Stanford bids a fond farewell to John Bravman
He earned three degrees at Stanford – all in materials science and engineering. As a faculty member he won many honors for his teaching, including the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching – Stanford's highest teaching award. Later, he joined the administration and transformed undergraduate education.
John Bravman, vice provost for undergraduate education, will become president of Bucknell University on July 1.
BY KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN
John Bravman, who arrived at Stanford in 1975 as a first-generation college student from New York City, has spent his entire adult life on the Farm.
Which means there are stories galore – funny, serious, appreciative, poignant, awe-struck, inspirational – and legions of people to tell them.
Asked to provide a list of people who knew him well, Bravman emailed a spreadsheet of three dozen names organized in four categories: freshman-year dorm mates; parents/alumni/friends; faculty and staff colleagues; students. The phrase "golfing buddy, very funny guy" was sprinkled throughout the list.
They were, in turn – and on very short notice – asked to provide anecdotes for a "fond farewell" story for Bravman, who will become president of Bucknell University, a private liberal arts university in Lewisburg, Pa., on July 1.
After decades of cheering for the Cardinal, for teams dressed in red and white, and enjoying the antics of the Tree, Bravman will soon be rooting for the Bisons, for teams dressed in orange and blue, and enjoying the antics of Bucky Bison.
He'll be leaving a university located in Silicon Valley, in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, for a university located in the Susquehanna Valley in rural Pennsylvania.
Freshman Megan Kale and her parents JoAnn and Bob of Ft. Smith, Arkansas, greeted John Bravman as he made the rounds at FroSoCo on Sept. 21, 2001.
As a member of the faculty and later, of the administration, Bravman established a reputation as an extraordinary teacher, an accomplished researcher, a remarkable administrator and an exceptional university citizen.
Speaking for many at Stanford, Linda Meier, a former member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees, wrote:
"We shall miss him greatly and we congratulate Bucknell on having the vision and the wisdom to select John as their leader. They are so fortunate to have all the Bravmans – John, Wendy and Cole – to add to their family, for they will enrich their entire university! We shall take comfort in knowing that no matter what, Stanford will always be a significant part of John's being."
Martin Shell, vice president of the Office of Development, said in an email message that Bravman's presence, passion and engaging personality will be sorely missed. "However, his legacy to Stanford lives on in the many lives and programs he has touched while at The Farm," Shell wrote.
Once a frosh on the Farm
"John and I met on our first day at Stanford in September 1975, both of us New Yorkers that were utterly and completely out of our element in sunny and perfect California," Bud Kroll, '79, wrote in an email message.
Kroll, a retired investment manager, compared being a freshman at Stanford to trying "to take a drink from a fire hose," an experience he shared with Bravman, who lived across the hall on the second floor of Arroyo House in Wilbur Hall.
Kroll, who played in the Stanford Band, is now a jazz drummer and a volunteer high school math tutor in New York City. Back then, he was a little in awe of his friend, the budding engineer who had gotten an "A" in the late math Professor Mary Sunseri's calculus class.
"After dinner each night, John would methodically sharpen a dozen pencils, line them up on his desk, tune his desk radio to San Jose rock station KSJO and attack Prof. Sunseri's calculus problem sets," Kroll wrote.
"Stopping in to distract him much later in the evening, I observed his pencils were mostly ground down, and the pile of completed pages on the right side of the desk had grown. 'Hey, can I ask you a favor?' he said."
Kroll said he wondered what he had that Bravman could possibly need.
Bravman's response: "Can you call KSJO and request this really cool new song, 'More than a Feeling,' by a band called Boston? The guys in the band are engineers who build their own equipment and do their own recording. Wicked cool. But no matter how I disguise my voice, the DJ at the station knows it's me and won't take my requests anymore."
Who needs Netflix? Not the students living in FroSoCo!
Bravman founded Freshman-Sophomore College in 1999, the same year he became vice provost for undergraduate education. The residential college, located in adjoining halls on the west side of campus, was designed for students interested in a broad intellectual exploration of the liberal arts and sciences.
On its webpage, Bravman is listed as one of the top 10 reasons to live in FroSoCo:
"Dean Bravman adds an intellectual and a social dynamic to the dorm by hosting Dean's Dinners and Lunches, having the largest personal DVD collection – 750 titles – on campus, Friday BBQs, and his B.A.D.-ness (ask a current FroSoCo resident what this means.)"
Or ask a FroSoCo alumna.
"We affectionately call John Bravman the 'B.A.D.' – bad ass dean," Jenny Wolochow, '10, wrote in an email. "It started many years ago."
John Bravman joined students to welcome freshmen on Move In Day.
Students say that Bravman, who lives across the street from the residential college with his wife, Wendy, and their newborn son, Cole, lets students rummage through his movie collection – all the titles, alphabetized, are listed on a website.
"At the barbecues, he always came out to sit with us and eat with us, and lately he's been proud to show off his new son, Cole," Wolochow said. "He doesn't mind when students come knocking on his front door and come into his living room to look for a DVD."
A students-first approach – with a personal touch
Aysha Bagchi, '11, history and philosophy, said she would cherish the small ways in which Bravman encouraged her.
"When I emailed the dorm chat list asking if anyone wanted to buy donuts for a public service fundraiser, he told me to buy donuts for the whole dorm out of his pocket and to remind him to do it again the next quarter," she wrote in an email.
"When I wrote my first column in the Stanford Daily, I got an email from him first thing in the morning telling me he enjoyed it. When I won a small award at FroSoCo's end-of-the-year banquet, he came up to me afterward with kind words of congratulation. Whenever I wanted to discuss a university policy, he gave me a listening ear and showed through his actions his belief that my thoughts were worth his time. In the midst of his very busy life, he always made an effort to encourage me to shoot big and believe in myself. For that I will always be grateful," wrote Bagchi, who penned a tribute to Bravman in an April 16 column in the Stanford Daily.
Dan Leifer, an undergraduate majoring in biology, said that during his first year at Stanford he took Bravman's freshman seminar on engineering and innovation.
"One day we were discussing the news and Prof. Bravman asked us how many of us read the Economist," Leifer wrote in an email. "One student piped up: He read the Economist during high school because his parent subscribed to the magazine. But he had stopped reading it in college because he couldn't afford the $100 subscription."
Shortly afterward, Leifer wrote, Bravman arranged for an anonymous donor to buy each of the students a yearlong subscription to the Economist.
"I later discovered that the donor was Prof. Bravman himself," Leifer wrote. "I'm struck by both his generosity and his humility."
Aman Kumar, who earned a bachelor's degree in symbolic systems in 2009 at Stanford and will earn a master's degree in computer science this weekend, said Bravman "singularly defined" his time at Stanford, from the receptions for students admitted under the early admission program to the university's final sendoffs.
"The hallmark of a superlative undergraduate education is the ability to connect with professors, friends and mentors – in Dean Bravman I have found all three and more, and connected deeply," Kumar wrote in an email message.
"He has been my residence dean, materials science professor, academic adviser, Thanksgiving dinner cook and barbeque companion. He has shared in my triumphs and struggles. He was the first person I called when I was admitted to business school and the first person I called when grandmother passed away."
John Bravman's passion for photography was exhibited even during some official university events, here he photographed fellow participants onstage at the 2003 commencement ceremony.
Going the extra mile for parents
Susan Oberndorf said she has known Bravman from two perspectives: as an alumna and as a parent of a Stanford student. Oberndorf said she would never forget the time Bravman drove from Stanford to San Francisco – even though he had thrown out his back and was in severe pain – to be the guest speaker at a dinner for parents.
She said the audience at a recent "Leading Matters" event in Santa Clara saw his devotion to Stanford – and how much the extended university family loved him.
"It was there that we told him that fellow students, parents, alumni and colleagues had created the Bravman Scholarship for an undergraduate student," Oberndorf wrote in an email message. "He got very teary and choked up; the love for the institution was evident in his eyes! This, too, is so John, for even though he is at least 6 feet 6, he really is a big, loveable teddy bear."
Last week, Julia Hartung, senior associate director of development, announced that the Office of Development had already raised $1.6 million for the John C. Bravman Family Scholarship Fund, which will be matched by president's funds.
Rob Swanson, the father of three sons who attended Stanford, befriended Bravman when Swanson and his wife joined the Stanford Parents Advisory Board.
"John has always put the students' interest and well-being first, even when dealing with his own personal challenges," Swanson wrote in an email. "He works tirelessly on their behalf. John even took time out of his busy schedule to visit my son at our house outside Boston when my son was going through cancer treatment. There are very few college administrators who would do something like that."
A tireless advocate and a superb fundraiser
When it comes to fundraising, Shell called Bravman the "go to" person for "engaging and closing gift conversations."
Shell credited Bravman's efforts for the success of the Campaign for Undergraduate Education, a five-year project that ended in 2005 and raised more than $1 billion.
Hartung said everyone in the development office is asking: What are we going to do without John Bravman?
"I looked back at my calendar at the countless events, individual appointments, breakfasts, lunches and dinners, working the Office of Development into whatever travel he was doing – all 4 million miles of it! – developing close relationships with donors while always thinking about how to move the relationship along for Stanford," Hartung wrote in an email message. "I found one email where John responded to yet another request for his time on behalf of our office and his reply (probably written at 1 in the morning!) was, 'For OOD, anytime, anywhere. jb.'"
John Bravman during the Campaign for Undergraduate Education Alumni Event at Treasure Island in March, 2002.
Humble yet larger than life
In a new video on the Stanford Fund website, Bravman, wearing sunglasses and a suit, strides in slow motion through one of the sandstone arcades in the Main Quad. He also is seen hanging out with students at a picnic. The camera pans across an open page in a yearbook slowing down to focus on a young Bravman with long hair, bangs swept across his forehead – no glasses. The grown-up Bravman says:
"I came to Stanford in 1975 as a first-generation college student. I grew up in New York City and came across the country, having done really well in high school. I can well remember going to Meyer Library the first night of school, opening up my Chem 31 textbook and thinking: I really don't belong here. I struggled so much at Stanford that Stanford – as I tell students – almost asked me to take some time off. But in the spring of my sophomore year, that really changed. I met a faculty member teaching an introductory materials science class and I formed a bond with him that completely turned around my career at Stanford."
Secret Order of the Mystical Muffin
One of the "golfing buddy, very funny guy" people on Bravman's list was Jeff Koseff, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and co-director of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford.
"Everyone knows what a great cook John is and what a gracious host he is," Koseff wrote in an email. "But few people know about his prowess as a baker."
Koseff, who is a member of a foursome that meets at first light on Saturdays or Sundays at the Stanford Golf Course, said that at the 10th hole, Bravman opens his golf bag and retrieves a batch of freshly made muffins.
"In order to bake them he has to get up at around 4 a.m., but come rain or shine, John never fails us with his delicious muffins," Koseff wrote.
"To honor this tradition we formed the Secret Order of the Mystical Muffin. Its membership is very exclusive and will not be revealed. But everyone in this Order has sampled John's delicious muffins many times. This is a requirement for membership! When John is not able to play with us, he has been known to show up at the 10th tee, muffins in hand and a little coffee too. George Springer swears that his palate starts salivating in a Pavlovian fashion as we walk up the 9th fairway just thinking about the muffins."
What would Jane and Leland say?
In an email, Howard Wolf, head of the Sanford Alumni Association, wrote:
"I have literally travelled the world with John Bravman, in our collective and never-ending goal to reach, serve and engage our alumni and create lifelong intellectual and emotional connections between the university and its graduates. And who better than John to make this happen?
"After all, John Bravman personifies Stanford. When Jane and Leland founded our university, they wanted to create useful, cultured citizens who would become leaders in their fields and devote themselves to the betterment of mankind.
"In other words, they wanted to create John Bravmans.
"Useful? As a scholar and an administrator, John has left an indelible mark on Stanford and scores upon scores of students he has mentored. He doesn't just talk about how things should be, he makes things happen.
"Cultured? John Bravman is as cultured as they come! Is there anyone on this campus more a 'foodie' than John Bravman? And only Harry Elam [drama professor] surpasses him in sartorial, cultured elegance at Stanford!
"A leader? John Bravman has led in so many ways, as vice provost for undergraduate education, as dean of FroSoCo, as founder of Potter College. And, all along the way, John has done so with the perfect combination of confidence, aplomb and humor.
"The betterment of mankind? Deep down inside, this boy from Long Island who came to the Farm and never left has devoted his life to the academy and its mission. And through his deep connection to his students, he has helped to hone future leaders as they go off to make the world a better place. Just like Leland and Jane had in mind.
"No one is irreplaceable or indispensable at a place like Stanford. On that we can all agree. But it is hard – very hard – for me to think of a Stanford without John Bravman. Although Stanford will continue to thrive, John Bravman will be missed. Bucknell is very lucky … luckier than it knows!"
Greetings, Bucknell Class of 2014!
Bravman, who was named the 17th president of Bucknell on April 12, has already connected with the incoming freshmen at Bucknell through a Facebook page.
"My name is John Bravman, and like you, I will be a freshman on campus next year ... you will be new students, and I will be the new President of Bucknell. We only get ONE freshman year, so let's make it the very best ever! You can read a bit about me on the Bucknell website. I look forward to meeting all of you soon!"