THE UNIVERSITY OFCHICAGO V RECORDAugust 3, 1977 ISSN 0362-4706 An Official Publication Volume XI, Number 4Memorial TributetoROBERT MAYNARD HUTCHINSJanuary 17, 1899—May 14, 19773:30 P.M.June 8, 1977Rockefeller Memorial ChapelTHE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGOFOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER©Copyright 1977 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.ROBERT MAYNARD HUTCHINS, 1899-1977Robert M. Hutchins was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 17, 1899.He was a student at Oberlin College from 1915 to 1917. Afterserving two years in the ambulance corps of the Italian and UnitedStates armies during World War I, he entered Yale University andreceived his A.B. degree in 1921. He was a master at the LakePlacid (New York) School from 1921 to 1923. In 1925 he receivedan LL.D. from Yale Law School.He was the secretary of Yale University from 1923 to 1927, lecturer in the Yale Law School from 1925 to 1927, and professorfrom 1927 to 1929. He was acting dean of the Law School in1927-28 and dean in 1928-29.He was elected president of The University of Chicago in 1929,and chancellor in 1945. He resigned as chancellor in 1951 andbecame associate director of the Ford Foundation. In 1954 hebecame chairman of the board of directors of the Fund for theRepublic, Inc. In 1959 he founded the Center for the Study ofDemocratic Institutions, which is operated by the Fund, and hewas chairman of the Center's board of directors at the time of hisdeath. He was an Honorary Trustee of the University and wasalso a director of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. and ofBritannica Films, Inc.He was the author of No Friendly Voice (1936); The HigherLearning in America (1936); Education for Freedom (1943); St.Thomas and The World State (1949); Morals, Religion andHigher Education (1950); The Democratic Dilemma, Some Questions about Education in North America, The Great Conversation (1951); The Conflict in Education (1953); The University ofUtopia (1953); Freedom, Education and the Fund (1956); SomeObservations on American Education (1956); The Learning Society (1968); and Dr. Zuckerkandl (1968).Robert M. Hutchins died on May 14, 1977 at Santa Barbara,California.This issue of The University of Chicago Record contains tributespaid him at a memorial service held in Rockefeller MemorialChapel on June 8, 1977; a unanimous resolution adopted by theBoard of Trustees of the University on June 9, 1977; and a statement issued by John T. Wilson, President of the University, onthe day Mr. Hutchins died.INVOCATION Jerald C . BrauerTHIRD ORCHESTRAL SUITE IN D MAJOR J.S. BachOuvertureAirGavotte 1Gavotte 2GigueThe Rockefeller Chapel OrchestraRichard E. Vikstrom, ConductorREMARKS James H. DouglasMortimer J. AdlerEdward H. LeviBENEDICTION Jerald C . BrauerAs the congregation leaves the Chapel, the orchestra \the Bourse from Bach's Third Orchestral Suite in D A/ill playMajor.Jerald C. Brauer is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor in the Divinity School.Richard E. Vikstrom is the Director of Chapel Music, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.James H. Douglas is a Life Trustee of the University.Mortimer J. Adler is Chairman of the Board of Editors, Encyclopaedia Brittanica. ^Edward H. Levi , President Emeritus, Honorary Trustee, and the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in the University, was Attorney General of theUnited States, 1975-1977.92James H. DouglasForty-eight years ago, Robert Maynard Hutchinsbecame president of The University of Chicago.As president and chancellor he provided twenty-two years of imaginative leadership that left itsmark not only upon the University, but also uponeducation in the United States and indeedthroughout the world.Most of you knew Robert Hutchins: tall,strong, brilliant, courageous, quiet, and immensely persuasive. He abhorred exercise. Hehad characteristics of his New England ancestorswhom he affectionately described as perpendicular, independent, and somewhat stubborn. Hewas a beacon of fresh thought and criticism. Hewas constantly asking questions: Where are wegoing?, What are we trying to do?, What ought webe trying to do? And he tried to answer them.Committed to liberal education and the dialogue,he was striving always towards his ideal of acommunity of scholars, and exploring approachesto a learning society and a world community.For many of us Robert Hutchins was the mostexciting leader in education of our generation, andthose of us who knew him through the years willbe everlastingly grateful for the warmth of hisfriendship. Today in honoring him — in celebratinghis life — let us look to his speech and writing torefresh our recollection. Basic to his life andteaching were these convictions — in his ownwords:Our problems are moral, intellectual, and spiritual.We must inquire into the nature of man and theends of life.Man is a moral, rational, and spiritual being.Wisdom and goodness are the end of human life.To be free a man must understand the tradition inwhich he lives.Robert Hutchins wrote that a lifetime of experience and reflection confirmed the faith inwhich he was brought up. "That faith," he said,"was faith in the independent mind. Its educational consequences were belief in free inquiryand discussion. Its politics were belief in democracy, but only in a democracy where a minority,even a* minority of one, could continue to differand to be heard."In 1952 Robert Hutchins was responsible forthe Ford Foundation's establishing the Fund forthe Republic. Its immediate purpose was to defend and advance the principles of the Declarationof Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights and, in his words, to search for justice.In an essay on freedom, he wrote:The Bill of Rights was designed to insure the defense of the weak and unpopular, with respect totheir persons, property, and opinions. . . . The Billof Rights contemplates a stalwart society, whereeverybody thinks for himself and says what hethinks. Such a society is so confident of its strengthand of the good sense of its members that it is prepared to allow anybody to say and to do almost anything.In the same essay he said of academic freedom:The arguments for academic freedom are thesame as those for freedom of speech, and they reston the same foundation. . . . Man is a learning animal. The state is an association the primary aim ofwhich is the virtue and intelligence of the people.Men learn by discussion, through the clash of opinion. The best and most progressive society is that inwhich expression is freest. ... In a democracy whatthe public needs to know about the teachers in theeducational system is that they are competent. Thecompetent teacher knows the subject he is teachingand how to communicate it to his pupils. Unlike theteacher in a totalitarian state, he is not supposed topurvey the prevailing dogma. He is supposed to encourage his students to use their own intelligence andto reach their own conclusions.In 1959 Robert Hutchins redirected the resources and activities of the Fund for the Republic to a broader program: the Center for theStudy of Democratic Institutions. Its object is topromote understanding of the basic issues thatunderlie the formulation of public policy, both athome and abroad. The Center's procedure is thatof the dialogue, and he described it as follows:Its members talk about what ought to be done.They come to the conference table as citizens, andtheir talk is about the common good. ... It does nottake positions about what ought to be done. It asserts only that the issues it is discussing deserve theattention of citizens. . . . The Center tries to thinkabout the things it believes its fellow-citizens oughtto be thinking about. ... In a country that aspires tobe democratic, the questions have to be discussed byas many of its citizens as possible.In order to spread the discussion, the Center dialogue and convocations are published in the Center magazine and its companion, World Issues.In reviewing the pac em in terris convocations,Robert Hutchins referred to our foreign relations,saying:Coexistence is a necessary but not sufficient con-93dition of human life. We must move onward and upward from coexistence to what Pope John called theuniversal common good. This is an aim worthy ofhumanity. It will require the organization of theworld for continuous peaceful change and for therevision of the status quo without war.Finally, let me read three paragraphs that takeus back to the spirit of the University when ourformer chancellor said, "It isn't a very good University; it is only the best there is."First, on what an educational institution shouldbe:An educational institution should be a community. A community must have a common aim, andthe common aim of the educational community is thetruth. It is not necessary that the members of theeducational community agree with one another. It isnecessary that they communicate with one another,for the basis of community is communication.Second, on how education accomplishes itspurpose:The fact is that education accomplishes its purpose indirectly. An educational system cannotefficiently teach people how to do things, and, if itcould, it would not be worthwhile, because of thehigh rate of obsolescence of such teaching. What aneducational system can accomplish is this: it canproduce the kind of people who can and will do thethings that ought to be done. It can help the risinggeneration to understand what an important problemis; it can equip them with the standards and the disciplines they need to face such a problem, no matterwhat it turns out to be or what the conditions areunder which it makes its appearance.Third, on the place of the great conversation inhigher education:The great conversation began with the Greeks,the Hebrews, the Hindus, and the Chinese and hascontinued to the present day. It is a conversationthat deals, perhaps more extensively than it dealswith anything else, with morals and religion. Thequestions of the nature and existence of God, thenature and destiny of man, and the organization andpurpose of human society are the recurring themes ofthe great conversation. ... To continue and enrichthe great conversation is the object of higher education. . . . Through continuing and enriching the greatconversation higher education not only does its dutyby morals and religion; it not only performs itsproper intellectual task: it also supports and symbolizes the highest hopes and the highest aspirationsof mankind.In closing, there is a line from WaltWhitman — a line that years ago Robert Hutchinsthought would be a good motto for The University of Chicago, and later used to describe the Center.Actually, it is even more fitting for Bob Hutchinshimself— "Solitary, singing in the west, I strike upfor a new world."Mortimer J. AdlerThe friends and family of Robert Hutchins whoare gathered here today do not need the utteranceof a eulogy. The loss they feel and the memoriesthey cherish bear silent testimony to the influencehe exerted upon their fives and the affection hearoused in all who had the good fortune to betouched intimately by the elegance of his style; bythe integrity of his character; by the beauty andgrace of his person; by the keenness and wit of hismind; and by his gentleness, kindness, and compassion.May I speak for them in trying to explain toothers less closely associated with him and tothose who knew him only by hearsay why we feelthat the measured judgment which will be formedretrospectively, with the passage of time, cannotexaggerate his contribution to the improvement ofthis University and of education generally, hereand abroad; to the realization of the highest idealsof a democratic society; to world peace and theestablishment of a world community, founded,with justice, on liberty and equality for all thepeoples of the earth; to the furtherance of themoral, intellectual, and spiritual revolution thatwas always the controlling objective of histhought and action; and last, but not least, to theadvancement of knowledge itself, knowledge illuminated by the light that is cast upon what weknow by the understanding of basic ideas, and isdirected toward the wisdom derived from a consideration of first principles and final ends.Those who loved Bob Hutchins dearly must beexcused for the excesses to which their admiration for him sometimes impelled them. Manyyears ago, in the summer just before Bob came toThe University of Chicago, his secretary at theYale Law School wrote me a letter about thepostponement of a meeting with Scott Buchananthat I had been trying to arrange. It would have tobe put off until the fall, she wrote, adding, "untilthen, Mr. Buchanan will have to dream of Mr.Hutchins, and nothing he will dream will comparewith the actuality."And after Bob departed from these precincts tojoin Paul Hoffman at the Ford Foundation, afriend, whose admiration for him may seem over-zealous, referred to Bob as "the president of the94ex-University of Chicago." We should be able tosmile with tolerance at such hyperboles, recognizing the truth they contain and correcting theirexaggerations.Mr. Levi, I know, will do just that, for he willtalk of realities, not dreams, and he will describeand justly appraise the heritage that Bob Hutchinsleft this University, a heritage that continues toinform its life and spirit to this day.Resolutely concerned, as Bob Hutchins was,with bringing about a moral, intellectual, and spiritual revolution, he never tired of preaching thegospel of the moral and intellectual virtues, ofteaching the doctrine which underlies thatpreachment, and of assiduosly cultivating thesevirtues in his own life.The example he himself set was the most effective way to guide others to their acquirement, especially the students he taught and the colleagueshe admonished. His moral virtues are, perhaps,best exemplified by his courage in undertaking theManhattan Project which three great eastern universities had turned down because they feared therisk of failure in the enterprise; and by his actionsto preserve academic freedom on this campus,and freedom of speech in this country during thedark days of McCarthy.His intellectual virtues are best exemplified byhis scholarship in the field of law and jurisprudence; by his understanding of the great ideas inthe tradition of Western thought through the studyof its great books; and by the philosophical cast ofhis mind that made him pursue wisdom by grappling with fundamental issues in every sphere ofthought, always patiently submitting his mind tothe controversies they engendered.He was always patient with and tolerant ofthose who disagreed with him in a rational manner, but his profound distaste for the irrationalmade him impatient with those whose disagreement bespoke emotional prejudices; and theacuity, as well as the rapidity, of his intelligencemade him impatient with those who spoke atlength but said little. In his desk drawer, he kept asign that he placed on the edge of his desk whenhe expected certain visitors. It read: "Don't tellthe President things he already knows."The sharpness and speed of his wit often embarrassed or angered those who suffered from itslightning flashes. When, as dean of the Yale LawSchool, he attended a reception for the justices ofthe Supreme Court, one of the old conservativesthen on the bench said to him: "Mr. Dean, Iunderstand that you are teaching the young men atNew Haven what is wrong with our decisions." "Oh, no," said Mr. Hutchins, "we let them findthat out for themselves."When, in his second year as president of theUniversity, he began reading the great books witha group of freshman, Professor Paul Shorey, theeminent Greek scholar, questioned him about theadvisability of discussing The Divine Comedyafter only one week's study of it. "In my day atHarvard under Professor Grandgent," Shoreysaid, "we spent a whole year on Dante's poem.How can you expect your students . . .?" Shoreystarted to ask, only to be interrupted by Bob'squick rejoinder: "The difference, you see, is thatour students are very bright."In fifty years of close association with BobHutchins — at the Yale Law School, at The University of Chicago, at Encyclopaedia Britannica,and at the Center for the Study of DemocraticInstitutions — I never ceased to be astonished bythe extraordinary power of his intelligence in dealing with difficult books that he was reading for thefirst time; in dealing with the practical problems ofan administrator; in dealing with the argumentsinvolved in the dispute of theoretical issues.The story is told of Isaac Newton, when hefirst became acquainted with Euclid' % Elements asa very young student at Cambridge, that he couldnot understand why Euclid bothered to demonstrate the theorems of Book I. The truth of all ofthem seemed self-evident to him, no less than theaxioms. Reasoning was so suited to the naturalbent of Bob Hutchins' mind, that it was secondnature to him. This led him into the mistake ofthinking that the proposition, "Man is by NatureRational," was a self-evident truth. He did notneed to have that proved, for he was directly acquainted with the truth about himself. He was amost sweetly reasonable man.If anyone needs an explanation of the intellectual vitality and the excitement about ideasthat, during the Hutchins' administration, distinguished this University from all others, before andafter, he will find it in Bob's predilection and propensity for sustained discussion of fundamentalissues.That same predilection and propensity characterized his service to Encyclopaedia Britannica asa member of its board of directors from 1943, andas chairman of its board of editors from 1948, untilhis retirement from both posts. During all thoseyears, he was not only the moral conscience of thepublishing company, but its persistent mentor aswell. His leadership provided the guidance andthe inspiration that led to the publication of GreatBooks of the Western World, and to the produc-95tion of the radically reconstructed and greatly improved fifteenth edition of the encyclopaedia.What may be, but should not be, forgotten isthat, for fifteen of the twenty years that RobertHutchins headed this University, he was also ateaching member of its faculty, actively engagedin teaching students in the College, in the University high school, and in the Law School. As is thecase with every good teacher, his impulse to teachsprang from his desire to learn. He was a splendidteacher, one of the best I have ever known, because of his own avidity for learning, accompanied by an acute sense of the difficulties oflearning, which made him sympathetic to thepains of others engaged in that process.Though seldom free from preoccupation withthe problems of money raising and of dealing withtrustees and faculty, Bob Hutchins never lostsight of his chief problem as a universitypresident — the future of its students.To convey to you the character of that abidingconcern, permit me, in closing, to quote from his"Address to the Graduating Class," in this chapelon commencement day, 1935.It is now almost fifteen years since I was in the position you occupy. I can therefore advise you aboutthe dangers and difficulties you will encounter. . . .. . . My experience and observation lead me towarn you that the greatest, the most insidious . . . ,the most paralyzing danger you will face is thedanger of corruption. Time will corrupt you. Yourfriends, your wives or husbands, your business orprofessional associates will corrupt you; your social,political, and financial ambitions will corrupt you.The worst thing about life is that it is demoralizing. . . .. . . Believe me, you are closer to the truth nowthan you will ever be again. Do not let 'practical'men tell you that you should surrender your idealsbecause they are impractical. Do not be reconciledto dishonesty, indecency, and brutality because gentlemanly ways have been discovered of being dishonest, indecent, and brutal. . . . Take your standnow before time has corrupted you. Before youknow it, it will be too late. Courage, temperance,honor, liberality, justice, wisdom, reason, andunderstanding, these are still the virtues. In the intellectual virtues, this University has tried to trainyou. The life you have lived here should have helpedyou toward the rest. If come what may you holdthem fast, you will do honor to yourselves and to theUniversity, and you will serve your country.Edward H. LevivI speak of the legacy of Robert Hutchins to theUniversity of Chicago. He assumed the leadership of the University in his thirtieth year. The University was then thirty-seven years old. Itwas, he then said, one of the "notable institutionsof the earth," and no man could come to its presidency "without being awed by the Universityand its past." The University had "held itscourse, striving to attain the ideals established atits beginning and coming closer toward its goaleach year." He then proclaimed his faith thatwhatever changes in organization might come tothe University, the spirit of the institution wouldremain the same. That spirit, as he then saw it,was characterized by an emphasis on productivescholarship, by an emphasis on the individualscholar before anything else, on work with and forChicago, and on an experimental attitude. Fromthe beginning, he had a strong sense of his place inthe continuity of the institution and an overwhelming commitment to it. As the poem fromWalt Whitman, to which he frequently referred,portrays:One generation playing its part and passingon,Another generation playing its part and passing on its turn,With faces turn'd sideways or backwardtowards me to listen,With eyes retrospective towards me.The inaugural address of the new president ofthe University — a strikingly young and charismatic president who the next day in greeting the students expressed his "infinite satisfaction andpleasure that I am older than you and shall continue to be" — was given on November 19th, 1929.The great economic depression was already uponus, although its full impact was not known. RobertHutchins was later to write, in a familiar mood ofself-deprecating candor and exaggeration, "theonly idea I had of The University of Chicagowhen I went there was that it was great. It was mybusiness to make it greater. The Depressionseemed to postpone any immediate hope of making it greater in ways that I understood; I couldnot expect to make it richer; it was more likelythat I would take it into bankruptcy. What was agreat university, anyway?" This was the questionhe asked repeatedly during his stewardship oftwenty-two years.He was a learning president, and many of hisideas changed as a result of his experience or hisown intensive continuing education. He wassteadfast in the values he was for, and firm in theiniquities he opposed. The influence of what hetermed the "parsonage" or his missonary past96was "ineradicable." This included most importantly a faith in the independent mind. The preoccupation of the University should be with theintellectual virtues. The University ought to bedevoted to the intellectual love of God which isthe pursuit of truth for its own sake. The free andindependent exercise of the intellect was themeans by which society would be improved. Theenemies were ignorance, prejudice, injustice,brutality, mediocrity, self-satisfaction, and stupidity.To speak out was his nature. Sometimes withprudence or patience he controlled this tendency.In 1936, after a state senatorial investigation intosubversion at the University, he told the facultyand trustees:We may hope for a happy new year because we haverouted, or at least repulsed, the forces of darkness.Repulsed is probably the proper word, for we cannotbe sure that the ignorant and misguided will not return to the charge. If eternal vigilance is not the priceof academic liberty, certainly eternal patience is.Although I was occasionally in favor of more violentmethods, I am satisfied now that the course we pursued in the senatorial investigation was as successfulas it was dignified.This was a gracious reference to his acceptance ofthe advice of a faithful trustee and lawyer that theHutchins' tongue, which could be the sharpestand the wittiest in the world, be moderated in itsresponses at the hearing.Robert Hutchins' concern was with the intellectual leadership of The University ofChicago, the differentiation of universities fromother institutions, the recognition of the specialattributes of this place. In an effort to restate theaims of the University and the means to that end,he criticized the confusion of science with information; ideas with facts; and knowledge withmiscellaneous data. In a University dedicated toresearch, he though it particularly important toquestion the collection of unrelated insignificantinformation, even though this was sometimescalled independent investigation. His was the firststrong voice to criticize the inordinate length ofthe formal course of instruction through highereducation; and to insist upon a greater commonality, among students and faculty alike, required forliberal education and impossible under the elective system. He thought a university seriouslycommitted to education ought to do a good teaching job for its own students. He did not think thiswas the case when a large number of graduatestudents were giving instruction in the freshmanand sophomore years. He acted upon his con clusions. "Lord Acton," Hutchins wrote, "hasfamiliarized us with the notion that power corrupts. He might have added a word or two on thecorruption wrought by the failure to exercise authority when it is your duty to exercise it." Theeducational changes were far-reaching. He believed and enforced a standard of excellence —"every course, every project, and above all,every appointment." He did more than pass uponappointments. He attracted scholars to the University. But for him, they would not have come.He made it possible for them to be here, judgingtheir merits or promise on intellectual standardsalone. His objective was to make of the University as a whole a center of independent thoughtand criticism, to combine discovery and discussion, to create an intellectual community in whichspecialists, discoverers, and experimenters, inaddition to their obligation to their specialties,recognized an obligation to talk and understandone another. Characteristically, in his farewelladdress to the faculty, he placed upon himself themoral responsibility that a greater distance towardthe achievement of this dedicated community hadnot been traveled.The goals which Robert Hutchins set oftenwere unrealistic if they meant more than a determined direction. But they were intended to bethis way. He believed in the importance of thenormative. In 1956 he wrote,This of course is not the way things are, but the waythings ought to be. I have assumed the duty of theeducator is to try to change things from the way theyare to the way they ought to be. I do not assume thatall or many of them can be changed. I would remindyou of the words variously attributed to William theSilent and Charles the Bold: I have quoted them overand over. "It is not necessary to hope in order toundertake. Nor to succeed in order to persevere."In his Message to the Young Generation, thefarewell talk to the students at Chicago, he said,"The whole doctrine that we must adjust to ourenvironment, which I take to be the prevailingdoctrine of American education, seems to me radically erroneous. ... If we have to choose between Sancho Panza and Don Quixote, let us byall means choose Don Quixote."The fact was that he acted upon these goals."In practical matters the end is the first principle." He made of himself the example. In spite ofthe burdens of administration, or perhaps becauseof them, he continued to teach and to learn fromteaching. If a community of discussion was required, he would create it. If people were timid to97defend the worthy but unpopular in education oraffecting the good of the republic, he would do so.If there was almost universal acquiescence in thesilly in education, then he would resist it. If it wasimportant but impossible to have intelligencebrought to great speculative and practical issues,he would arrange it. So on the freedom of thepress, the control of atomic energy, a constitutionfor world government.The consequence was that he could evoke aresponse denied to others. The students knewwhat he meant when he reminded them that theend of life is happiness. But that this did not meancontentment, cheerfulness, and self-satisfaction.It meant in the old phrase, activity in accordancewith virtue, or the fullest development of one'shighest powers.He believed in the individual, but he also believed in institutions. A great portion of his lifewas given to creating, recreating, and defendinginstitutions. He knew their aims and methodsoften required reconsideration. He attributed thegreatness of The University of Chicago to thiscontinuous self-scrutiny. In this spirit, in 1955, helooked back upon his own proposals, and in 1964contributed to the idea of the collegiate divisions.The end was to facilitate communication amongthe disciplines throughout the whole educationalprocess, including the graduate levels. The Committee on Social Thought represents that kind ofdirection. The goal is still far away, but no onewho knows The University of Chicago and othereducational institutions could fail to see the distinctive mark of the collectivity, special wholeness, and intellectual excitement of this place. Itwas through institutions he hoped to achieve thatcontinuity of discussion, communion of minds,and reconsideration of values essential to the goodrepublic.In 1968 at this University, at an occasion ofconsiderable sentiment to me and I believe to him,he said, "the line that keeps running through myhead is 'Reclothe us in our rightful mind'." Hesaid, "I think it is not blasphemous to direct itnow to the university. A child of the parsonagemay perhaps be permitted to say that the university is the terrestrial instrument which the authorof our being has placed at our disposal for thepurpose of getting us clothed, and when necessary, reclothed in our rightful mind."It was not intended as such — or perhaps it was,but in any event it was a reminder of what hadbeen and would be the guiding admonition, thestandard of reconsideration for all time, to theUniversity which forever carries within itself the image and the influence of his brilliant mind andnoble spirit.MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONThe Trustees of The University of Chicago record their profound sorrow over the loss ofRobert Maynard Hutchins, who died on May 14,1977.As an educational statesman, a champion ofhuman rights, and advocate of intellectual freedom and integrity, Robert Maynard Hutchins setan example.He was derived from old New England stock,including a seafaring ancestor who sailed on theold clipper ships as well as ministers and educators. His father, William James Hutchins, wasdistinguished both as a minister and as presidentof Berea College in Kentucky.Robert Maynard Hutchins was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 17, 1899. He attendedOberlin Academy, spent two years in OberlinCollege, and then enlisted in the U.S. ambulanceservice in which he served from 1917 to 1919. Inrecognition of his bravery under fire, the Italiangovernment awarded him the Croce di Guerra.Upon his return he entered Yale and after distinguishing himself with high academic honors, obtained his A.B. degree in 1921.After two years as a master of English and history at the Lake Placid School, he became secretary of Yale University, a position he held until1927. During this period, he advanced rapidlyfrom a lecturer in Yale University Law School toprofessor of law, acting dean, and in 1928, dean ofthe Yale University Law School.On April 17, 1929, at the age of thirty, RobertMaynard Hutchins was elected president of TheUniversity of Chicago, and served in that capacityuntil July 1, 1945, when he was elected chancellor,a position he held until June 14, 1951. From May1934 to December 1950, he had also served as amember of the Board of Trustees. On January 14,1971, he was elected Honorary Trustee of theUniversity. At the time of his death, he waschairman of the board of directors of the Fund forthe Republic, Inc. and the Center for the Study ofDemocratic Institutions.As president and chancellor, he presided overthe affairs of the University for twenty-two years,a period of economic depression and state legislative interference; of the Manhattan Project andthe difficult postwar readjustment. During thistime, many far-reaching changes in the organiza-98tion, curricula, and life of the University were implemented.He was a forceful and articulate speaker; anoriginal and iconoclastic thinker. In his concernwith intellectual values, he delivered hundreds ofspeeches and addresses, and wrote numerous articles and books, extolling the merits of a liberaleducation, the life of the mind, and intellectualintegrity."A university exists only to find the truth," heonce said. "If it cannot do this, it disappears."Let us reflect for a moment on the closing linesof his report on The State of The University,1929-1949, covering twenty years of his administration:... A university is a microcosm; it can reflect thedisintegration, confusion, and disorder of the macrocosm. It can mirror the chaos of the world. But,since it is a microcosm, it can, perhaps on a microscopic scale, produce within itself conditions thatmay indicate a path the world may follow. It mayilluminate rather than reflect; it may be a beaconrather than a mirror. This has been the ambition, andI trust it is the destiny, of the University of Chicago.(p. 44)His beacon is not extinguished, but will continue to show the way to those of us who share hisvalues.On behalf of the members of The University ofChicago community, the Board of Trustees express their deepest sympathy to his family.The Board of TrusteesJune 9, 1977 PRESIDENT'S STATEMENTRobert Maynard Hutchins was the youngest president of The University of Chicago, and he remained its chief executive for twenty-two years,longer than anyone else. He had a profound effecton the University. During his tenure here, someof the most remarkable men of the age came to theUniversity to do their research and to teach. Hispersonal style, his eloquence, his wit, made him alegendary figure on this campus and far beyond.His own accomplishments, and the achievements of scholars and students during his time ashead of the University, were many and great; theyare part of the history of the nation. While he willbe remembered for different things, in The University of Chicago he should be especially remembered, and with great admiration, for hisearly and continued courageous defense of thefreedom of each of its faculty and students to explore any idea, to discover and do research freelyand without fear. In that essential fight he wasstrong, he was untiring, he upheld the great tradition of the University, and he was right.John T. WilsonPresident of the UniversityMay 14, 1977THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO RECORDVICE PRESIDENT FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRSRoom 200, Administration Building_ o zTJ I om^ c 333 O •b= © aJ ¦_ JPOSTAGAID,0,ILUNTNO.31 o23B-*. o m s•* ~ oCO 3