Stanford presidential inaugurations through the years
As the university prepares for the inauguration of President Marc Tessier-Lavigne on Oct. 21, Stanford Report takes a look back at past presidential installations.
Stanford “is hallowed by no traditions. It is hampered by none,” David Starr Jordan said on being installed as the university’s founding president on its opening day, Oct. 1, 1891.
In its 125 years, Stanford has installed 11 presidents, almost all in October. The inaugural pageantry has waxed and waned with Stanford’s fortunes and the world’s, and with the tone – celebration, solemnity, aspiration, tough love – that the incoming president has aimed to convey.
Only two Stanford presidents have forgone a formal inauguration – Donald Tresidder in 1943 amid World War II austerity and Richard Lyman in 1970 amid campus unrest. The others, including University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne on Oct. 21, 2016, set their personal stamp on a solemn and memorable event.
This photo history of Stanford presidential inaugurations through the years is annotated by Barbara Wilcox.
First president David Starr Jordan was chosen by founders Jane and Leland Stanford for his departure from educational orthodoxy. For his address under the Quad’s west arch, Jordan wore a suit, not academic robes–the only Stanford president, besides Ray Lyman Wilbur in 1916, to do so. Image credit: A.P. Hill / Stanford University ArchivesIn 1913, geologist John Casper Branner was inaugurated as Jordan’s successor. Branner, second from right, began the Stanford tradition of an inaugural procession. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesIn the wake of 1906 earthquake damage, Branner gave his address from a makeshift stage on the Inner Quad. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesGuests were served this fashionable meal at Branner’s inauguration, while student bands played in the Quad and lantern slides projected congratulatory telegrams onto a screen hung from the Quad’s east arch. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesRay Lyman Wilbur, center of the first row, wore a morning coat and top hat to his inauguration – sober if formal business attire in 1916. “The university should not be something apart from the world about it,” Wilbur said in the newly reopened Memorial Church. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesA transcontinental phone call welcomed Wilbur to the presidency. One hundred extension lines were installed on each end. New York alumni congratulated Wilbur as he sat in Old Union amid a bank of phones into which students, alumni and friends swapped choruses of Hail, Stanford, Hail. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesDuring World War II, instead of an inauguration, Donald Tresidder spoke to students in Memorial Auditorium in 1943. About a month later, students serenaded Tresidder and his wife, Mary, at the presidential residence. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesWallace Sterling was lavishly inaugurated in 1949 in Frost Amphitheater. A banquet for 600 was held at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. NBC Radio carried the inauguration on its Western States feed, broadcasting Stanford’s intent to climb into the top ranks of research universities. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesFor Sterling’s inauguration, more than 575 people in academic robes, including 32 presidents of other colleges, proceeded to Frost Amphitheater from a ceremony in Memorial Church. A brass ensemble in Hoover Tower serenaded from above. Sterling’s address outlined the expanding ambition of postwar universities. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesIn 1968, Kenneth Pitzer, left, took office amid the turmoil of the Vietnam War. Personnel data had gone missing from Stanford offices during an antiwar protest, and some faculty in Pitzer’s inaugural procession heard students yelling out their salaries as they passed by. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesRichard Lyman eschewed an inauguration ceremony in 1970. Instead, he visited alumni in six cities to affirm confidence in the university. One event was held in then-new Maples Pavilion. Lyman’s wife, Jing, was an influential presence on campus. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesBiologist Donald Kennedy, center, became president in 1980. He sought to heal rifts that had emerged during the Vietnam years. Student flag-bearers were chosen from the Human Biology program, which he championed. With Kennedy, Stanford launched the tradition of a custom-tailored presidential gown. The audience of 7,000 was invited to the Quad for refreshments and a receiving line. This too, has become tradition. Image credit: Stanford University ArchivesGerhard Casper emphasized academics and academic freedom in his 1992 inaugural speech, based on Stanford’s motto Die Luft der Freiheit weht, or “the wind of freedom blows.” The reception in the Quad featured Memorial Church, reopened for the first time since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Casper shook hands for more than two hours. Image credit: Chuck Painter / Stanford News ServiceJohn Hennessy’s inauguration in 2000 was the first held to coincide with Reunion Homecoming. In his address, he unveiled the $1 billion Campaign for Undergraduate Education. Afterward, Hennessy and his wife, Andrea, accepted good wishes from Kenyan premed student Kimeli Willson Naiyomah, a member of the Maasai people. Image credit: L.A. CiceroFrost Amphitheater has been the site of Stanford presidential inaugurations since Wallace Sterling’s inauguration in 1949. Alumni in the crowd for the inauguration of President John Hennessy in 2000 were easily identified by their straw hats. Image credit: L.A. Cicero
