadership." The magazine said that his advanced
training, international outlook, professional dedication,
and sense of responsibility in serving the public led to his
selection. Hereford had hardly settled in his position as department
head when he was also appointed dean of the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences as successor to Dean
Geldard. After four years as graduate dean he was named
provost by President Shannon, in which position he would be
the principal academic officer after the president. The office
was a new one, and not identical with that occupied previously
by Joseph L. Vaughan. All academic deans, as well as the chancellors
of the Medical School and the community colleges,
were to report to Hereford. In the year he was appointed
provost Frank Hereford received the Thomas Jefferson
Award, the highest award made to any faculty member.

The university's eminence in nuclear physics was the major
factor in the institution's obtaining a $705,000 grant from the
National Science Foundation for the acquisition of a 6,000,000-volt
Van de Graaf nuclear accelerator and a new nuclear
physics laboratory. Part of the amount was to be matched by
university funds. The physics lab would house not only the
accelerator but a 75,000,000-volt synchroton given the university
by General Electric. With this up-to-date equipment the
university would have research facilities in nuclear structure
physics comparable to the best anywhere.

The Physics Department received a bequest of $360,000 in
1970 from William Jackson Humphreys, '89, and the fund was
used to support graduate fellowships. Humphreys had been
chief physicist of the U.S. Weather Bureau and professor of
meteorological physics at George Washington University.

For the overall development of science at the university the

National Science Foundation made a grant of $3,780,000 in
1965. This grant was one of six made to that number of institutions,
and was given to centers of learning that were deemed
to be on the brink of "recognized excellence in research and
education in the sciences." When a distinguished group of university
presidents and scientists made a two-day site visit in
order to determine whether the grant should be approved by
the National Science Foundation, a member of the visiting
team inquired as to whether all this emphasis on research and
graduate study would result in undergraduates being shortchanged
and instructed by none but junior members of the
faculty or teaching assistants. When it was pointed out that
two sections of first-year college physics were being shared
that year by Jesse Beams, a member of the National Academy
of Sciences, and John W. Mitchell, a Fellow of the Royal Society,
there were no more questions along that line.

Establishment in that year of the Center for Advanced
Studies, with Prof. W. Dexter Whitehead as director, was the
outgrowth of the foregoing recognition and the liberal grant
that accompanied it. Subsequent alumni contributions of
$3,500,000 for faculty made it possible to include the humanities
and social sciences in the center and to attract
distinguished scholars in those fields as well. The salary level
was comparable to that in the country's foremost institutions.
Whitehead was successful in obtaining nearly $2,000,000
more from the National Science Foundation in 1969.

And, thanks to another grant from the foundation, the university
acquired the only high-voltage electron microscope in
operation at any American university. Custom-built by the Radio
Corporation of America, the 500,000-volt microscope allowed
scientists to scrutinize minute defects in the crystalline
structure of alloys, the protein formations in human cells, and
viruses floating in space. It was operated in the School of Engineering
and Applied Science.

About thirty scientists, astronomers, and other specialists
were moved to Charlottesville in 1965 from the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) at Green Bank, W.Va.
They would make use of the astronomy apparatus and facilities
there, and those of the other sciences and disciplines at
the university. Most of the work of collecting data and studying
the universe through radio telescopes would continue at

83. Thomas H. Hunter, vice-president for medical affairs.

Green Bank, 115 miles west of Charlottesville. A $660,000
building was erected near the university on Mt. Jefferson, formerly
Observatory Mountain, for the use of NRAO staff
there. The university's Department of Astronomy was
undergoing an extraordinary degree of expansion under the
chairmanship of Laurence W. Fredrick. It had moved from
the basement of Cabell Hall to Gilmer Hall, part of the growing
science complex, and whereas at the former location it had
one faculty member and one graduate student, eleven more
faculty and staff were added by 1967, with twenty-six graduate
students and nine undergraduate astronomy majors. An important
part of this expansion was the new facility on Fan
Mountain, some nineteen miles south of Charlottesville. Its
thirty-two-inch reflector telescope, with sophisticated supplemental
equipment designed to study the spectra of stars,
added greatly to the department's potential. All this, combined
with the NRAO staff and facilities, constituted what was
said to be one of the largest groups of astronomers in the
world. A 40-inch astronometric telescope was soon added at
Fan Mountain, thanks to the National Science Foundation and
other agencies. The twenty-six-inch refractor telescope, given
to the university in the 1880s by Leander McCormick, was still
in use. With that relatively primitive instrument, the university
had collected 69,000 parallax plates, believed to be the world's
largest collection. They show where the stars were fifty years
ago and where they are now; stars do move, as viewed from
the earth, it was explained. Such information is important in
developing a system of space navigation.

Another significant gain for the university in the scientific
field occurred in 1962, when the navy's Project Squid was
transferred from Princeton University to Charlottesville. This
was the navy's major long-range research program in aircraft,
missile, and space propulsion.

By 1960 the School of Engineering was modifying its curricula
and research to include post-World War II changes in
science and mathematics. A new curriculum introduced engineering
sciences and increased time for the humanities and
social sciences, replacing the last vestiges of shop and field
training. A core of studies common to all engineering programs
was developed to include instruction in computer techniques.
The Division of English became the Division of Humanities,

charged with providing essential aspects of the
humanities in the curriculum by teaching and advising students
on elective choices in the arts and sciences.

The growth of research was closely related to the increasing
graduate enrollment. The research laboratories for the engineering
sciences actively sought and managed research support
from government and industry. In addition to programs
of study previously offered, new graduate curricula in materials
science and biomedical engineering were introduced.
These programs typified the increased attention to advanced
science and to expansion of engineering interests into new
areas of public concern.

Lawrence R. Quarles retired as dean in 1973. He had presided
over a period of growth in enrollment and a qualitative
change in program comparable to that under William M.
Thornton (1875-1925) and Walter S. Rodman (1933-40).

"Changes in the university's approach to engineering education
have reflected a profound national revolution," T. Graham
Hereford and O. Allan Gianniny, Jr., have written in
their Short History of Engineering and Applied Science at the University
of Virginia. "Stimulated by the need for modern analytic-science-based
technology developed in World War II, engineering
education was reoriented toward an analytic
methodology-based activity. The effect was to make engineering
education more like other scientific studies. . . . This revolution
was accomplished in the incredibly short time of a decade
or less in the nation, and it had been largely accomplished
at the University of Virginia in 1973 when [Dean] Quarles retired."

John E. Gibson was named dean and Commonwealth Prof.
of Electrical Engineering in 1973. He was a Yale Ph.D. in electrical
engineering and former dean at Oakland University,
Rochester, Mich. Dean Gibson's first year suggested new priorities
for the school, with strong efforts to integrate the knowledge
and skills of engineering with the concerns of public
policy and to admit a significant number of women and minorities.
The faculty numbered approximately 130 at that
time, the undergraduates 868 and the graduate students 316.

The Law School experienced significant changes and improvements
in the 1960s. F. D. G. Ribble reached the age of

retirement as dean in 1963 and was succeeded in that position
by Hardy C. Dillard. Ribble continued as James Madison Prof.
of Law and Dillard as James Monroe Prof. of Law. A direct
descendant of John Marshall, Ribble had served for twentyfour
years as head of the school, during which time it had
been strengthened in many ways. He was honored at an
alumni dinner as part of Law Day activities. Dillard, a member
of the faculty since 1927 and a retired colonel in the army
reserve, was experienced as a lawyer, consultant, administrator,
scholar, author, international lecturer, and teacher.

The Law School was collaborating with the Schools of Foreign
Affairs and Political Science in offering a new course in
"transnational law." Two world-famous authorities in the field
had been added to the university faculty—Percy E. Corbett,
who had held important posts at Princeton, Yale, and Oxford
and had been dean of the McGill University Law School, and
Quincy Wright, who was internationally known and had come
to Charlottesville from the University of Chicago. Teaching,
research, and publication were on the agenda of the course in
"transnational law." With the acquisition of two such scholars
as Wright and Corbett, the university was said to have "the
best international law team in the United States."

The Law School's programs in 1965 were expanded and invigorated
by gifts, bequests, and trusts totaling over two million
dollars, about 85 per cent of it from outside the state.
Included were a trust established by Lammot duPont Copeland
of Wilmington, Del.; bequests by Tazewell Taylor, Jr., of
Norfolk and Joseph M. Hartfield of New York; and grants
from the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation
of New York. The funds were used for financial assistance to
students and special programs for enrichment of the curriculum,
for research grants, and to augment some faculty salaries.

The degrees of Doctor of Juridical Science and Master of
Law being offered by the Law School were bringing students
from all over the globe. Eighteen legal scholars from the universities
of Cairo, Freiburg, Ghent, Cambridge, Sydney, and
Seoul, not to mention Harvard, Yale, and Northwestern, were
enrolled for the session of 1967-68. Most of them planned to
teach law or enter government service, and all were outstanding

in their fields. More and more applicants were seeking to
enter these courses each year.

Dillard retired from the deanship in 1968 after a productive
career in that post and continued to teach. In 1970 he was
named to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. No
other University of Virginia alumnus except John Bassett
Moore had ever been elevated to the World Court, as it was
commonly called. The Hardy Cross Dillard professorship of
law was established in Dillard's honor at the Law School.

His successor as dean was Monrad G. Paulsen, professor
and legal scholar at Columbia University Law School. Paulsen
was an internationally recognized authority on criminal law
and law as it relates to children. He had lectured throughout
this country and in Europe. His wife, Dr. Elsa Paulsen, joined
the medical faculty as associate professor of pediatrics. Daniel
J. Meador, dean of the University of Alabama Law School, succeeded
Dillard on the Virginia faculty. Chief Justice Roger J.
Traynor of the California Supreme Court retired from that
post to teach at the University of Virginia Law School for the
second semester of the 1970-71 session. Three years later the
school received a bequest of $2,000,000 from Roy C. Moyston,
'13, who had had a highly successful legal and business career
in Texas and Maryland.

President Shannon announced a reorganization of the Medical
School staff in 1964 in the interests of administrative efficiency.
Dean of Medicine Thomas H. Hunter was appointed
chancellor for medical affairs, and Dr. Kenneth R. Crispell was
named to succeed him as dean. John M. Stacey, director of the
University Hospital, was appointed director of the Medical
Center.

Grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National
Science Foundation totaling around three million dollars
were received in 1966. They were to extend over a period
of years and were designed to strengthen programs in the basic
medical sciences and aid in establishment of a general clinical
research unit. Three years later the U.S. Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare provided nearly two million
dollars more for improving selected clinical departments.
Then in 1970 the National Institutes of Health awarded the

school $2,700,000 to enable it to turn out more physicans.
This also made it possible for the university to provide broadened
educational experiences for medical students in a community
setting, define admission criteria for potential medical
students from lower socioeconomic groups, and emphasize
training in family medicine.

The entering class jumped from 82 to 96 in September of
that year, and the new federal grant would enable the school
to admit 114 to the first-year medical class in 1971 and 120 in
1972. All this would be made possible by completion of the
new $9,100,000 medical education building then under construction.

Community hospitals in Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Winchester
were to be used in a "second faculty" concept. Certain
members of the medical staffs of those hospitals were named
as full-time faculty of the university Medical School and would
engage in teaching duties there. Medical students at Charlottesville
were permitted to obtain part of their clinical training
in these community hospitals. As for the program in
family medicine referred to above, it was planned to increase
the faculty for the purpose, and approximately two hundred
families would be a part of the program.

Another innovation revolved about an eight-week summer
course involving up to thirty white and black applicants to the
Medical School who were disadvantaged but had promising
personal characteristics and were highly motivated. Drawn
mainly from colleges in Virginia and southern Appalachia,
these young men and women were given an opportunity to
demonstrate in the summer course, which was tuition free and
included a $400 living allowance, that they were Medical
School material.

Thirteen departments in the Medical Center were devoting
almost one-third of their floor space to research and treatment
in the fight on cancer. An interdisciplinary center for
the attack on this disease was contemplated, and the National
Cancer Institute made $150,000 available for planning. The
investigation was completed after eighteen months of study
on a nationwide basis, and a report was made. The new cancer
center would be molded around the Division of Cancer Studies,
under the direction of Dr. Robert M. McLeod.

84. Charlotte Kohler, editor of the
Virginia Quarterly Review,
1946-75.

Dr. Thomas H. Hunter, who had been appointed vice-president
for health sciences some years previously, retired from
administrative duties and Dean of Medicine Kenneth R. Crispell
was named to succeed him. The deanship was filled with
the appointment of Dr. William R. Drucker, chairman of the
Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto since
1966. An M.D. of Johns Hopkins and a Markle Scholar, Dr.
Drucker chose the University of Virginia over various other
institutions that were seeking his services.

A new medical curriculum introduced in the summer of
1973 made it possible to complete medical school in three
years instead of four. A group of twenty-five students entered
the school in July, with a view to pursuing the more intensified
schedule of work, which included eight-week summer sessions.

The Medical School was the recipient of a $4,000,000 bequest
from Mrs. Roy C. Moyston, whose husband had left
$2,000,000 to the Law School. The Medical School had as its
scholar in residence for 1973-74 Dr. Robert Q. Marston, former
director of the National Institutes of Health, a native Virginian
who would become president of the University of
Florida.

A controversial division of the Medical School was its wellendowed
Division of Parapsychology within the Department
of Psychiatry, with Dr. Ian Stevenson as chairman. With him
in the division in 1974 were Professors J. Gaither Pratt and
Rex G. Stanford. Such phenomena as reincarnation, extrasensory
perception, and psychokinesis were studied. Some in responsible
positions in the university were by no means convinced
of the value of these inquiries. The division was set up
under a bequest of $1,000,000 from Chester F. Carlson, with
the specific proviso that the money was to be used for the work
of Dr. Stevenson in parapsychology. After much discussion
and debate, the Board of Visitors decided to accept the funds.
The division gave no courses and was concerned solely with
research. Dr. Stevenson traveled to various areas of the world
collecting data on reincarnation and has written a number of
books on the subject. Pratt was on the research staff of the
parapsychology laboratory at Duke University before coming
to Charlottesville. Stevenson, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry

in the Medical School, held one of only four endowed chairs
in parapsychology in the world.

Zula Mae Baber, later Mrs. Raymond C. Bice, succeeded
Dean Margaret G. Tyson as acting dean of nursing following
Tyson's nine years of exceptional service. Dean Bice also made
a notable record, and following her death a memorial lectureship
was established in her honor. She was succeeded by Dean
Rose Marie Chioni, under whom the School of Nursing was
further upgraded. The three-year diploma program was
phased out in 1968, and in 1972 the master's degree was offered
in pediatric and psychiatric nursing. McLeod Hall and
Fenwick Auditorium were opened in the latter year, and a new
student housing facility went into operation soon thereafter
on Brandon Avenue. The nursing program now covered four
years plus a summer semester and included two years of liberal
arts. Regular hospital bedside duties were eliminated, but
clinical training included bedside care. The school conducted
courses in several Virginia cities. Undergraduate enrollment
in 1974 was in excess of four hundred.

Frank A. Geldard was appointed dean of the Graduate School
in 1960, succeeding Lewis M. Hammond, who resigned and
went on a two-year leave to serve as educational attaché in
Bonn, West Germany. He had served as dean for a decade.
Geldard, head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's advisory
committee on defense psychology, had just presided at
Paris over NATO's first defense psychology symposium. Geldard
had been chairman of the university's Department of
Psychology since 1946 and a member of the faculty since
1928. He was for three years chairman of the National Research
Council's committee on military psychology and was
the author of books and numerous scientific papers in the
field. He resigned in 1962 as Graduate School dean to join the
faculty of Princeton University and was succeeded by Frank L.
Hereford, Jr. During Hereford's four years in office the number
of graduate degrees expanded in both quantity and
quality. When he was named provost, Edward Younger was
appointed to the deanship.

Younger had been chairman of the History Department for
the preceding four years. That department had expanded

greatly under his chairmanship, with the number of faculty
and graduate students increasing markedly. His most valuable
service was his direction of scores of Ph.D. dissertations in the
field of Virginia history since 1865. As a result, he was said to
have "done more than any living man to increase our knowledge
of the history of Virginia since the Civil War." Between
1949 and 1974 Edward Younger personally directed fifty-six
Ph.D. dissertations, more than any member of the university
faculty had ever done, and the great majority dealt with the
state's postbellum period, concerning which there had been a
great dearth of information. He was the author of John A. Kasson:
Diplomacy and Politics from Lincoln to McKinley, which won
the university's Phi Beta Kappa Prize, and the editor of Inside
the Confederate Government: The Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean,
which was a Civil War Book Club selection. In 1974 Younger
was elected an honorary member of the Virginia Historical
Society and appointed Alumni Professor of History.

Dexter Whitehead, who succeeded Younger as graduate
dean, reported in 1970 that the Graduate School was continuing
to produce more and more degree recipients and that
quality continued to mount. He stated that registration in the
Graduate School had nearly tripled in the decade 1960-70
(1,212 as compared with 426), with a corresponding jump in
the number of degrees granted. As director since 1965 of the
highly successful Center for Advanced Studies, Whitehead
had been a key factor in bringing to the university a large
number of eminent scholars for teaching, study, and research.

Leading institutions from coast to coast were losing some of
their most distinguished faculty members to the University of
Virginia. For example, Prof. Norman A. Graebner of the University
of Illinois was induced to come to Virginia as the first
professor in the humanities brought in by the Center for Advanced
Studies. Nationally known as a "superstar" who
packed 500 students into his Illinois classroom to hear his lectures
on American history or American diplomacy, Graebner
was greatly admired by faculty and students alike. The students
demonstrated when they found he was leaving for Virginia,
and university administrators at Urbana were indignant
that one of their most brilliant lecturers and seminar conductors
had been lured away. Similar concern was expressed by
students and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania when

Henry J. Abraham left for the University of Virginia, to occupy
an endowed chair as professor of government and foreign
affairs. A refugee from Nazi Germany, Henry Abraham
was decorated in World War II for his service in General Eisenhower's
headquarters military intelligence unit. He joined
the University of Pennsylvania faculty after the war and made
a great reputation as a scholar and lecturer. In his final year
there he was chairman of the faculty Senate. Various other
high-ranking teachers were attracted to Charlottesville by the
excellent salaries and topflight library and laboratory facilities
and the beautiful grounds. More than fifty faculty and visiting
professors were brought to the university during the first decade
of this program, greatly enhancing the quality of instruction
and of life.

Similarly, an endowed chair in architecture brings to the
School of Architecture each year a world-famous architect,
who, as Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of Architecture,
is given a medal and a $5,000 prize. Funds for the above
accolades for the noted recipient are provided by the foundation,
which also underwrites ten annual scholarships at
$1,000 each for graduate students in the school. And there is
a "spirit of camaraderie" among the students of architecture.
Prof. Frederick D. Nichols has said that this spirit is such that
"it is difficult to get them to take electives in the College or to
attend lectures around the Grounds."

The Department of Art in the College of Arts and Sciences
acquired the services of internationally famous Prof. Frederick
Hartt, chairman of the Art Department at the University
of Pennsylvania, who left that institution to become chairman
of the department at Virginia, succeeding Charles Smith, who
had retired. Regarded as one of the world's foremost art historians,
Hartt had been sent by the U.S. Government to Florence,
Italy, following the devastating floods there in the
middle sixties, to assess the damage and organize assistance.
He has been decorated twice by the Italian government.

The School of Education raised its entrance requirements
in 1962-63 to require that every entrant complete at least two
years of acceptable college work, or the equivalent, with fiftyfour
hours of course work. This was to include a minimum of
twelve semester hours in the humanities, the social sciences,
and the natural sciences, with three hours in health and physical

education. However, except for the twelve-year period between
the sessions of 1950-51 and 1962-63, students had always
been required to complete two years in the College in
order to enter the School of Education.

The school was strengthened in 1965 when Prof. Francis G.
Lankford, Jr., returned to the faculty as head of the Office of
Institutional Analysis, after ten years as president of Longwood
College. Commonwealth Prof. of Education and the author
of textbooks in mathematics, Lankford also had served
in 1962-63 as educational adviser to the Ford Foundation in
Pakistan. He retired in 1972. Another admired member of
the staff was Prof. William H. Seawell, chairman of the Department
of Administration and supervisor of the School of
Education.

Frederick E. Cyphert of the Ohio State faculty was named
to the deanship in 1968 as successor to Dean Cherry and remained
in the position until 1974. Cyphert resigned in that
year to return to Ohio State, and Richard M. Brandt, who had
served as a department chairman in the school, was appointed
to succeed him. During Dean Cyphert's six years the faculty
doubled to about one hundred members, and the dean was
successful in obtaining significant grants. The Evaluation Research
Center and Child Development Center were established,
and Malcolm Provus and Donald Medley, said to be
among the nation's top two or three scholars in evaluation and
research, were added to the staff. The School of Education
moved in 1973 into its modern new building, Ruffner Hall, on
Emmet Street, planning for which had been under way for a
dozen years. The faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences
voted in 1970 to give no further degree credit in the College
for physical education courses in the School of Education. A
Department of Physical Education, separate from the College
but under its dean, was established, and the course carried
credit toward a degree.

Bruce W. Nelson, a University of Illinois Ph.D., came to
Charlottesville in 1973 from the University of South Carolina
as dean of the School of Continuing Education and assistant
provost for continuing education. He succeeded André C. de
Porry, who retired the previous year.

The Institute of Government got a new director in 1973
when Weldon Cooper retired from that position, and Clifton

85. The heifer that was mysteriously transported to the Rotunda roof in May 1965 and died after being
brought down.

McCleskey of the University of Texas faculty succeeded him.
Cooper, who continued to teach, was elected to the newly established
Robert K. Gooch professorship. Praise came to him
from many directions for his service with the institute and the
News Letter, and he received a special citation from Gov. Linwood
Holton. In the same year the institute was the recipient
of a scholarship and a fellowship. Morton L. Wallerstein, '11,
and Mrs. Wallerstein established the scholarship. Wallerstein
had served as executive secretary of the Virginia Municipal
League from 1921 to 1941 and had helped to found the institute.
The Board of Visitors established a graduate fellowship
in the name of Harold I. Baumes, who succeeded Morton
Wallerstein with the Municipal League and who had just retired.

Special study centers for Latin-America and South Asia
were established in 1965 and 1969, respectively. The former
was one of only five undergraduate "language and area centers
for Latin America" in this country. It was supported by
funds granted under the National Defense Education Act,
and students could obtain a B.A. degree with a major in LatinAmerican
studies. Participating students would take courses
in Spanish, Spanish-American literature, and Portuguese,
with related courses in economics, geography, government,
foreign affairs, history, sociology, and anthropology. Charles
E. Reid, associate professor of Spanish, was chairman of the
committee in charge of the program. The South Asian studies
center was under the direction of John T. Roberts, assistant
professor of Hindi and Sanskrit, and it would coordinate
courses bearing on the area in the fields of government, foreign
affairs, sociology, anthropology, history, general linguistics,
religious studies, education, economics, and architecture.
Degrees would not be granted by the center but by the various
departments cooperating with it. An interdepartmental major
in South Asian studies was available to undergraduates. The
center planned to sponsor lectures and other cultural events.

In that era of nonconformity on college campuses the university's
Student Council initiated a survey in 1967 of student attitudes
toward the curriculum and the faculty. Five evaluation
forms were sent to each undergraduate in the College of Arts
and Sciences, with questions as to the courses and the professors

and incisive queries as to the latter's performance. T. Jackson
Lears, Jere R. Abrams, Stuart Pape and Ken Barry were
supervising editors for the survey, and among their conclusions
were the following: "Our investigation . . . uncovered a
malaise which requires much more than cursory attention.
There is evidence here to justify a radically new approach to
the university's function as an institution, and more specifically
to the undergraduate program." They called for "a more
dynamic institution than now exists."

Adoption of a new curriculum for the College, pursuant to
a careful study by a seventeen-member committee of deans,
professors, and students, appointed in 1968, was a notable
event. It would seem to have been an at least partial response
to student criticism. Prof. Lewis M. Hammond was chairman
of the committee. The new program of study replaced the
long-established curriculum that "was set up after Noah
landed," as Dean Cauthen expressed it. Much greater flexibility
in the choice of courses by undergraduates was a salient
feature, as was abandonment, at the discretion of the professor,
of the rigid "no cuts" rule and of a comprehensive examination
on the eve of graduation, if deemed desirable by the
instructor. The plan with respect to class cuts replaced one
adopted when enrollment was far smaller, and keeping track
of wayward youths was consequently far easier. There had
been almost endless grousing by students over the strict monitoring
of class attendance. As for "comprehensives," it was
pointed out that they had been held almost simultaneously
with final examinations, and that many of the questions were
identical.

Dean Cauthen noted that the students were now better prepared
and more mature than formerly, and he felt that they
had earned the greater flexibility offered by the new curriculum.
In addition, he said: "The faculty provided all sorts of
other opportunities for independent work, for work in seminars,
possibilities for going into new and different majors, taking
courses on pass/fail options, and expanding the number
of courses that can be taken outside the College. Our students
are ready for this kind of program. . . . This new curriculum
has been the most far-reaching academic change and the most
obvious example of our deepening commitment to the main
tradition of this university. And it seems to be working out

well." The committee on the curriculum recommended abandonment
of degree credit for Reserve Officers' Training
Corps courses offered by the army, navy, and air force at the
university. This was a period when the ROTC and all military
training were unpopular because of the Vietnam War, and
there were demonstrations against the ROTC in various parts
of the country. The committee's recommendation as to degree
credits was followed for a brief period, but a few months later
it was reversed by the Arts and Sciences faculty. One factor
could have been that the students voted 4,141 to 2,985 in favor
of giving credit for the courses. About 780 were enrolled.
Another factor was the virtual certainty that the naval ROTC
would leave the university if credits were denied, and the
probability or possibility that the army and air force would do
likewise.

There was acute intellectual ferment on the campuses of
America in the late sixties and early seventies, and a questioning
of ideas and attitudes previously regarded as immutable.
Evidences of this were soon seen at the University of Virginia.
An early sign was the organization in the spring of 1968 of the
University Forum, under the leadership of Peter Schenkkan,
an able student, later a Rhodes Scholar. "Some university-connected
gripe on your mind?" Schenkkan asked in a letter to
the student newspaper. "Causes, coeducation, counseling, culture?
. . . Would you like to tell somebody besides your roommate
about it?" The forum, with both faculty and students
involved, would give the two groups a chance to know each
other and work together for common objectives. The Cavalier
Daily pronounced it "by far the most promising and encouraging
venture we have seen undertaken here in some time."
The forum was organized in May at a meeting in Maury Hall.
By the following fall an Experimental University had been set
up as part of a nationwide movement to supplement or replace
existing degree programs. The prevailing curriculum
offered "no challenge" and there was no motivation to do
more than learn by rote, said the dissenting students at the
university. They wanted, among other things, an opportunity
for "give and take" with the professors. Leading figures in the
administration were sympathetic and several faculty members
agreed to conduct seminars. Elimination of "unsatisfactory"
courses and substitution of others was an objective of the participating

86. Kenneth R. Crispell, vice-president for health sciences,
1971-.

students. Proposed subjects for courses included
"civil disobedience," "the generation gap," "Vietnam," "development
of pop music," "educational TV," and "history of the
mass media." It was proposed to "supplement, not supplant,"
the existing educational system, and it was hoped that credit
would be given for the projected courses. Dean of Student
Affairs D. Alan Williams was quoted as expressing "direct sympathy"
with the concept but as warning that too much
shouldn't be expected from it and that no "politically-oriented
group" should be allowed to get control. About four hundred
students registered for the thirty-one courses—considered an
excellent beginning. By the second semester the emphasis had
been changed, and sample courses were "foreign policy and
morality," "bartending," "McLuhan and the media," and "introduction
to general witching" (for women only). In the Experimental
University, it was explained, there are no "teachers,"
"leaders," or "students"—only "participants." By the
second semester of the session, 1969-70, the curriculum and
method of operation had undergone further changes. It
should be noted, however, that the Experimental University
was purely informal, that it was set up by students and a few
faculty members, and that it enjoyed no sanction or approval
by the faculty, administration, or Board of Visitors. During
the session of 1972-73 the program was in full swing, and
over four hundred students were still registered. The experimental
institution had "switched from academics to a more
diverse curriculum," with such courses as "men's liberation,"
"balloon-making," "bee-keeping," "harmonica," "massage," "auto
mechanics," "bridge," and "photography." Group leaders offered
their services without charge, and the one-dollar registration
fee was devoted largely to publishing the catalogue
and providing class facilities.

First-year men were by no means immune from the currents
sweeping over the campuses of the country, and twentysix
liberal arts seminars were offered at the session of
1969-70. Most of the seminars had more applicants than
could be accommodated, with over four hundred registrants
by early September. The seminars were held in the afternoons
or evenings, with no extra compensation going to the professors
in charge. Associate Dean of the College Marcus Mallett
was director of the program, and degree credit was offered to

those making satisfactory grades. By far the most popular
seminars dealt with the following: "races, ghettos, and revolutions,"
"radicalism in politics," "the study of the future processes
of social, economic, and political change," "the nature
and meaning of revolution," "psychiatry, morality, and the
law," "law and civil disobedience," "nonsense: its meaning and
effect," and "sports: their role in the culture of man." A glaring
light on the social and political climate of the era is shed
by the eager interest of college freshmen in such subjects as
these.

On a more conventional level the School of Continuing
Education was offering adults throughout the commonwealth
opportunities to continue their schooling in a great variety of
fields. More than fifteen hundred graduate and undergraduate
classes were available in 120 localities. Both credit and noncredit
courses were available on the undergraduate level in
liberal arts, commerce, engineering, technology, and education,
and on the graduate level in engineering and education.
Classes were held mostly at night. In addition, the school
sponsored conferences, institutes, and short courses at the
university for business and professional groups and also made
available audiovisual services, including films and tapes, for
use by discussion groups. Furthermore, the school helped to
develop courses for the new FBI Academy at Quantico. In
doing so the university cooperated in creating a national program
of higher education for law-enforcement personnel
throughout the United States. Some two thousand state, city,
and county officials experienced in the criminal justice system
were selected to attend the academy annually, taking courses
in the behavioral sciences, law, management, communication,
and forensic science. The academy opened in 1972. André C.
de Porry had become dean of the university's School of General
Studies in 1968, succeeding James W. Cole, Jr., who relinguished
the post after serving for a decade, in order to return
to full-time teaching. De Porry edited the book For the Commonwealth:
Extension and Continuing Education by the University
of Virginia, 1912-1973.

Soviet Russia's pioneer sputnik caused the universities of
America to place so much emphasis on scientific advancement
that other disciplines were having difficulty obtaining sufficient
funds. It was gratifying, therefore, that $1,000,000 was

given to the University of Virginia in 1969 to finance up to a
dozen professorships in the fine arts and the humanities. The
donor was the William R. Kenan, Jr., Charitable Trust. Kenan,
a North Carolina native, began his career as a schoolteacher
in Radford, Va., and then became one of the nation's most
prominent industrialists and a great benefactor of the University
of North Carolina. Income from his gift to the University
of Virginia was matched by the state's Eminent Scholars Fund.

Additional emphasis was placed on the humanities at the
Old Dominion Humanities Institute for Teachers, held at the
university for four weeks each summer from 1966 through
1971. H. I. Willett and Lucien D. Adams, city school superintendents
in Richmond, were successive chairmen of the Advisory
Board. A carefully selected group of about sixty high and
preparatory school teachers from all parts of the state attended
these institutes, at which prominent university faculty
members lectured. Professors Joseph L. Vaughan, T. Graham
Hereford, and O. Allan Gianniny, Jr., were leaders in organizing
and operating the institute, which was pronounced a notable
success by many teachers who attended. Unfortunately,
the program had to be terminated after the 1971 session for
lack of funds.

Thirty-nine university professors received grants in 1968,
totaling about $65,000, for study in the humanities and the
social sciences during the summer, both in the United States
and abroad. This represented a substantial increase over the
amount available the preceding year and evidenced the growing
emphasis on these disciplines.

A Federal Executive Institute for high-level government executives
was formally opened in 1968 at the former Thomas
Jefferson Inn, which, with its eight surrounding acres, had
been leased for the purpose. Important officials in the federal
establishment and other specialists were to lecture, along with
university professors, during the series of eight-week courses,
with a maximum of sixty persons enrolled for each.

A center for training historical and literary editors was established
the following year, with George H. Reese, former
assistant director of research at Colonial Williamsburg, in
charge. Instruction for graduate students in English and history
would be emphasized, and opportunities given for postdoctoral
training and practical laboratory work in documentary

editing. Reese, who held three degrees from the university,
was appointed professor of humanistic sources and associate
editor of The Papers of George Washington, to be published by
the newly established University Press of Virginia. After
World War II Reese spent six years in the foreign service. He
subsequently headed the publications division of the Virginia
State Library and was agent for the Virginia Committee on
Colonial Records. In the latter capacity he spent eight years in
England and France finding, abstracting, and filming millions
of manuscripts relating to colonial Virginia.

Professorships in the Department of Economics and the
School of Commerce were established about 1970 by groups
interested in honoring persons eminent in the political and
business worlds. The Virginia Bankers Association raised half
of a $250,000 fund, with the other half contributed by bankers
throughout the United States, for professorships in the
Department of Economics in honor of U.S. Senators Carter
Glass and A. Willis Robertson of Virginia. The first incumbent
of the Robertson chair was Herbert Stein, former chairman of
President Nixon's Council of Economic Advisers. Stein stated
shortly before his appointment that Milton Friedman and the
University of Chicago's conservative school of economics had
been influential in shaping the courses in economics at Virginia
and other institutions. Stein was a graduate of Chicago.

Some $2,500,000 was given to the university by Burkett
Miller, a law school graduate, for the establishment of a conservative
center for the study of public affairs, especially the
presidency, with an equal amount to be bequeathed after his
death. Miller took several years to decide whether to make the
gift, since he feared that the center would fall into the hands
of the radicals who were so active in the late sixties and early
seventies. Finally he became convinced that the university
could be trusted in the matter, and half of the money was
made available. Plans were got under way in 1974 for the establishment
of the White Burkett Miller Center of Public Affairs
the following year. Prof. Frederick E. Nolting, Jr., was
selected to be the center's first director.

Slightly over 62 percent of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
were tenured during the session of 1973-74—that is, they
were assured of their positions until the age of retirement unless
they engaged in some extremely serious misbehavior. The

remaining 38 percent had three-year appointments which
they were allowed to renew for another three years, after
which a decision would be made by the administration as to
whether they would be accorded permanent tenure. The faculty
voted by a large majority to extend this six-year period by
one year, if the candidate, the department chairman, and the
dean of the faculty so desired. The question was raised
whether it was wise to have as much as 62 percent of the faculty
tenured. Some expressed the view that 50 to 60 percent
was a more desirable figure.

The university's facilities were being used during the summer
months by business, professional, educational, and governmental
groups. Taking one such summer at random, we
find the Graduate School of Business Administration holding
a six-week management course with forty registrants from
many states and the following groups meeting for from one
to three days: national convention of Sigma Phi fraternity,
School of Consumer Banking, Virginia Bankers' School,
Nursing Home Institute, Realtors' Institute, Virginia Association
of Insurance Agents, Steelworkers' Labor Institute, Virginia
Credit Management Institute, Local Government Officials
Conference, Virginia Association of Assessing Officers,
Class Room Teachers' Conference, State School Superintendents'
Conference, and Virginia Press Association News Seminars.

Prof. Robert K. Gooch relinquished the post of grand marshal
of all academic functions in 1964 upon his retirement from
active teaching. He had served for thirty-two years, having
succeeded Armistead M. Dobie when Dobie was appointed
dean of the Law School. Dobie had been grand marshal since
"sometime after 1907." Dean B. F. D. Runk succeeded Gooch
as marshal. Both men carried a handsome silver mace at the
head of academic processions; the mace was presented to the
university in 1961 by the Seven Society. It was made by Patek
Philippe of Geneva, Switzerland, and bears a number of engraved
university scenes and emblems. The university seal,
pictures of the Rotunda, the serpentine walls, a colonnaded
walkway on the Lawn, and the statues of Thomas Jefferson
and James McConnell all appear on the artistically designed
symbol of authority.

87. William L. Duren, Jr., dean of the College, 1955-62, and
University Professor of Mathematics.

A number of significant administrative changes occurred in
the 1960s. Robert J. Harris, chairman of the Vanderbilt University
Department of Political Science, came to the university
in 1963 as dean of the faculty of arts and sciences. A Princeton
Ph.D., author of books in the governmental field, and former
president of the Southern Political Science Association and
editor of the Journal of Politics, he served as dean at Virginia
for five years and then occupied the James Hart professorship
of government. Upon his retirement as dean, he was succeeded
by Prof. Fredson T. Bowers, who served for one year.
Then David A. Shannon, chairman of the Rutgers University
History Department, a lecturer in both Europe and the Orient,
author of numerous historical works, and a University of
Wisconsin Ph.D., succeeded to the position. Shannon occupied
the deanship for two years and then was named vicepresident
and provost. Ernest H. Ern, assistant dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences, was appointed dean of admissions
in 1967, succeeding Marvin B. Perry, Jr., who left the
university. A Ph.D. in geology from Lehigh University, Ern
received two National Science Foundation grants in the preceding
four years. D. Alan Williams, assistant provost since
1966, was named dean of student affairs two years later.
B. F. D. Runk had resigned as dean of the university, and that
office was discontinued. He remained as Samuel Miller Professor
of Experimental Agriculture and Forestry. A Ph.D. of
Northwestern University and professor of history, Williams
would be responsible for student government and discipline,
dormitory and student counseling, student health, and placement
of financial aid. He also had supervision over foreign
students, intramural athletics, and the University Union. The
transition from Runk to Williams took place as turmoil in this
and other student bodies throughout the nation was mounting
steadily. The Cavalier Daily commented that "as chief disciplinarian
and chief administration official in charge of student
affairs" Dean Runk "has fulfilled his duties in these areas
strictly but fairly. . . . His contributions to the university . . .
are invaluable." Raymond C. Bice was named assistant to
President Shannon and secretary to the board of Visitors. In
the latter capacity he succeeded Weldon Cooper, who remained
as head of the Institute of Government. William A.
Hobbs, '34, resigned from the Board of Visitors to fill a new

position as head of the Department of Development and Public
Affairs. He had been president of the M. A. Hanna Co. of
Cleveland, Ohio, and senior vice-president of Clark, Dodge
and Co., a New York investment banking firm. He would assist
the university comptroller in assessing the institution's financial
requirements.

A significant restructuring of administrative positions took
place in 1970 when five vice-presidents were appointed by
President Shannon. It was the first time that the university
had had any vice-presidents. Four of the appointees were already
there, and a fifth was brought in. The president explained
that the basic functions of his principal deputies
would continue, but as vice-presidents they would have "primary
administrative responsibility and authority over the major
divisions . . . that they administer." The five were: Provost
Frank L. Hereford, Jr., appointed vice-president and provost;
Comptroller Vincent Shea, vice-president for business and finance;
Chancellor for Medical Affairs Thomas H. Hunter,
vice-president for medical affairs; Dean of Student Affairs D.
Alan Williams, vice-president for student affairs; and Edwin
M. Crawford, who was serving as director of the Office of Institutional
Research for the National Association of State Universities
and Land Grant Colleges, vice-president for public
affairs. William A. Hobbs, director of development and public
affairs, had resigned several months before to accept the
presidency of an investment firm. Crawford would be responsible
for university-wide development, including all fund raising,
and relations with local, state, and federal governments
and alumni organizations.

The following year Dr. Kenneth R. Crispell, dean of the
School of Medicine for the preceding six years, was named
vice-president for health sciences, succeeding Dr. Thomas H.
Hunter, who was returning to full-time teaching and research.
As dean, Dr. Crispell had led the drive for increased production
of health care personnel at the university, including a substantially
larger enrollment in the Medical School. He was
largely instrumental in securing the funding for the $9,100,000
medical education building, which would make possible
still higher enrollment.

Frank L. Hereford, Jr., resigned as vice-president and provost
in 1971 to go back to teaching and research, and Dean

David Shannon was named to succeed him. Shannon also was
made chairman of the Committee on the Future of the University,
a post held by Hereford.

Robert T. Canevari, '64, assistant dean of students, was chosen
dean, succeeding D. Alan Williams. Richard L. Godine,
'53, a Charlottesville business executive, was appointed director
of university development by Vice-President Crawford.
Godine died about a year later, and Ward Sims, a '65 law
graduate, was named to succeed him.

In the same year Robert D. Cross, until recently president
of Swarthmore College, who also had been president of
Hunter College and history chairman at Columbia, came to
the university as dean of the faculty of arts and sciences. He
succeeded W. Dexter Whitehead, who relinquished the post
but continued as graduate dean. Cross would be chief adviser
to the vice-president and provost on courses of study in
graduate and undergraduate arts and sciences. He was typical
of distinguished academicians who were being brought to the
university during these years.

The first appointment of a student to the Board of Visitors
occurred in 1970, when twenty-five-year-old J. Harvie Wilkinson
III, an honor graduate of Yale and member of the second-year
law class at Virginia, was named to the board by Gov.
Linwood Holton. Wilkinson had written a widely praised book
on U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd and his political organization and
would soon join the law faculty, where he would be recognized
as one of its ablest young members. His father, J. Harvie Wilkinson,
Jr., retired from the board to make way for him.

Dean of Admissions Ernest H. Ern was appointed vicepresident
for student affairs in 1973, succeeding D. Alan Williams,
who relinquished the position to return to teaching. Ern
was to retain supervision over admissions, under a shift of authority,
with direct control as dean vested in George B. Matthews,
who had been serving as assistant dean of the School of
Engineering and Applied Science. Matthews, a Princeton
Ph.D., joined the faculty in 1960.

Edwin E. Floyd, former head of the Department of Mathematics,
was appointed dean of the faculty of arts and sciences
in 1974, succeeding Robert D. Cross, who resigned to return
to the classroom. Dean Floyd had been a member of the faculty
since 1949, and his work as a mathematician had been

praised in the highest terms. Students protested that they had
not been sufficiently consulted in connection with his selection
as dean. Their opinions had been sought concerning several
previous appointments, and they seemed to think that no one
should be named to the administrative staff without prior ascertainment
of their views.

William Faulkner, whose appointment as writer in residence
during the fifties was mentioned in the previous chapter, continued
as lecturer and consultant at the university until his
death at Oxford, Miss., in 1962. The Nobel Prize winner, who
divided his time between Charlottesville and Oxford, gave
prestige to the institution's expanding sources and studies in
American literature. Faulkner's observations on "Virginia
snobs" caused something of a sensation. He liked the state, he
said, "because Virginians are all snobs, and I like snobs. A
snob has to spend so much time being a snob that he has little
left to meddle with you, and it's very pleasant here."

There were mixed reports on Faulkner's performance as
lecturer and consultant. Corks and Curls said after his death
that he "gave freely of his greatness to this university which
had so special a place in his affections." It went on to declare
that he "met dozens of classes and other university and town
groups, reading from his works and answering all manner of
questions . . . held conferences with students and participated
in the life of the university from classroom to athletic field."
But an unnamed professor was quoted as saying: "A few times
a year he meets with students reading his work, but often
sheds little light on it. When asked about the meaning of some
deeply significant passage, he is likely to say, `Oh, it's just an
old Mississippi folk tale, livened up by imagination,' or `I was
just trying to say something about the human condition.' Legend
has it that when a puzzled student told him he had read
`Absalom, Absalom!' three times and still didn't understand it,
Faulkner told him, `Read it a fourth time.' " Faulkner left his
manuscripts, books, and other materials to Alderman Library—described
by President Shannon as "the most extensive
[collection] in existence on the work of a single author."

Other writers in residence during the sixties and early seventies
included Stephen Spender, English poet and critic;
Richard Murphy, young Irish poet; John Dos Passos, novelist

and historian, who left numerous manuscripts to the library,
greatly supplemented after his death by Mrs. Dos Passos, to
constitute one of the most complete collections anywhere for
a single writer; Shelby Foote, American Civil War historian;
and George Garrett, American novelist.

Former Ambassador Charles F. Baldwin became the university's
first diplomat in residence in 1965. He had served as U.S.
ambassador to Malaysia and in other diplomatic posts in many
areas of the world. Baldwin did not teach a specific course but
lectured in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government
and Foreign Affairs. The idea was to "expose the students to
his practical experience." An eminent scholar in residence was
Sir Robert Menzies, former prime minister of Australia, who
spent four months at the university in 1966-67, lecturing in
the Law School and the Woodrow Wilson Department. His wit
was widely commented upon, and he and his charming wife,
Dame Pattie, were extremely popular. Sir Robert was succeeded
as scholar in residence by Sir John Wheeler-Bennett,
the internationally known British historian to whom reference
was made in chapter 3. He had lectured at the university periodically
since the late thirties. Another distinguished visiting
scholar was Lewis Mumford, historian and educator, who was
on the Grounds in 1972 as Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation
medalist and Foundation Professor of Architecture.
He conducted a seminar in the School of Architecture on
"The City in History." Pedro Beltran, former Peruvian prime
minister, came for a few months as scholar in residence and
lectured in the Graduate School of Business Administration.
Beltran was publisher of Peru's largest newspaper as well as
former ambassador to the United States.

The remarkable progress made by the university in its "pursuit
of excellence," to employ one of Edgar Shannon's favorite
phrases, is graphically illustrated in the number of the institution's
endowed chairs. As already noted, establishment of
the Center for Advanced Studies and the state's Eminent
Scholars Fund had made possible the bringing to Charlottesville
of prominent scholars from some of the nation's most
prestigious universities to occupy these chairs. By 1974 the
number of chairs was in excess of one hundred.

88. Edward R. (Butch) Slaughter, coach in several varsity sports
and director of intramural athletics, 1957-73.

The degree to which excellence had been achieved also was
evidenced in the number of important awards and other accolades
won by faculty members during these years.

The highest award of the American Institute of Electrical
Engineers was conferred on Engineering Dean Lawrence R.
Quarles. He was made a fellow of the institute for his "contributions
to engineering education and nuclear engineering."

Prof. Quincy Wright was chosen in 1961 by the American
Council of Learned Societies as one of ten professors in this
country to receive prizes of $10,000 for distinguished accomplishment
in humanistic scholarship. He had been president
of the American Association of University Professors, the International
Political Science Association, and the American
Political Science Association, was the author of important
books, and had lectured in many parts of the world.

Various honors came to Dr. William H. Muller, Jr., chairman
of the Department of Surgery. He was elected president of the
Society of University Surgeons and later was chosen president,
in the same year, of both the American Surgical Association
and the Southern Surgical Association. Dr. Muller was named
by Duke University as one of the five most distinguished medical
graduates in the institution's history.

Prof. Joseph L. Vaughan, teacher of English in the School
of Engineering and Applied Science, was one of only three
active professors in the university for whom an endowed chair
was established. He also was given the Alumni Association's
Distinguished Professor Award in 1971. "It is common knowledge
in the Colonnade Club, Alumni Hall, and around the
Grounds that Joe Vaughan is one of the all-time great teachers,"
said an article in the Alumni News. "Somehow he has managed
to convince some very hard-boiled students of science
and business that there are horizons worth noticing beyond
their slide-rules and statistics." Among Professor Vaughan's
recreational diversions are painting and playing the violin.

The sixth annual Distinguished Service Award of the
Mathematical Association of America went to Prof. William L.
Duren, Jr., a former president of the association. He had been
a delegate to various international gatherings and was the recipient
of other honors, including appointment as University
Professor in 1963-64. In that capacity he was considered a

member of the faculty as a whole, and not attached to any
single school or department.

Thomas P. Abernethy, Alumni Professor of History emeritus,
was given the Award of Merit of the American Association
of State and Local History for "writing state history with insight
and distinction, furnishing a model for scholarly writing
of localized history." Four of Abernethey's books were in the
permanent library at the White House.

Frank S. Kaulback, Jr., dean of the McIntire School of Commerce,
was chosen president of the 12,000-member American
Accounting Association. He was also a member of the executive
committee of the American Association of Collegiate
Schools of Business, and for a number of years was a consultant
to the comptroller general of the United States.

Prof. Jesse W. Beams added to the many honors that he had
received previously when he was awarded the National Science
Medal in 1968 for his contributions to the technology of
the ultracentrifuge—one of twelve men who received this
medal from the president of the United States. Five years later
he was accorded a citation by the Atomic Energy Commission
for his contributions to the nuclear energy program.

The Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the German
Federal Republic was conferred on Prof. Oron J. Hale in
1969 for his service as deputy commissioner and commissioner
for Bavaria more than a decade and a half before. Hale
was a former chairman of the university's History Department
and director of the Institute of Public Affairs. His Germany and
the Diplomatic Revolution won the George Louis Beers Prize of
the American Historical Association. Professor Hale received
the Thomas Jefferson Award at Founder's Day in 1969. He
retired in 1972.

Two members of the university faculty were named to high
positions by President Nixon. Prof. Edwin S. Cohen, '36, professor
of law since 1963, was appointed assistant secretary of
the treasury for tax affairs. A nationally known tax lawyer who
had practiced in New York City before joining the faculty, he
was a member of Nixon's task force for tax reform during the
1968 presidential campaign. Prof. G. Warren Nutter, chairman
of the Department of Economics and director of the
Thomas Jefferson Center for Studies in Political Economy, was

appointed assistant secretary of defense to represent the Department
of Defense on the National Security Council. Nutter
was considered an authority on the Soviet economy. In 1973
he was appointed an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute for Public Policy Research.

Two university faculty members were awarded the golden
Grand Prix by France's minister of Housing and Equipment
at the Festival of Building and Humanism at Cannes. They
were Miss Merete Mattern, visiting professor of planning, and
Mario I. Sama, assistant professor of planning in the School
of Architecture. More than five hundred proposals from
twenty-eight countries were submitted, and the university's
winning entry was a projection of a theoretical community for
the Fort Lincoln area of northeast Washington, D.C.

The university's English Department became one of the
most distinguished in the nation during these years, and
members of the faculty were winning awards right and left,
both for teaching and for the writing of important books.
"There's a kind of electricity in the community," said Douglas
Day, one of the award winners, "something that encourages
writing." He termed the department "better than excellent; it's
superb." Day won the National Book Award for 1974 with his
biography of Malcolm Lowry. He had taken three degrees at
the university, including the Ph.D., and joined the faculty in
1962.

Principal credit for building up the department to so high
a degree of distinction should go to Prof. Fredson T. Bowers,
the noted bibliographer, who headed the department for a
number of years. Also deserving praise for bringing several
noted writers and teachers to the English faculty is Peter Taylor,
a master of the short story, sometimes termed "the American
Chekhov." A native of Tennessee, Taylor came to the
university in 1967 from Harvard and was named Commonwealth
Prof. of English. A New York Times reviewer described
him as "one of the greatest writers America has ever produced,"
while a New Republic critic termed his work "old-style,
Southern fried realism." He has contributed short stories to
the New Yorker for many years. Taylor was elected in 1974 to
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has won the
National Academy Award for fiction. His wife, Eleanor Ross
Taylor, is an accomplished poet and has taught poetry writing.

English Prof. Francis R. Hart was chosen in 1969 by the
Danforth Foundation to receive the $10,000 E. Harris Harbison
Award as one of ten outstanding teachers in the United
States. Hart was the author of various highly regarded books
in the field of nineteenth-century British fiction and biography.
In 1972 English Prof. Verdel A. Kolve, a specialist in
medieval literature, won this same award. And Jacob C. Levenson,
Edgar Allan Poe Professor, won it just before joining
the English faculty. This gave the department three Harbison
Award winners, the only English faculty in the country which
could make that boast.

Longtime member of the English faculty Atcheson L.
Hench, a recognized authority on the language, contributed
to various dictionaries, including the Dictionary of American English,
Standard College Dictionary, and World Book Encyclopedia
Dictionary, as well as to the journal American Speech. He retired
in 1962 and died in 1974.

Prof. Arthur Kyle Davis's Matthew Arnold's Letters received
the university's Phi Beta Kappa Prize, and his three books on
Virginia ballads were given the University of Chicago's Folklore
Prize. Davis, a veteran English professor, had worked for
forty years collecting more than three thousand songs and
variants for the Virginia Folklore Society. His views on university
affairs were often unconventional. As coauthor of the
Gooch Report on athletics he urged abolition of all athletic
scholarships, and he advocated elimination of Greek letter
fraternities. Davis was also one of the early advocates of the
admission of women to the university on the same basis as
men. He retired in 1968 and died four years later.

A new award for professors deemed to have rendered special
services to the university community beyond their academic
or staff assignments was given by the Z Society in 1972
to law Prof. Charles Whitebread. In the two succeeding years
it went to Kenneth G. Elzinga and Dante L. Germino, professors,
respectively, of economics and history. These awards
were presented at the annual dinner given by the Z Society to
first-year students who had contributed significantly to the
university in such areas as student government, sports, publications,
or counseling. The society's 1971 Organization Award
went to the university Glee Club for its excellent concerts, its
album The Sun Dial, and its successful European tour. The

services of U.S. Circuit Judge Albert V. Bryan, '21, who had
just retired as rector of the university, were recognized when
the Z Society established an intramural high point trophy in
his honor in 1964. The society has been giving awards annually
since 1953 to the student in each of about a dozen
schools or departments who makes the highest grade for the
session.

A father and son, Dr. Byrd S. Leavell of the medical faculty
and Byrd S. Leavell, Jr., a third-year student in the College,
received two of the university's highest awards in 1972. Dr.
Leavell won the Distinguished Professor Award of the Alumni
Association, his son the "Pete" Gray Award of the Arthur P.
Gray IV Foundation, established in honor of "Pete" Gray, a
much admired university student who lost his life in Vietnam.

Seven professors were cited in 1973 by a national committee
of college and university officials for their exceptional service,
achievements, and leadership in education. They were history
Prof. Willie Lee Rose, College Dean Irby B. Cauthen, Jr., engineering
Dean Lawrence R. Quarles, education Professors
Richard M. Brandt and Richard A. Meade, architecture Prof.
James A. D. Cox, and physics Prof. Robert V. Coleman.

An addition to the women's dormitory was named Roberta
Hollingsworth Gwathmey House in honor of Roberta H.
Gwathmey, dean of women from 1935 to 1967.