May 1 | Before and After Wallace Sterling: Stanford Presidents and Changing Times

In person and online. Registration required.

Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Center for Education Research at Stanford (CERAS), Room 101
520 Galvez Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
*Nearest parking at Tresidder Union parking lot and Wilbur underground garage

The panel presentation will be preceded by the Stanford Historical Society's Annual Meeting that is open to members and non-members. There will be a brief intermission between the annual meeting and the panel presentation.

4:15 - 4:30 p.m. | SHS Annual Meeting (open to everyone)
4:30 - 4:35 p.m. | Intermission
4:35 - 5:50 p.m. | Program: Before and After Wallace Sterling: Stanford Presidents and Changing Times
SHS Members' Reception to follow

At the beginning of this academic year, the Stanford Historical Society published Stanford’s Wallace Sterling: Portrait of a Presidency, 1949-1968, a scholarly account of Wallace Sterling’s transformative role in Stanford’s history co-authored by historian and former Stanford archivist Roxanne L. Nilan and the late Cassius L. Kirk Jr. Our final program of the year examines Sterling’s place in the evolution of the presidency from the founding of the university until the present. Our three panelists will show how the character of the university’s twelve presidents reflects the constantly changing challenges and opportunities that face Stanford and its peer institutions. 

James Sheehan, Dickason Professor of Humanities, Emeritus. In addition to his long, distinguished service in the History Department as a prolific scholar and inspiring teacher, Sheehan was also chairman of the department and was on a presidential search committee.

Willam Chace is Honorary Professor of English, Emeritus, at Stanford, where he taught for twenty years before becoming President of Wesleyan University and thereafter President of Emory University.

Geoffrey Cox, Senior Associate Dean for Finance and Administration of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, has long been involved in educational policy at different higher educational institutions, including the University of Chicago, Stanford, and the world of online education.

Larry Horton will moderate this program. He is the current president of the Board of the Stanford Historical Society.

Copies of Stanford’s Wallace Sterling: Portrait of a Presidency, 1949-1968 are available for purchase now (details here) and will be available for purchase at the event venue.

Can you name all the presidents in the photo montage at the top of this page? See the answer here. (Photo montage by Sunny Scott)

Register to attend in-person

Register to attend online