50th Anniversary Convocation (April 12, 1975)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(people chattering indistinctly) | 0:05 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 1:18 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 3:42 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 5:07 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 6:15 | |
(papers shuffling) | 9:32 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 10:00 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 13:40 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 15:57 | |
(people shuffling) | 17:07 | |
(gentle orchestral music) | 17:20 | |
(people shuffling) | 18:15 | |
(grand organ music) | 18:51 | |
Prayer Leader | Let us pray. | 30:00 |
O God, transcendent and eminent, | 30:03 | |
majestic and simple, awesome and loving. | 30:07 | |
We give you thanks and praise for the sanctity | 30:12 | |
and sacredness of this day and of this weekend, | 30:16 | |
set apart to remind us of our heritage | 30:20 | |
and to confront us with our future. | 30:22 | |
O God, we thank you for those characteristics | 30:26 | |
which have been the hallmarks of this university, | 30:29 | |
these 50 years. | 30:32 | |
Distinction, and service, and fame, and struggle, | 30:35 | |
and pain, and growth, and discovery, and caring. | 30:39 | |
Gifts of love from your spirit to those who have lived here, | 30:44 | |
learned here, and left here to serve you | 30:49 | |
and their neighbors. | 30:52 | |
We give thanks for this university | 30:56 | |
where the chapel is seen as the center of the campus, | 30:57 | |
and where religion is seen as the heart of our personal | 31:01 | |
and corporate lives. | 31:04 | |
Where understanding and knowledge are our common goals, | 31:06 | |
and learning is the constant companion of us all. | 31:09 | |
May we accept, O God, the words of this occasion | 31:15 | |
as symbolic of your shared wisdom. | 31:20 | |
The fellowship of this gathering | 31:24 | |
as symbolic of your ever-present love. | 31:26 | |
The joys of this day as symbolic of your goodness. | 31:29 | |
May Duke University and all who represent it | 31:34 | |
be a light of truth in a world of darkness, | 31:38 | |
a witness to freedom in a world where many are enslaved, | 31:41 | |
and a bearer of justice to all | 31:46 | |
in a world where many are deprived. | 31:49 | |
O God, praise be to you for your caring in the past, | 31:53 | |
your presence in the now, and your promise for the future. | 31:59 | |
Amen. | 32:05 | |
(people shuffling) | 32:07 | |
President | 50 years ago, right now, | 32:29 |
the skeptics and the cynics of the country | 32:32 | |
were having a field day. | 32:35 | |
They were snickering at a bunch of Southerners | 32:38 | |
who were trying to turn a little Methodist college | 32:42 | |
into a great national university, | 32:46 | |
right in the middle of this deprived region, | 32:49 | |
that still was less than 50 years out | 32:51 | |
from being occupied by federal troops, | 32:54 | |
following the Civil War. | 32:56 | |
They chortled about how quaint those Southerners were, | 33:00 | |
how quixotic. | 33:04 | |
One of the nation's leading magazines scoffed at those | 33:06 | |
who thought they could build a great university | 33:11 | |
the same way they built tobacco factories, | 33:13 | |
by just putting enough bricks and mortar together, | 33:15 | |
and journalist H.L. Mencken agreed | 33:19 | |
and said that the new school | 33:22 | |
would be running the students in on the railroad spur | 33:23 | |
with the bricks and the mortar. | 33:26 | |
Other observers and commentators were less kind. | 33:29 | |
In a way, those cynics were right | 33:38 | |
when they compared the Southern attitude | 33:42 | |
toward universities and tobacco factories. | 33:44 | |
Any cynic who looked at this country as red clay earth | 33:47 | |
and saw it as a barren land. | 33:51 | |
But the Dukes saw it as fertile ground. | 33:55 | |
And the Dukes were right. | 34:00 | |
In agriculture, and in education too. | 34:02 | |
When J.B. Duke began developing hydroelectric power | 34:07 | |
for his home region of the Carolinas, | 34:12 | |
he talked idealistically about harnessing | 34:15 | |
the great resources of this region, | 34:18 | |
and translating them into benefits | 34:22 | |
for the people of this region, | 34:24 | |
the people who properly owned those resources. | 34:28 | |
And later when he signed the indenture | 34:32 | |
providing for the creation of Duke University, | 34:34 | |
he talked in the same idealistic terms. | 34:38 | |
And the cynics and the skeptics laughed. | 34:44 | |
But 50 years later, we come here to this campus, | 34:47 | |
to find that idealism turned to reality. | 34:51 | |
It's worth remembering that the same kind of skepticism, | 34:57 | |
but in a much milder degree, | 35:01 | |
greeted the proposals to create great national universities | 35:03 | |
in the Midwest at Chicago and on the west coast at Stanford. | 35:06 | |
And it's worth remarking that today, | 35:11 | |
that kind of regional snobbery | 35:14 | |
is very obviously obsolescent. | 35:16 | |
If Duke University had made no other contribution than that, | 35:20 | |
and that kind of contribution | 35:23 | |
to the power and the force of America, | 35:26 | |
to our still developing American society, | 35:29 | |
that alone would've given cause for celebration today. | 35:32 | |
Happily, we come here to celebrate far more than that. | 35:36 | |
We come here to celebrate | 35:40 | |
all that this remarkable university has achieved | 35:42 | |
by transcending those archaic limits of regionalism. | 35:46 | |
Here, 50 years after the founding, | 35:50 | |
Duke University no longer needs to be known | 35:53 | |
as just a Southern university. | 35:56 | |
We can forget, forever, that label | 35:59 | |
of the "anything university of the South." | 36:01 | |
Our medical center, for example, | 36:06 | |
is no longer the medical capital of the South, | 36:09 | |
but it is a, if not the, medical capital of the nation. | 36:11 | |
Our scholarship is no longer the scholarship | 36:17 | |
of one of the best universities in the South, | 36:19 | |
but it is leading scholarship for the nation. | 36:22 | |
It is true that the benefits generated by this university | 36:28 | |
first served its native region. | 36:31 | |
But in fact, they became too great | 36:36 | |
to be contained by regionalism. | 36:40 | |
The contributions that Duke University makes today | 36:44 | |
are contributions to the state and to the South, | 36:46 | |
but they are more than that. | 36:50 | |
They're contributions to humankind, and to history. | 36:52 | |
To our common history. Our common humanity. | 36:56 | |
And that, after all, is the greatest contribution | 37:01 | |
that Duke University could ever make to its own region, | 37:03 | |
to move it beyond the need for regionalism. | 37:08 | |
We have maintained our own regional identification, | 37:12 | |
and in fact, we have bonded it when it was proper. | 37:16 | |
But we have also asserted our national identification, | 37:21 | |
and our national place, when that was appropriate. | 37:24 | |
And this way, we have become, to our own state, | 37:29 | |
what no state institution can become. | 37:33 | |
And we have become, to this, our nation, | 37:36 | |
what no other national university | 37:40 | |
in any other region could become. | 37:42 | |
We have been able to do this because we have been blessed | 37:47 | |
with the service and the stewardship | 37:50 | |
of the best North Carolinians, the best Southerners, | 37:53 | |
and the best Americans we could attract. | 37:56 | |
That selfless service of three generations of Americans | 38:00 | |
is now institutionalized in Duke University. | 38:04 | |
Today, when we gather to honor Duke University, | 38:09 | |
we honor all those great men and women, | 38:12 | |
many, many of whom are in this audience today, | 38:15 | |
and some of whom are on this program, | 38:20 | |
who have, with their broad-minded, far-sighted intelligence, | 38:23 | |
and their humanitarian souls, | 38:29 | |
so blessed this state, this region, this America. | 38:31 | |
We face our problems today with that same kind of spirit, | 38:36 | |
and we prepare for the challenges of tomorrow | 38:41 | |
with that same kind of spirit. | 38:44 | |
We welcome you all to this happy celebration. | 38:46 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 39:08 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 39:10 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 39:13 | |
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♪ Alleluia ♪ | 39:35 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 39:42 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 39:46 | |
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♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 40:21 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 40:26 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 40:29 | |
♪ Alleluia, oh, alleluia ♪ | 40:32 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 40:35 | |
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♪ Alleluia ♪ | 40:44 | |
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♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 41:11 | |
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♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 41:33 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 41:39 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 41:42 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 41:44 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 41:47 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 41:50 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 41:53 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 41:55 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 42:01 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 42:05 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 42:09 | |
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♪ Alleluia ♪ | 42:39 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 42:50 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 43:03 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 43:29 | |
(people shuffling) | 43:46 | |
Male Speaker 1 | Mr. President, distinguished guests, | 43:53 |
and members of the Duke community. | 43:56 | |
There could be no more appropriate person to talk to us | 44:00 | |
this afternoon, in this fitting observance | 44:02 | |
of the 50th Anniversary of Duke University, | 44:04 | |
than Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, | 44:08 | |
closely connected as she is to Duke University, | 44:10 | |
through family, through education, and through service. | 44:13 | |
She is part of Duke's founding family. | 44:18 | |
Her great-grandfather, Washington Duke, | 44:20 | |
and her grandfather, Benjamin N. Duke, | 44:22 | |
were among the chief benefactors of Trinity College | 44:25 | |
for 30 years before her great uncle, James Buchanan Duke, | 44:27 | |
signed the indenture on December 11, 1924, | 44:31 | |
which provided the funds | 44:35 | |
which transformed Trinity College into Duke University. | 44:36 | |
And today she serves as Vice Chairman of the Duke Endowment | 44:40 | |
created by that indenture. | 44:44 | |
Tangible reminders of the distaff side of her family, | 44:46 | |
are the Sarah P. Duke Memorial Gardens, | 44:48 | |
named for her grandmother, | 44:51 | |
the Nanaline H. Duke Building for Medical Sciences, | 44:53 | |
named for her great aunt, | 44:56 | |
and the Mary Duke Biddle Music Building, | 44:58 | |
named for her mother. | 45:01 | |
She is a graduate of the Women's College of Duke University. | 45:03 | |
She has served for many years on our board of trustees, | 45:06 | |
and she is currently chairman | 45:10 | |
of its Committee on Academic Affairs | 45:11 | |
and a member of the Executive Committee of the Board. | 45:13 | |
Her family and her education enrich her service, | 45:16 | |
for she brings to the board a firsthand knowledge | 45:19 | |
of the traditions of the university, | 45:22 | |
and a firsthand knowledge | 45:23 | |
of the educational opportunities it offers. | 45:25 | |
When these are combined with her keen intelligence | 45:29 | |
and gentle spirit, they set for the rest of us, | 45:31 | |
both an example, and an inspiration. | 45:34 | |
To the Durham community, Mary Semans is a warm friend | 45:37 | |
and civic leader. | 45:40 | |
She and her husband, Dr. James Semans, | 45:42 | |
were the first recipients of the Humanitarian Freedom Award | 45:44 | |
presented by the Durham chapter of Hadassah, | 45:47 | |
and she was recognized by the Durham Chamber of Commerce | 45:50 | |
as the community's most outstanding citizen in 1958. | 45:53 | |
To the State of North Carolina, | 45:57 | |
Mary is a participant in government, and patron of the arts. | 45:58 | |
She's a member of the board of directors | 46:02 | |
of the North Carolina Museum of Arts, | 46:03 | |
and is chairman | 46:05 | |
of the Executive Mansion Fine Arts Committee. | 46:06 | |
She and her husband are recipients | 46:09 | |
of the North Carolina Governor's Award, | 46:10 | |
as well as the Morrison Award, | 46:12 | |
for their contribution to the arts in North Carolina. | 46:14 | |
Nationally, she and Jim Semans have received | 46:18 | |
the National Brotherhood Award, | 46:19 | |
presented by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, | 46:21 | |
for distinguished service in the field of human relations, | 46:25 | |
and she's a member of the special projects panel | 46:28 | |
of the National Endowment for the Arts. | 46:30 | |
All who know Mary recognize that her compassion | 46:34 | |
and concern for the dignity of mankind | 46:36 | |
and the quality of life, parallel and intertwine | 46:40 | |
with her dedication to the cause of higher education, | 46:43 | |
and her love of the arts. | 46:46 | |
All of us call on her for counsel and advice, | 46:48 | |
which she gives generously, | 46:50 | |
and without yet impairing her roles as devoted wife | 46:52 | |
and loving mother of seven children. | 46:56 | |
It is now our privilege | 46:59 | |
to hear from this great lady of Duke University, | 47:00 | |
Mary Semans. | 47:03 | |
Mary Semans | Mr. Chairman, you are much too kind. | 47:10 |
Mr. President, distinguished guests, | 47:13 | |
friends of Duke University, | 47:17 | |
and members of the total Duke University family. | 47:19 | |
Good afternoon. | 47:24 | |
It is indeed a golden afternoon. | 47:26 | |
Thanks to the keen eye of one of Duke's recent graduates, | 47:31 | |
I discovered the following words | 47:35 | |
of President William Preston Few, | 47:36 | |
expressing his educational philosophy written in 1904, | 47:39 | |
during the period following the Bassett Affair, | 47:44 | |
landmark in the history of academic freedom | 47:47 | |
at Trinity College. | 47:49 | |
"I believe the supreme need in Southern education," | 47:52 | |
he said, "is a small number of well-equipped | 47:55 | |
and well endowed colleges for men and women, | 47:59 | |
so organized and so controlled | 48:02 | |
as to become true seats of learning | 48:04 | |
and large centers of influence. | 48:06 | |
Such colleges must stand fast for truth and freedom. | 48:10 | |
There is much in life which tends to put undue emphasis | 48:14 | |
on the local and temporary, | 48:18 | |
and to obscure the universal and permanent. | 48:20 | |
The educated should not spend their lives | 48:23 | |
in easeful, kid glove seclusion from their fellows, | 48:25 | |
but in the stream of the world. | 48:30 | |
They ought to be gallant, | 48:32 | |
and thoroughly disciplined soldiers in the long warfare | 48:34 | |
for the emancipation of humanity | 48:37 | |
out of darkness and ignorance, into light and truth." | 48:40 | |
That's Dr. Few. | 48:45 | |
This was, in effect, his definition | 48:48 | |
of an ideal private institution. | 48:50 | |
As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Duke University, | 48:55 | |
what may we say to President Few | 48:58 | |
about the fulfillment of his aspiration? | 49:01 | |
Far too often, in our day, this term, "private," | 49:05 | |
is only ritualistic, | 49:08 | |
and the distinction between public and private is blurred. | 49:10 | |
Too often, the word is merely a screen | 49:14 | |
which conceals conformity. | 49:16 | |
Such institutions become copies of accepted models, | 49:20 | |
wherein excellence has not been measured. | 49:23 | |
In its purest meaning, the private university | 49:26 | |
must be a special sort of thing. | 49:30 | |
As far as possible free from controls, | 49:33 | |
its support largely from private sources, | 49:36 | |
selective as to quality and size, a standard-setter. | 49:38 | |
It must become a stimulator of the unusual, | 49:44 | |
even of the eccentric vision. | 49:47 | |
It can perform a function of supplying the risk capital | 49:50 | |
of intellectual activity. | 49:55 | |
Inherent in the freedom of the private institution | 49:58 | |
is its ability to move quickly and be elastic. | 50:01 | |
Example, a public institution, | 50:05 | |
when offered a superb educational program, | 50:08 | |
responded negatively when faced with the importance | 50:11 | |
of the speed of decision. | 50:14 | |
This was recent. | 50:16 | |
The researcher involved was advised to try Duke, | 50:17 | |
which, being the private institution, | 50:21 | |
could respond more readily, with less restriction | 50:22 | |
and bureaucratic red tape. | 50:26 | |
Duke received the grant, the service, and the program. | 50:28 | |
It allowed for the unanticipated. | 50:33 | |
In the anniversary issue of the Alumni Register, | 50:37 | |
Earl Porter comments on the wisdom of Trinity and Duke | 50:39 | |
having avoided the bandwagon. | 50:43 | |
Dr. Few's term was, "gusts of wisdom." | 50:45 | |
The force of tradition must be recognized, | 50:49 | |
but skepticism about pedagogical fashion is sound, | 50:51 | |
only so long as it does not grow into self-satisfaction | 50:55 | |
and does not cling to a concept, | 50:59 | |
past the point of intellectual reward. | 51:02 | |
It is necessary to stimulate the imaginative | 51:05 | |
and even be ready for serendipity. | 51:09 | |
Duke must not be part of the drift toward homogenization. | 51:12 | |
Example, Western land-grant colleges must be observed | 51:18 | |
with regard to creative thinking in the arts. | 51:23 | |
The recognition of the strong arts leadership | 51:26 | |
in public institutions of higher education can be seen | 51:29 | |
in the increased public and private funding | 51:32 | |
of their programs and concepts. | 51:36 | |
Many private Eastern schools still hold to the anachronism | 51:38 | |
that doing creatively is developing a skill, | 51:42 | |
not as intellectually respectable | 51:46 | |
as thinking and writing creatively. | 51:48 | |
A painting hanging at the Whitney, | 51:51 | |
or a performance with a New York Philharmonic | 51:53 | |
should be recognized on the same plane as a scholarly paper. | 51:55 | |
What is our attitude? | 52:00 | |
Well, we have moved ahead. | 52:02 | |
Duke has been known through the years for its fine choir | 52:04 | |
and organ programs. | 52:08 | |
Now, for example, there's a string quartet, a museum, | 52:10 | |
and composers and artists-in-residence. | 52:14 | |
Learning evolves. | 52:16 | |
From time to time, we have to remind ourselves | 52:19 | |
that the bedrock reason | 52:21 | |
for an educational institution, is learning. | 52:24 | |
From the adaptation of older classical | 52:27 | |
and humanistic learning, | 52:30 | |
to the rise of the experimental sciences, | 52:32 | |
and the later development of the social sciences, | 52:34 | |
the arts have come slowly into focus. | 52:37 | |
President Bok of Harvard says that an understanding | 52:40 | |
and competence in the arts is one of the lasting values, | 52:43 | |
which we have reason to hope can be enhanced | 52:46 | |
by attending a liberal arts college. | 52:48 | |
Private faculties, in many cases, however, | 52:52 | |
have been slow to realize that study and performance | 52:54 | |
are closely interrelated. | 52:57 | |
One enhancing the capacity to understand the other. | 52:59 | |
That the most exciting prospects for curriculum development | 53:03 | |
are in the integration of these two methods | 53:06 | |
of aesthetic experience and understanding. | 53:09 | |
So tradition for tradition's sake is, as we know, | 53:12 | |
no better than change for the sake of change. | 53:16 | |
When Dr. Few asked educators to spend their lives | 53:19 | |
in the stream of the world, | 53:22 | |
in the warfare for the emancipation of humanity, | 53:24 | |
he was saying that their judgements | 53:27 | |
must involve the total value to society. | 53:29 | |
The key is constant reassessment. | 53:34 | |
Dr. Few and Mr. Duke designed Duke to be special. | 53:38 | |
Not imitative of some accepted pattern, | 53:42 | |
but as one of the small band | 53:45 | |
of great creative communities of the world. | 53:47 | |
This is high purpose. | 53:52 | |
Educational standard-setting met its difficulties | 53:54 | |
in the early part of the century, | 53:57 | |
as the president pointed out. | 53:58 | |
In the economy of today, it meets difficulty too. | 54:01 | |
But now, as then, we know what the expectations are. | 54:05 | |
With a common sympathy, patience, and mutual understanding | 54:10 | |
of the difficulties of creative problem solving, | 54:16 | |
we will sustain. | 54:19 | |
We have spoken for the need of responsiveness and buoyancy | 54:21 | |
in the private university, | 54:26 | |
and yet, there's another broad, but distinctive, | 54:27 | |
identifying mark of such a place. | 54:29 | |
A private institution, in being able to determine its size, | 54:32 | |
can individualize its services. | 54:35 | |
The student who chooses this direction does so | 54:39 | |
because he wants a personal relationship | 54:41 | |
with his associates. | 54:44 | |
This mustn't be underplayed. | 54:46 | |
It indicates something special in that student. | 54:47 | |
He hopes that his life will receive a permanent imprint | 54:51 | |
from his professors, that it will be humanized. | 54:53 | |
This sort of personalization is developed | 54:58 | |
by teachers and students caring for each other, | 55:00 | |
forming a sort of connective tissue for the university. | 55:03 | |
It applies to all aspects of such an institution, | 55:08 | |
to the patient who expects a more personalized treatment | 55:11 | |
from those whom he comes in contact with, | 55:13 | |
to the employee who expects to achieve | 55:17 | |
a special dignity. | 55:19 | |
And it applies to employers, | 55:22 | |
who expect from those employees | 55:24 | |
a particular sort of loyalty to the institution. | 55:27 | |
In the character of Duke University, | 55:32 | |
has been a sense of vital identification | 55:33 | |
with its own people. | 55:36 | |
In the years to come, | 55:37 | |
with the complications of this society, | 55:39 | |
we may have to work even harder at this. | 55:41 | |
John Knowles of the Rockefeller Foundation, | 55:45 | |
one of Duke's trustees, | 55:48 | |
when interviewed in the National Press recently, | 55:50 | |
commented about our times. | 55:52 | |
"We can all behave better." | 55:55 | |
Ada Louise Huxtable, in the New York Times, | 55:59 | |
asks where delight has gone in the life of 1975? | 56:02 | |
And a physician sighs to his colleague | 56:06 | |
in the halls of Duke Hospital, | 56:08 | |
"let's retrieve the lost joy in the practice of medicine." | 56:12 | |
Mr. Duke, we find, thought a lot about attitudes. | 56:18 | |
He asked that those who teach here uplift mankind, | 56:21 | |
in addition to specified disciplines, | 56:25 | |
he emphasized the teaching of the lives | 56:28 | |
of the great of earth, because, he said, | 56:30 | |
"I believe that such subjects will most help | 56:33 | |
to develop our resources, increase our wisdom, | 56:36 | |
and promote human happiness." | 56:39 | |
He asked that care and discrimination be exercised | 56:41 | |
in admitting students whose record showed character, | 56:45 | |
determination, and application, | 56:48 | |
evincing a wholesome and real ambition for life. | 56:50 | |
He would not, for instance, have expected us | 56:55 | |
to treat the rise in cheating as a passing problem | 56:57 | |
of our competitive society of 1975. | 57:00 | |
But Mr. Duke believed in the integrity of the young | 57:05 | |
and he had high expectations for them. | 57:08 | |
He gathered around him young people | 57:11 | |
to stimulate ideas and concepts, | 57:13 | |
and he asked that Duke secure, | 57:16 | |
for its officers and trustees, | 57:17 | |
those of outstanding character, ability, and vision. | 57:19 | |
In order, he said, that the institution attain and maintain | 57:23 | |
a position of leadership in the educational world. | 57:26 | |
Here again, quality of person emphasized. | 57:30 | |
In a letter to George Allen, chairman of the Duke Endowment, | 57:35 | |
written when she relinquished her trusteeship | 57:39 | |
to a younger member, Mr. Duke's wife, | 57:41 | |
Mrs. Nanaline Duke, wrote, | 57:44 | |
"I know that only | 57:47 | |
by constantly bringing into our group of trustees, | 57:48 | |
young people with fresh ideas, | 57:52 | |
can we continue to properly keep the Duke Endowment, | 57:54 | |
the live, modern institution, | 57:57 | |
totally capable of carrying out its responsibilities | 58:00 | |
in our ever-changing world that my husband envisioned. | 58:03 | |
We must not forget that my husband appointed two trustees | 58:08 | |
who were younger than this," 37, | 58:12 | |
"and the average ages of all the trustees that he appointed | 58:15 | |
was considerably under 50." | 58:19 | |
This demonstrates the burning hope | 58:23 | |
of that founding generation, several of whom | 58:25 | |
were still alive in the fifties, that the Duke institutions | 58:28 | |
receive constant refreshment and vitalization. | 58:32 | |
Mr. Duke also made clear that this must be a place | 58:36 | |
which feels responsibility for qualities beyond the mind. | 58:39 | |
From the early training he and his sister and brothers | 58:44 | |
received from their father, | 58:47 | |
Mr. Duke realized the importance of the spiritual. | 58:50 | |
By requesting that this chapel be in a central position, | 58:55 | |
he showed his hope that the intangibles, | 58:58 | |
ethics and honor, humility, compassion, and faith, | 59:01 | |
be held high. | 59:04 | |
The concept may be old-fashioned, | 59:06 | |
but the accountability which we value so highly today | 59:09 | |
rests on old-fashioned responsibility. | 59:12 | |
And without the old absolutes, we seem to drift. | 59:15 | |
Our civilization may well be remembered | 59:19 | |
as much for its artistic and spiritual contributions | 59:21 | |
as for its scientific and scholarly discoveries. | 59:25 | |
This is indeed a moment of honor for this university. | 59:29 | |
With us today is a group of faculty members, staff members, | 59:34 | |
and non-academic employees who symbolize | 59:40 | |
the striving toward the goals, | 59:43 | |
which Dr. Few and Mr. Duke set. | 59:45 | |
These remarkable people were all in the service | 59:49 | |
of Trinity College at the time of the founding | 59:53 | |
of Duke University. | 59:56 | |
We were hopeful that each member of this group | 59:58 | |
could march in the procession and attend this occasion. | 1:00:01 | |
But we would be so thrilled | 1:00:05 | |
if those who were able to be present today | 1:00:07 | |
would rise and be recognized. | 1:00:10 | |
Would you please rise? | 1:00:12 | |
(audience applauds) | 1:00:18 | |
The names of these dedicated people, | 1:00:31 | |
those who were standing, and those not able to be here, | 1:00:34 | |
are printed in today's program. | 1:00:39 | |
We all join in grasping your hands and thanking each of you | 1:00:42 | |
with heartfelt fervor. | 1:00:48 | |
You are truly appreciated. | 1:00:51 | |
And that goes for everyone who is not here, | 1:00:55 | |
and each one of you who is here. | 1:00:58 | |
You have set the tone for this institution. | 1:01:00 | |
It was deemed appropriate by those who planned this occasion | 1:01:04 | |
to recognize from this group, three representatives, | 1:01:09 | |
three distinguished scholars who taught at Trinity College | 1:01:15 | |
before it became Duke University. | 1:01:18 | |
Who remained at Duke, completed their academic careers here, | 1:01:22 | |
and have continued their scholarly activities | 1:01:27 | |
ever since that time. | 1:01:31 | |
That their careers have spanned both institutions | 1:01:35 | |
with service, teaching, research, and dedication, | 1:01:39 | |
personify what we are recognizing today. | 1:01:44 | |
Those whom we honor | 1:01:48 | |
demonstrate the combined characteristics | 1:01:50 | |
which with the passing of years | 1:01:52 | |
have been building into tradition. | 1:01:54 | |
They set high standards. They expected the best. | 1:01:58 | |
These qualities must be worked on, verbalized, | 1:02:02 | |
and held up to the light to become factors of consciousness. | 1:02:06 | |
Then the tradition becomes the personality | 1:02:10 | |
of the institution. | 1:02:13 | |
As we honor our pioneers, | 1:02:14 | |
and as we feel this wave of admiration, caring, | 1:02:17 | |
and devotion, we come closer to the feeling | 1:02:21 | |
that the Duke spirit, which our founders hoped for, | 1:02:25 | |
has gained really forward motion. | 1:02:29 | |
Spirit is an ephemeral thing, a binding thing, | 1:02:33 | |
an affectionate exchange about the past. | 1:02:40 | |
A vital self-criticism. | 1:02:43 | |
A comfortable feeling of place in this city | 1:02:46 | |
and in this state. | 1:02:50 | |
It is a preposterous sense of loyalty. | 1:02:52 | |
A sense of each other. | 1:02:56 | |
A sense of community through good times and bad times. | 1:02:59 | |
Through hard decisions and easy ones. | 1:03:04 | |
It is laughter and love and a reaching. | 1:03:08 | |
And it is a dazzling touch, which identifies Duke as unique. | 1:03:13 | |
If we keep caring, as we have during these 50 years, | 1:03:20 | |
if we keep trusting that wonderful may take place, | 1:03:24 | |
we may never know, we should probably never know, | 1:03:30 | |
when that tradition will envelop us. | 1:03:34 | |
It may have already, but it just doesn't happen. | 1:03:38 | |
It has been nourished | 1:03:44 | |
by these University family members honored today. | 1:03:47 | |
And so it must be continued, throughout the generations. | 1:03:51 | |
Therein lies the joy. | 1:03:59 | |
(audience applauds) | 1:04:05 | |
Female Speaker | Honorary degrees will now be conferred | 1:04:22 |
upon these three emeritus professors. | 1:04:25 | |
Each candidate will be presented by a member | 1:04:29 | |
of the Board of Trustees, | 1:04:31 | |
and each candidate will be accompanied by a member | 1:04:34 | |
of the faculty of Duke University. | 1:04:37 | |
The three trustees who will sponsor these candidates | 1:04:40 | |
and present them one by one, are Mr. W.M. Upchurch, | 1:04:45 | |
Mr. Marshall Pickens, and Dr. John H. Knowles. | 1:04:50 | |
(papers shuffling) | 1:05:01 | |
Presenter 1 | Mr. President, it is my pleasure | 1:05:16 |
to present to you and to all of those assembled here, | 1:05:19 | |
Professor Allen H. Gilbert, as a candidate | 1:05:26 | |
for the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature. | 1:05:32 | |
Dr. Gilbert's nomination has been approved by the faculties | 1:05:37 | |
through the Academic Council, and by the Board of Trustees | 1:05:42 | |
of Duke University. | 1:05:47 | |
Accompanied by his faculty sponsor, | 1:05:50 | |
Professor John Leon Lievsay, | 1:05:53 | |
I present to you Professor Allen H. Gilbert. | 1:05:58 | |
President | We welcome your return, | 1:06:09 |
Professor Gilbert, to the halls of Trinity Duke, | 1:06:11 | |
where you have long been a symbol of ego, broad-visioned, | 1:06:15 | |
unselfishly shared pursuit and interpretation | 1:06:19 | |
of literature and thought, which are the enduring marks | 1:06:22 | |
of the effective humanist. | 1:06:25 | |
You have accomplished much on this campus, | 1:06:29 | |
in teaching and research, | 1:06:32 | |
and in helping to build up the library's collections, | 1:06:34 | |
but, early and late, the world beyond these bounds | 1:06:38 | |
also has been made aware of your unceasing efforts. | 1:06:42 | |
Even during your alleged retirement. | 1:06:47 | |
Scholarship and letters have benefited | 1:06:50 | |
from your renewed interpretations of Plato and Aristotle. | 1:06:52 | |
From your enduring concern with problems of criticism. | 1:06:56 | |
From your perspective studies of such English giants | 1:07:00 | |
as Spencer and Johnson and Milton, | 1:07:04 | |
your presence does us honor. | 1:07:07 | |
Speaking for us all, and by the authority vested in me, | 1:07:10 | |
I confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Literature, | 1:07:13 | |
and I admit you to its rights, its privileges, | 1:07:18 | |
and its obligations. | 1:07:21 | |
- | [Allan H. Gilbert] Thank you. | 1:07:24 |
(audience applauds) | 1:07:26 | |
(papers shuffling) | 1:07:55 | |
Presenter 2 | President Sanford, | 1:08:14 |
it is a great honor and a personal pleasure | 1:08:21 | |
to present to you and to all assembled here, | 1:08:25 | |
Professor Paul M. Gross, as a candidate | 1:08:28 | |
for the honorary degree of Doctor of Science. | 1:08:31 | |
Professor Gross's nomination for this distinction | 1:08:35 | |
has been approved by the faculties | 1:08:37 | |
through the Academic Council, and by the Board of Trustees | 1:08:40 | |
of Duke University, and accompanied by his faculty sponsor, | 1:08:44 | |
Professor Marcus Hobbs, I present professor Paul M. Gross. | 1:08:49 | |
President | Since the day you joined the faculty | 1:08:59 |
of Trinity College in 1919, Dr. Gross, | 1:09:01 | |
we have been the beneficiary of your exceptional teaching, | 1:09:05 | |
your innovative chemical research, | 1:09:09 | |
and your enlightened administrative skill. | 1:09:11 | |
You have advised us wisely and served us well | 1:09:14 | |
in every aspect of our endeavor. | 1:09:17 | |
And by your state, national, and international service | 1:09:21 | |
as a statesman of science, | 1:09:25 | |
and especially as a charter member and vice chairman | 1:09:27 | |
of the board of the National Science Foundation, | 1:09:30 | |
as president of the American Association | 1:09:34 | |
for the Advancement of Science, and as president | 1:09:36 | |
of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies | 1:09:39 | |
for nearly two decades, | 1:09:42 | |
you have added stature and recognition to this university. | 1:09:45 | |
For your vision of what this university could achieve, | 1:09:49 | |
and for your continuing efforts | 1:09:54 | |
to make that vision a reality, we are forever in your debt. | 1:09:56 | |
Today on this 50th Anniversary Convocation, | 1:10:01 | |
we honor you as one of the chief academic pillars | 1:10:05 | |
on which Duke University has been built. | 1:10:08 | |
By the authority vested in me, I confer upon you | 1:10:12 | |
the degree of Doctor of Science, | 1:10:15 | |
and I admit you to its rights, its privileges, | 1:10:17 | |
and its obligations. | 1:10:20 | |
(audience applauds) | 1:10:23 | |
(papers shuffling) | 1:10:56 | |
Presenter 3 | Mr. President, it is my pleasure | 1:11:07 |
to present to you and to all assembled here, | 1:11:11 | |
Professor William T. Laprade as a candidate | 1:11:13 | |
for the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature in absentia. | 1:11:18 | |
Unfortunately, Professor Laprade was, he's now, | 1:11:25 | |
fortunately, recovering from a recent illness. | 1:11:28 | |
Professor Laprade's nomination for this distinction | 1:11:32 | |
has been approved by the faculties | 1:11:35 | |
via their Academic Council, and by the Board of Trustees | 1:11:36 | |
of Duke University. | 1:11:39 | |
His daughter, Mrs. Nancy Laprade Hamilton, | 1:11:42 | |
has come home to Duke from Mississippi, happily, | 1:11:47 | |
to represent her father, | 1:11:50 | |
and is accompanied by Professor Robert F. Durden. | 1:11:52 | |
President | Nancy, we are pleased to have you | 1:12:04 |
representing your father, | 1:12:08 | |
and I hope you will stand up in front of him | 1:12:09 | |
when you go home and read this to him. | 1:12:11 | |
(audience laughs softly) | 1:12:14 | |
Having come to teach at Trinity College in 1909, | 1:12:16 | |
Dr. Laprade, you have witnessed | 1:12:20 | |
and been an important participant in many changes | 1:12:23 | |
in this institution. | 1:12:26 | |
Author of long-respected studies in British history, | 1:12:28 | |
and inspiring teacher of thousands of students at Trinity, | 1:12:32 | |
and then Duke, until your retirement in 1953. | 1:12:37 | |
You are a cherished living link | 1:12:42 | |
with a rich segment of our past. | 1:12:44 | |
We happily acknowledge your role in the building | 1:12:48 | |
of the history department of this university, | 1:12:50 | |
in editing the South Atlantic Quarterly, | 1:12:53 | |
in guiding the Duke University Press for many years. | 1:12:56 | |
In leading the National Organization | 1:13:00 | |
of the American Association of University Professors, | 1:13:02 | |
and in continuing your scholarly activity | 1:13:05 | |
until the present time. | 1:13:08 | |
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the organization | 1:13:10 | |
of Duke University around Trinity College, | 1:13:13 | |
it is altogether fitting that we confer upon you | 1:13:17 | |
the highest honor that we have in our possession. | 1:13:21 | |
By the authority vested in me, I confer upon you | 1:13:24 | |
the degree of Doctor of Literature, | 1:13:27 | |
and I admit you to its rights, its privileges, | 1:13:30 | |
and its obligations. | 1:13:32 | |
Dr. Laprade told me, two months ago, | 1:13:35 | |
that nothing in the world | 1:13:38 | |
would keep him from being here today, | 1:13:41 | |
but since we have | 1:13:44 | |
the number one medical center in the world, | 1:13:46 | |
the number one medical center overcame that insistence. | 1:13:48 | |
(audience laughs) | 1:13:52 | |
I hope you'll, uh... | 1:13:53 | |
(audience applauds) | 1:13:55 | |
(grand orchestral music) | 1:14:10 | |
Male Speaker 2 | My very agreeable assignment | 1:15:04 |
is to introduce the 50th Anniversary Convocation speaker. | 1:15:07 | |
I shall make free to use the occasion, also, | 1:15:12 | |
to introduce a bit of poetry, | 1:15:14 | |
the most neglected of the arts in America. | 1:15:17 | |
I shall read the last stanza of a poem | 1:15:20 | |
by the contemporary English poet, Philip Larkin. | 1:15:24 | |
He asks himself in the poem, | 1:15:28 | |
why has he toured the countryside? | 1:15:31 | |
He had wandered into one more picturesque, empty, | 1:15:34 | |
English church, run down and unused. | 1:15:38 | |
What was the good of entering it? | 1:15:42 | |
Nevertheless, he remained there, standing in silence, | 1:15:46 | |
assessing his reasons for having come, and having lingered. | 1:15:50 | |
The concluding stanza of his poem then reads: | 1:15:55 | |
"a serious house on serious earth it is, | 1:15:59 | |
in whose blent air all our compulsions meet, | 1:16:04 | |
are recognized, and robed as destinies. | 1:16:09 | |
And that much never can be obsolete, | 1:16:13 | |
since someone will forever be surprising | 1:16:18 | |
a hunger in himself, to be more serious | 1:16:20 | |
and gravitating with it to this ground, | 1:16:25 | |
which he once heard was proper to grow wise in, | 1:16:28 | |
if only that so many dead lie round." | 1:16:32 | |
Our compulsions have brought us here today, | 1:16:37 | |
that they may be recognized and robed as destinies. | 1:16:40 | |
We thank our speaker, Dr. Philip Handler, | 1:16:45 | |
for being here to help in that ceremony. | 1:16:47 | |
He joined this university's faculty | 1:16:51 | |
as a fledgling instructor in biochemistry, | 1:16:54 | |
more than 30 years ago, | 1:16:56 | |
and rose to become a James B. Duke Professor. | 1:16:58 | |
Last, or, two months ago, he was reelected | 1:17:02 | |
to his second six-year term | 1:17:05 | |
as president of the National Academy of Sciences. | 1:17:07 | |
The interval between tales of achievements in research | 1:17:11 | |
and in service to the scientific community, | 1:17:14 | |
the government, and the nation, | 1:17:18 | |
his own research has been concerned, among other things, | 1:17:20 | |
with biological oxidation and enzyme action. | 1:17:23 | |
He is co-author of a standard text in biochemistry | 1:17:28 | |
used widely by medical students. | 1:17:31 | |
He has been a respected teacher, | 1:17:34 | |
and a leader in curriculum reform. | 1:17:36 | |
He has had remarkable success in persuading Congress | 1:17:39 | |
that it is not just to prevent congressmen | 1:17:44 | |
from having heart attacks, | 1:17:46 | |
that they should provide support for scientific research. | 1:17:47 | |
(audience laughs) | 1:17:51 | |
Perhaps, better than anyone else, | 1:17:52 | |
he has been able to explain to them what basic science is, | 1:17:54 | |
and what it is not. | 1:17:58 | |
He has kept this distinction clear, | 1:18:01 | |
even as he has also undertaken the reorganization | 1:18:03 | |
of team research efforts that are problem-oriented. | 1:18:06 | |
In recognition of his abilities as scientist, | 1:18:11 | |
and expositor of science, | 1:18:14 | |
he has held numerous influential posts, | 1:18:16 | |
advisory to the president, | 1:18:19 | |
and various agencies of federal government. | 1:18:20 | |
These responsibilities, | 1:18:24 | |
which he carries out with disarming ease, | 1:18:26 | |
have involved him in the broadest kinds of issues | 1:18:29 | |
that this country, and indeed, the world, face today. | 1:18:32 | |
As president of the National Academy, | 1:18:36 | |
he will remain the notoriously plain-spoken spokesman | 1:18:39 | |
for science, that senators, congressmen, colleagues, | 1:18:42 | |
and students have known him always to be. | 1:18:47 | |
The dead lie round in this chapel. | 1:18:54 | |
They who so generously endowed this institution | 1:18:58 | |
dedicated to learning and teaching. | 1:19:01 | |
We cannot know whether they would commend or rebuke us | 1:19:04 | |
for what Duke University has become today. | 1:19:07 | |
The men of the past always rebuke us. | 1:19:11 | |
That is one of their roles. | 1:19:14 | |
"The past rebukes us more," Robert Penn Warren has said, | 1:19:17 | |
"than does any dream of the future. | 1:19:20 | |
And," he adds, "it's a better rebuke | 1:19:22 | |
because you can see what some of the costs were. | 1:19:26 | |
What frail virtues were achieved by frail men. | 1:19:29 | |
You can see how they had to go at it. | 1:19:34 | |
The drama of the past that corrects us | 1:19:37 | |
is the drama of our struggle to be human, | 1:19:41 | |
or our struggle to define the values of our forebears | 1:19:44 | |
in the face of their difficulties." | 1:19:48 | |
It is now our time, in this university, | 1:19:52 | |
to define again the values that brought it into being | 1:19:54 | |
50 years ago. | 1:19:58 | |
We measure them now. | 1:20:00 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure and privilege | 1:20:04 | |
to welcome Dr. Handler home again, | 1:20:07 | |
and to present him to you | 1:20:11 | |
as our highly distinguished colleague and much honored guest | 1:20:13 | |
who will help appease that hunger. | 1:20:18 | |
We surprise, in ourselves today, to be more serious. | 1:20:20 |