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- Title:
- Abernethy, David B. (2017)
- Author:
- Abernethy, David B. and Gamlen, Tod
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- In this oral history, David Abernethy, a professor emeritus of political science who served seventeen terms in the Faculty Senate and chaired the body during the 1981-82 academic year, discusses the role and processes of the Faculty Senate and some of the controversial issues it has grappled with, including the evolution of the Western Culture curricular requirement, the university’s investment in South Africa, the relationship between the university and the Hoover Institution, and the possibility of locating the Ronald Reagan presidential library at Stanford. Briefly describing his academic background in African Studies, Abernethy tells how he was completing doctoral research in Nigeria in 1965 when he received an invitation to come to Stanford University. He shares personal recollections of the campus climate in the late 1960s, including the first teach-in on Vietnam, responses to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and a rowdy session of the Academic Council reviewing Stanford President J. E. Wallace Sterling’s decision to discipline antiwar protestors. Abernethy turns then to the 55-member Faculty Senate, which marks its fiftieth anniversary in 2018, discussing in detail its structure, traditions, and processes, especially the alphabetical assignment of seating and the availability of the university president and provost for questions. First voted chair in 1981-1982, he also describes the workings of the Senate’s principal committees and the role of the academic secretary who administers them. Regarding the Committee on Undergraduate Studies, Abernethy offers an analysis of the Western Culture curricular requirement as it changed to meet the demands of a multicultural university and society, beginning in 1976. As he sees it, to highlight Western cultures is a disservice to all non-Western people, and culture can be used as a code word for issues surrounding race and ethnicity. The Faculty Senate discussion of Stanford’s investments in weapons makers and later companies supporting South Africa under apartheid are his next topics. Abernethy talks about his corporate social responsibility work, including urging the university the participate in shareholder proxy votes related to South Africa and meeting with the chairman of Wells Fargo Bank to express concern about a bank loan to South Africa. Beginning with an appreciation of the resource represented by the Hoover Institution’s library and archives, Abernethy turns to Stanford’s fractious relationship during the 1980s with Hoover and its leader, Glenn Campbell. The critical issue became whether and where a Reagan Presidential Library should be located at Stanford, he says, a proposal initiated by Campbell’s independent contacts with the Reagan White House. Despite the potential resources of such a library, Abernethy notes, faculty were concerned about the consequences for Stanford’s image of adding a second campus landmark honoring a prominent twentieth-century conservative president, the first being the Hoover Tower, and the siting of the project. Ending the controversy, the Reagan Presidential Foundation chose to seek a site in Southern California. A related issue, however, dealt with Campbell’s initiative to grant senior fellows at the Hoover Institution membership in Stanford’s Academic Council, Abernethy notes, which raised issues of qualifications and inequitable exemption from teaching responsibilities. Abernethy concludes the interview with an overall evaluation of Stanford’s Faculty Senate.
- Topic:
- David Abernethy, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, Stanford University. Faculty Senate, universities and colleges--administration, universities and colleges--faculty, anti-apartheid movements, universities and colleges--curricula, and Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
- Imprint:
- June 29, 2017 - June 30, 2017
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Abrams, Herbert L.
- Author:
- Abrams, Herbert L. and Berra, Kathy
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Herbert Abrams was an emeritus professor of radiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, a senior research fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and a prolific author of books and scholarly articles. He contributed greatly to the Stanford community through his interests in diagnostic radiology and nuclear weapons. In this three-part interview, Abrams discussed his youth in New York, his residency and teaching experience at Stanford’s medical school, and how his interest shifted from radiology to nuclear weapons research and activism. Abrams described his childhood in Brooklyn, centering his discussion on his family and his high school years. His family’s love of language seemingly influenced Abrams to pursue an English major and to work for a variety of newspapers and journals at Cornell University, ultimately taking a job after graduation as a newsreel media analyst for the government. Although his interest in Freudian literature prompted Abrams to apply to medical school, once enrolled at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, he quickly redirected his efforts from psychiatry to radiology. Abrams provided valuable details about Stanford’s original medical school in San Francisco. From 1948 until 1959, Abrams served first as a resident and then as a professor at San Francisco General Hospital and Stanford Lane Hospital. Abrams found the experience both challenging and exciting because, due to the small-staff environment, faculty acted as both administrators and clinicians. Abrams also discussed the increasing importance of faculty research efforts after the medical school moved to the Stanford campus in 1959, highlighting developments in biplane imagery, catheter procedures, and radiation effect studies. Against the backdrop of his move from Stanford to Harvard, Abrams turned his attention to his longstanding interest in social activism and growing concern regarding nuclear weapons. Although he previously worked with the Physicians for Social Responsibility group, Abrams’ efforts pivoted towards promoting a more international organization called the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. This group studied all matters related to nuclear weapons, worked to raise awareness, and educated Congress about the effects of nuclear war. Abrams went on to discuss his return to Stanford in 1985 and his continued shift from a focus on diagnostic radiology to nuclear weapons research and activism. Increasingly, Abrams spent time at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation studying the effects of nuclear weapons exposure and the intersection of weapons access and mental health. In conclusion, Abrams addressed the need to educate the public about present-day nuclear threats and discussed the various leisure interests he pursued in this post-retirement period.
- Topic:
- Herbert Abrams, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, medicine, and Nobel Peace Prize
- Imprint:
- June 5, 2015 - June 17, 2015
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- The Stanford School of Medicine’s Move from San Francisco to the Stanford Campus: Rationale, Controversies, and Impacts.
- Author:
- Abrams, Herbert L., Berg, Paul, Mark, James B. D., Schrier, Stanley L., and Sunshine, Philip
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- In this oral history, five distinguished professors at the Stanford University School of Medicine--Hebert L. Abrams, Paul Berg, James B. D. Mark, Stanley L. Schrier, and Philip Sunshine--discussed the Medical School’s move from San Francisco to the Stanford campus in 1959 and its implications. They described the new format for medical education envisioned by the university president and the Board of Trustees, the impact of the integration of the teaching and clinical operations on the Stanford campus, and how Stanford gained a reputation for innovative, high-quality medical care. The panelists discussed the forces behind this move: the Flexner Report on medical education in the United States and Canada and the university’s assessment of its program’s condition after World War II. They also talked about the challenges the Medical School faced as a result of the move, including the creation of an adequate patient base to ensure the success of the medical school and hospital (which occasioned hostility from local physicians, hospitals and clinics) and the need to recruit faculty, physicians, and researchers. In the course of the discussion, the panelists also addressed differences among their departments regarding the sharing of research resources.
- Topic:
- Herbert L. Abrams, Paul Berg, James B. D. Mark, Stanley L. Schrier, Philip Sunshine, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, Stanford Lane Hospital, Henry Kaplan, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and San Francisco General Hospital
- Imprint:
- February 11, 2015
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Exhibit Tags:
- video
- Title:
- Amemiya, Takeshi.
- Author:
- Amemiya, Takeshi and Thomas, Odette
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- In this oral history from 2017, the noted econometrician Takeshi Amemiya, Edward Ames Edmonds Professor of Economics, Emeritus, describes his early life in wartime Japan, his education in economics, and his years on the faculty of the Department of Economics at Stanford University. His wife, Yoshiko Miyaki Amemiya, briefly describes meeting Amemiya in Japan and her experience of life at Stanford. Amemiya begins by describing how Advanced Econometrics, a comprehensive text that is still in print three decades after its initial publication in 1985, evolved from material he used to teach the subject when he first came to Stanford in 1964. About that time, Amemiya explains, microdata on individual households and companies began to become available. Amemiya developed the statistical methods to analyze such data, and he was the first to write a textbook on the subject. Elaborating on his early years at Stanford, Amemiya explains that the faculty of the Department of Economics were assigned to different campus buildings, depending on their interests. He says this tended to deter collaboration until the department was consolidated at Encina Hall in the 1970s. Amemiya jumps ahead to discuss his later interests: sharing his delight in discovering the similarities of Greek and Japanese customs, including the gods they worshipped and their shrines to the dead. In addition, after traveling in China, he began to write poetry in Chinese. Turning to his childhood, Amemiya says he was only seven at the outbreak of World War II, which found his family in Lima, Peru, where his father worked as an executive for a Japanese shipping line. He describes being caught up in an exchange of Japanese and U.S. citizens living abroad at the outbreak of war. Although he was evacuated from Tokyo during the war, he experienced air raids in the area near Mount Fuji to which he had been sent. Amemiya describes his time at the International Christian University in Japan, Guilford College in North Carolina, and the American University in Washington, DC and admits to sometimes being distracted from his studies by American novels and golf. At Johns Hopkins University, Amemiya says a connection with econometrist Carl F. Christ set him on a career course that led him to join the faculty of the Stanford Department of Economics. Stanford then was more comfortable and less pressured than today, Amemiya says, offering his criticism of today’s practice of allowing students to evaluate professors, arguing that this encourages overly rehearsed teaching. Instead, he recalls putting new problems on the board and solving them with the students. Yoshiko Amemiya recounts how she met and married the young professor during a brief period when he left Stanford to teach in Japan. She also shares some of the challenges she experienced adapting to American culture, especially in feeling comfortable with the informality of the English language. Amemiya concludes by briefly describing the anti-Vietnam War protests at Stanford and recalling some memorable faculty rivalries on the tennis court.
- Topic:
- Takeshi Amemiya, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, Stanford University--Department of Economics, econometrics, and Yoshiko Miyaki Amemiya
- Imprint:
- February 22, 2017 - March 1, 2017
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Anderson, Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson.
- Author:
- Anderson, Harry W. and Anderson, Mary Margaret
- Corporate Author:
- Fryberger, Betsy G. and Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- In their oral history from 2016, Harry W. "Hunk" Anderson and his wife, Mary Margaret "Moo" Anderson, talk about their love of art and how it led to their collection of highly regarded post-World War II American art, and their gift of more than 175 major paintings and sculpture to Stanford University, made together with their daughter, Mary Patricia Pence (“Putter”). Hunk speaks of a blue-collar childhood as the son of a glass blower in Corning, New York, where he attended a one-room schoolhouse through fifth grade. Born in Boston, Moo says her family moved to Geneva, in upstate New York, where she met Hunk at the local yacht club. Describing how he founded Saga with two fellow undergraduates, Hunk recalls how the opportunity arose when Hobart decided to close its dining facilities, overwhelmed by the postwar influx of students. Hunk explains how the three college seniors invested $500 apiece from their previous business and persuaded Hobart to give them a contract. Hunk remembers recruiting ninety-nine students to sign up for the new service, which offered prime rib on opening night. As other clients came forward, Hunk says, the business grew quickly, so that he and Moo spent the early years of their marriage on the road to set up operations on other campuses. Then Hunk explains how he persuaded the team to make the leap to California, building a corporate headquarters on Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, then mostly undeveloped. Hunk discusses a series of events that led to their reincarnation as art collectors: a 1964 trip to the Louvre in Paris; Moo’s enrollment in a course with Albert Elsen, professor of art history at Stanford; and advice from an expanding network of curators and gallery owners, including Henry Sayles Francis, William Rubin, and Eugene Thaw. He recalls how Thaw led them to a key acquisition, Jackson Pollock’s Lucifer, which motivated Hunk and Moo to build a collection around postwar art. Moo tells how they acquired the original prints celebrated in Richard Diebenkorn’s 41 Etchings Drypoints, published by Crown Point Press, which led to collecting prints published by such outstanding publishers as Gemini GEL and U.L.A.E. Hunk recalls working with Elsen in 1975 to create an ongoing art internship program at the Anderson collection, then housed at Saga headquarters and the Andersons’ home. Stanford graduate students were invited to intern; they helped arrange small exhibitions and write essays for brochures. Many of them later chose museum careers. As their influence grew, Hunk notes, their collection was highlighted in exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and at the Stanford University Museum of Art. They also made major gifts to the two San Francisco museums. Moo describes organizing shows at Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton and, with the Committee of Art, at the Stanford University Medical Center, and her experience as a partner in 3EP Press, which published monotypes. In 1985, Hunk hires Leo Holub, who had taught photography at Stanford, to make photographic portraits of the artists represented in the Anderson Collection--a project that occupied Holub for more than a decade. The Andersons gave a set of almost seven hundred proofs of Holub’s photographs to The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center at Stanford University (formerly the Stanford University Museum of Art). Crediting former Stanford University President John L. Hennessy with the agreement to build a home for their collections, Hunk refers briefly to the dedicated building: The Anderson Collection at Stanford University. It opened in 2014.
- Topic:
- Harry W. Anderson, Mary Margaret Anderson, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, art education, and art internship
- Imprint:
- March 8, 2016
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Arrow, Kenneth J.
- Author:
- Arrow, Kenneth J. and Weiler, Hans N.
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Kenneth J. Arrow served on the Executive Committee of the Academic Council around the time that the Faculty Senate was proposed and on a sub-committee appointed by the Executive Committee to consider Herbert Packer's proposal regarding the creation of an academic senate. Arrow later chaired the Faculty Senate during the 1986-87 term. He offers reflections on the function and effectiveness of the Faculty Senate and compares Stanford's mode of faculty governance with what he experienced at Harvard.
- Topic:
- Kenneth Arrow, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, Stanford University. Faculty Senate, and faculty governance
- Imprint:
- October 10, 2016
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Babcock, Barbara.
- Author:
- Babcock, Barbara and Brest, Iris
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Barbara Babcock traces the journey of her growing up in a little town in Arkansas to eventually becoming the head of the Washington D.C. Public Defenders, the first woman faculty member at Stanford Law School, the Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Civil Division, the author of two casebooks and a biography of Clara Foltz.
- Topic:
- Barbara Babcock, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, women in law, pioneering women, Department of Justice, legal aid, and civil liberties
- Imprint:
- January 13, 2015 - January 15, 2015
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Project:
- Pioneering Women, Stanford Faculty Oral History Project
- Title:
- Bacchetti, Raymond F.
- Author:
- Bacchetti, Raymond F. and Schofield, Susan W.
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Ray Bacchetti, Vice President for Planning and Management, Emeritus, was an administrator at Stanford from 1963 to 1993. In this interview he talked first about his upbringing and his early administrative career while pursuing a Ph.D. at Stanford’s School of Education. He became an Assistant Provost in 1968 and assumed increasingly broad and influential positions in the President and Provost’s Office for the next 25 years. He discussed Stanford’s system of budgeting and financial management in some detail, including topics such as tuition setting, periods of significant budget cutting, endowment policies, restricted funds, and indirect cost recovery. Other topics covered in the interview included diversity and affirmative action, undergraduate financial aid, the Management Development Program, higher education management and administration, EST (Erhard Seminars Training), Stanford leadership, and his receipt of the Kenneth M. Cuthbertson Award. When his Vice President position was eliminated, he spent the next eight years at the Hewlett Foundation as the Education Program Officer, and also worked at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He also discussed some of his extensive community service including on the Palo Alto School Board. His perspectives on Stanford as a great institution were informed, philosophical, and modest.
- Topic:
- Ray Bacchetti, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, Academic Planning Office, Budget Advisory Committee, Committee on Educational Opportunities for Disadvantaged Minorities, and Office of Management and Budget
- Imprint:
- September 4, 2014 - September 5, 2014
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Project:
- Stanford Diversity Oral History Project
- Title:
- Baldridge, Alan.
- Author:
- Baldridge, Alan, Wible, Joseph, and Baldridge, Sheila
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Alan Baldridge, a former librarian at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station, discusses the path that led him to Stanford, reminisces about change over time at Hopkins and some of his colleagues there, and talks about whales and whaling in the Monterey Bay area. His wife Sheila Baldridge contributes to the interview. Baldridge discusses his childhood in Darlington, England, and the lifelong love of libraries that inspired him to remain in the field. He tells the story of how he only narrowly missed a wartime bombing in Middlesbrough in 1948, talks about his national service requirement at the Royal Air Force base in Anglesey, Wales, and recalls meeting Charles Tunnicliffe, the wildlife artist, on the island. Baldridge briefly recounts his library education in Newcastle, where he met Sheila, and his experience working in the libraries of Liverpool, first at the Liverpool public library and afterwards in the Liverpool School of Art. During this time, he took advanced classes in library work. Baldridge reminisces about how his position at the School of Art exposed him to American literature and the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which inspired in him a desire to see the birds of the western United States. American libraries were recruiting European librarians to meet expanding demand in the 1950s and 1960s, he says, enabling him to take a library job in Portland, Oregon, in 1962. Baldridge recalls how a conversation with a librarian at the California Academy of Sciences led him to apply for a job at Hopkins Marine Station where he was hired as a full-time librarian in 1966. With the future of the Hopkins Marine Station beginning to look uncertain, in 1974 Baldridge took a job at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS). He remembers some of the benefits of working at RSMAS and living in Florida. In 1978, the Hopkins Marine Station began to improve with the appointment of director Colin Pittendrigh, who enticed Baldridge to return. He recalls the creation of the Friends of Hopkins and the move of the library collection from the Loeb building to the Monterey Boat Works. Baldridge concludes the interview by discussing changes in the whale population on the West Coast and recalling a time in the 1960s when whalers still operated out of Richmond, California.
- Topic:
- Alan Baldridge, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, staff, Hopkins Marine Station, whales, England, World War II, libraries, and Monterey
- Imprint:
- May 14, 2012
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Baxter, Charles H.
- Author:
- Baxter, Charles H. and Maher, Susan
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Charles H. “Chuck” Baxter, a biology lecturer emeritus at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey, talks about his role both as a teacher and as a key participant in several endeavors, including the creation of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which have had a deep and lasting impact on both the area and the general public’s perception of our oceans. He begins the interview discussing his background, most notably how a chance invitation to go diving in the Pacific Ocean opened his eyes to the wonders of underwater ecosystems` and caused him to change his major at UCLA from engineering to zoology. From there he traces a path from his graduate work in Ted Bullock’s lab to teaching the undergraduate zoology lab to his recruitment as a lecturer in the Stanford University Department of Biology. Baxter explains the circumstances that resulted in the transfer of his teaching duties to the Hopkins Marine Station and his relocation to the Monterey area. He recalls fondly the community of faculty, staff, and students at the marine station in the mid 1970s that made it such a special place to work. Baxter discusses his classes and the undergraduate research projects he assisted with, including one that resulted in two undergraduates publishing one of the first papers to show the effects of greenhouse gases on the distributions of ocean communities. Beyond his academic life at Hopkins, Baxter relates the notable projects he and his colleagues put into motion. He talks about how the Monterey Bay Aquarium came to be, relating key aspects of the aquarium’s construction, including the kelp forest tank, the aviary, and preservation of the beached grey whale skeleton that now hangs in the reception hall. Peppered throughout the interview are anecdotes about David Packard, who along with his wife, Lucille, was a chief funder of the project. He explains the diving and recording technologies that were central to the formation of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and the media production company Sea Studios Foundation--organizations in which he played an active role. Finally, Baxter recounts the organization and deployment of the Sea of Cortez Expedition and Education Project, which retraced the 1940 journey of John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, and how conversations with his fellow passengers led to his involvement in Stanford’s holistic biology course and his current interest in cognitive science research.
- Topic:
- Chuck Baxter, Charles H. Baxter, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, climatic changes, climate change, marine biologists--interviews, Monterey Bay (CA), Monterey Bay Aquarium (Monterey, and CA)
- Imprint:
- April 29, 2016
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Bienenstock, Arthur I.
- Author:
- Bienenstock, Arthur I. and Tracy, Allison
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Arthur “Artie” Bienenstock begins with his early life growing up in New York City, his family, experiences in school, and time at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, noting his interest in physics. He discusses pursuing his PhD at Harvard and his marriage. He goes on to discuss his work at the Bureau of Standards and his postdoc at Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. He notes the birth of his daughter Amy and his commitment to women in academics. He discusses his recruitment to Stanford, joint appointment in Materials Science and Applied Physics, and time as vice provost, including his work with affirmative action. Bienenstock outlines the development of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, noting its funders, primarily the Department of Energy, and its growth over the years. Bienenstock further discusses his work on the Facilities Initiatives for national laboratories throughout the US. He discusses SSRL’s relationship with SLAC and his work with SLAC’s directors. Bienenstock recalls his work on the Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Committee and the Committee for Research, as well as his involvement in the indirect cost controversy. He discusses his appointment as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and his experiences in Washington. He discusses his return to Stanford, his role in the Materials Research Council, the Geballe Lab for Advanced Materials, his time as vice provost and dean of research, his work advising Stanford’s president on federal research policy, and his work with the Wallenberg Foundation.
- Topic:
- Arthur Bienenstock, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, SLAC, synchrotron radiation, and materials research
- Imprint:
- February 19, 2014 - March 25, 2014
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Project:
- Stanford Faculty Oral History Project
- Title:
- Bienenstock, Roslyn.
- Author:
- Bienenstock, Roslyn and Flynn-Do, Meiko
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- In this interview, Roslyn Bienenstock, a former president of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Northern California Chapter and a former chair of the board of the American Lung Association of Santa Clara County, discusses her experience both as a member of the Stanford community and as an active volunteer in local and national organizations devoted to the research and education of cystic fibrosis and respiratory illness. The first interview session focuses on her early life and life before Stanford: growing up as the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants in New York just after the Great Depression; her involvement with folk music, dance, and social change all occurring at the time; her experience in higher education as a female student in the fields of STEM at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; her experience as a mother to a child with cystic fibrosis; and her career and volunteer work related to cystic fibrosis. The second interview session focuses on her time at Stanford, beginning in 1967 when her husband, Arthur Bienenstock, joined the Stanford faculty; her experience working at the Stanford Children’s Hospital; and her involvement with the Stanford Women’s Club. She also discusses the evolution of the community and culture at Stanford over the years and closes with a reflection on her life. Throughout the interview, Bienenstock discusses issues of social justice, which she attributes to being raised in liberal New York in a Jewish family. She shares her thoughts about social movements and changes in society, providing not only a view into the times but also a reflection within the context of 2016.
- Topic:
- Roslyn Bienenstock, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, Stanford community, respiratory therapy, and respiratory illness education
- Imprint:
- May 9, 2016 - May 11, 2016
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Blau, Helen M.
- Author:
- Blau, Helen M. and Waldron, Manjula
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Helen M. Blau talks about her personal, academic and professional journey, her early adventures in Europe and how her parents were instrumental in shaping her career in science. She discusses her family’s escape from Nazi Germany; her father’ return to Europe, and her broad education in US, Germany, and England. She credits her extensive travels in her youth for evoking her curiosity about everything. Blau recalls her studies at Harvard where she met her husband, their move to California when he got a job offer there, and her own work as a postdoctoral fellow in University of California-San Francisco before joining Stanford in 1978. She details how her career took off at Stanford as she applied her training, curiosity and interdisciplinary bent to the research in stem cell technology and regenerative medicine. She discusses how interdisciplinary collaborations were important to her academic success. Last but not least, Blau fondly recalls her relationship with her students, many of them were women.
- Topic:
- Helen M. Blau, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, women in medicine, pioneering women, and stem cell research
- Imprint:
- July 30, 2015
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Project:
- Pioneering Women, Stanford Faculty Oral History Project
- Title:
- Bower, Gordon H.
- Author:
- Bower, Gordon H. and Hartwig, Daniel
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Gordon H. Bower, the Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, is a well-known cognitive psychologist. In his six-part oral history Gordon Bower traces the evolution of his career from his childhood, baseball playing, and education in Ohio to his retirement and current life at Stanford. Bower devotes the bulk of the interview to elaborating on his research program, beginning at Yale as a graduate student and continuing through his time at Stanford. He describes his work in learning and memory, including the study of human memory, mnemonic devices, retrieval strategies, recording strategies, and category learning. Bower also discusses his research on cognitive processes, emotion, imagery, language and reading comprehension as they relate to memory. In addition to his own research, Bower examines the work of colleagues and others who influenced him, including developments both within and outside of psychology. Bower recounts his service as associate dean and member of the Appointments and Promotions Committee at Stanford, president of the American Psychological Society, chief science advisor to the director of the National Institutes of Mental Health, and editor of the annual book series The Psychology of Learning and Motivation.
- Topic:
- Gordon H. Bower, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, cognitive psychology, higher education, professors, Vietnam War protests, and indirect cost
- Imprint:
- August 1, 2014 - September 18, 2014
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Bratman, Michael E.
- Author:
- Bratman, Michael E.
- Corporate Author:
- Gifford, Jonathan G. and Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Professor Michael Bratman offers general reflections on the operations of the Stanford Faculty Senate and describes his experience as the chair of the 29th Faculty Senate in 1996-1997. A key topic of the 29th Senate was the reevaluation of the Cultures, Ideas, and Values (CIV) Area One requirement, which attracted a great deal of national attention as to whether Stanford would remain committed to diversity in its curriculum. Bratman describes with pride how the senate handled this complicated issue and put in place a process that all constituencies felt was fair. Bratman also comments on the agenda-setting role of the Senate Steering Committee and the essential role played by the Academic Secretary in providing institutional background, continuity, and preparation for the incoming chair. Other topics covered include the electoral process, the role played by the university president and provost in the senate, the convening of the second Planning and Policy Board, and the way Bratman’s experience as senate chair prepared him for a later role as president of the American Philosophical Association at a challenging time in that organization’s history. The interview ends with Bratman’s reflections on some of the traditions of the senate and his observation that great universities are made in part by the kind of procedures they follow in making important decisions.
- Topic:
- Michael Bratman, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, Stanford University. Faculty Senate, universities and colleges--administration, faculty governance, and universities and colleges--faculty
- Imprint:
- July 28, 2017
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Brauman, John I.
- Author:
- Brauman, John I.
- Corporate Author:
- Schofield, Susan and Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- John I. Brauman speaks about growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his education at MIT and UC Berkeley. Recruited to Stanford as a young assistant professor of chemistry in 1963, he discusses how the support of Provost Fred Terman and the leadership of department chair Bill Johnson transformed the department through recruitment of world-class scientists. He talks about his research, important collaborations with his colleagues, teaching undergraduates, and serving as department chair. Brauman comments on several of his many roles outside the department: as the university’s Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Policy; as Associate Dean of Humanities and Sciences; and his experiences on the Faculty Senate, the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, and the Committee on Research. He expresses admiration for the transparency and high quality of Stanford’s leadership over his fifty-year career.
- Topic:
- John I. Brauman, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, Department of Chemistry, Faculty Senate, and Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid
- Imprint:
- October 9, 2013
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Bryson, Arthur E.
- Author:
- Bryson, Arthur E. and Marine-Street, Natalie J.
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Arthur E. Bryson, Jr., a professor emeritus in the Stanford University Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, discusses his research and teaching career in aeronautical engineering and his contributions to the fields of flight mechanics and automated control. Bryson begins with a discussion of his childhood in Illinois, recalling impressions of his father’s work as an investment banker in Chicago, his education in the Winnetka Public Schools, and the impact of a high school math teacher on his life path. He describes the beginning of his undergraduate career at Haverford College, which was interrupted by World War II and his participation in the Navy’s V-5 program. He talks about his eventual training assignment at Iowa State College and describes how he met his future wife, Helen Layton, there. The ensuing years found Bryson stationed at the Alameda Naval Station, working in repair and maintenance, and he describes some of his experiences there. Bryson then speaks about his short stint as a paper manufacturing engineer working for the Container Corporation of America and as an aeronautical engineer at United Aircraft, where he began working with wind tunnels. In the late 1940s, Bryson migrated to California to pursue a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering with the help of the GI Bill. He describes his advisor, Hans W. Liepmann, and relates how at Liepmann’s invitation, and with the help of a fellowship from Hughes Aircraft, he stayed on at Cal-tech, completing his PhD in 1951. An important turning point in Bryson’s career was an encounter with Harvard professor Howard Wilson Emmons, who was assigned to be Bryson’s office mate while Emmons was on a short assignment at Hughes. Bryson relates the circumstances that led Emmons to ask him to join the faculty at Harvard as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1963. He offers a short account of departmental and family life and his research and consulting work while at Harvard, and notes that the increasingly contentious atmosphere surrounding the Vietnam War was one of the factors that led him to accept an invitation to join the Stanford engineering faculty in 1968. Bryson describes some of the opportunities and challenges of his new role as the chair of the Department of Applied Mechanics, and later the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He comments on his approach to teaching engineering and working with graduate students, recalls his work on Waves in Fluids and some of the other films in the Fluid Mechanics Films series, and relates stories about the anti-Vietnam War protests on campus. He concludes the interview with comments on the Gravity Probe B project and reflections on recent directions in biomechanical engineering and flight mechanics.
- Topic:
- Arthur E. Bryson, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, Stanford University--Department of Applied Mechanics, Stanford University--Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, automatic control, and Kalman filtering
- Imprint:
- April 6, 2016
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Bunnell, John (2017)
- Author:
- Bunnell, John and Player, Stephen
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- John Bunnell discusses his career in Stanford’s Office of Undergraduate Admission with special emphasis on his work as admission liaison to the Athletic Department. John Bunnell joined Stanford University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions in 1963 when it was a small, “ma-and-pa store” operation, processing around 5,000 applicants for 1,600 available seats in the freshman class. Over the next thirty-five years he watched the office grow to handle 45,000 applications per year for the same 1,600 seats. In the interview, he describes how the admissions process changed over time and elaborates on the admission of student athletes with whom, as the liaison to Athletic Department, he was closely involved. He begins with a brief overview of his time as a student at Stanford, both as an undergraduate and a business school student. He describes the phone call he received as he was finishing his MBA that landed him in the Undergraduate Admission Office until his retirement in 1998. Bunnell details the job’s yearlong cycle of student recruitment followed by application evaluation under director of undergraduate admission, Rixford Snyder. He describes events in the 1970s that led to the explosion in the number of applicants. He discusses the role of the Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid and the qualities his coworkers brought to the office. As the Athletic Department liaison, Bunnell was involved with the sometimes contentious decisions regarding athlete admission. He explains how the admissions team tried to balance Stanford’s academic requirements while still competing with other schools for star athletes. He discusses his working relationship with coaches like John Ralston and athletic directors Joe Ruetz and Andy Geiger
- Topic:
- John Bunnell, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, college sports, Stanford University--Office of Undergraduate Admission, Stanford University--Admission, Stanford Athletics Oral History Project, Stanford University--Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and and Recreation
- Imprint:
- January 19, 2017
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Carnochan, W. Bliss.
- Author:
- Carnochan, W. Bliss. and Kiefer, Joyce.
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society.
- Description:
- Professor Carnochan discusses his rich experiences at Stanford from 1960 to 1994, as a faculty member of the English Department, as the Director of the Humanities Center, and as Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies. He shares his thoughts on the value of English and the humanities in higher education and at Stanford. He also talks about his background at Harvard University
- Topic:
- Bliss Barnochan, Stanford Historical Society, Oral histories, Interviews, Stanford University. Dept. of English, Stanford Humanities Center, Humanities, Higher education, and Harvard University
- Imprint:
- August 28, 2013
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
- Title:
- Cavalli, Gary A.
- Author:
- Cavalli, Gary A. and Player, Stephen
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
- Gary A. Cavalli, who served as Stanford’s sports information director and later associate athletic director from 1974 to 1983, draws on his experiences and journalism training to weave a colorful narrative of Stanford’s sport history. He illuminates the personalities, like Chuck Taylor, Bob Murphy, Joe Rutz, and Bill Walsh, who shaped Cardinal football, Stanford’s Athletics Department, and the university’s commitment to women’s sports. Cavalli also touches on his post-Stanford career at his public relations firm, Cavalli and Cribb, how he cofounded the American Basketball League and built the Foster Farms Bowl.
- Topic:
- Gary Cavalli, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, college sports--awards--Heisman Trophy, and college sports--economic aspects--United States
- Imprint:
- November 1, 2016
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012
