Stanford Alumni Dinner – Waldorf Astoria – The University Of Tomorrow – October 10, 1935 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Stanford University alumnus Herbert Hoover (class of 1912), speaking at a dinner being held on October 10, 1935, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, where the subject is “The University Of Tomorrow”.
1935 was something of a dismal year all around. Not only was the country in bad shape economically, its educational institutions were in real danger of becoming extinct, particularly the private Universities, which Stanford was one. But rather than make the rounds with bended-knee appeals, shouting warnings of imminent death, a more genteel approach was employed by way of a lavish Alumni dinner (held on the East coast, rather than the West where Stanford was located), with addresses given by the President of the University and it’s star alumnus, a former President, Herbert Hoover. By his own admission, Hoover isn’t quite sure why he’s at the Dinner, but the premise of the topic being The University Of Tomorrow was a lofty one and it gave plenty of latitude for Hoover to discuss the benefits of an education, especially a University Education. And how education in this day and age of 1935, the air was filled with promise and enormous technological advances – to which Stanford was well equipped to handle.
Ironically, Education via one of the Private Universities was one most American’s couldn’t afford at the time (and still can’t largely afford even some 87 years later).
But the speakers begged the audience to look at the bigger picture; the grand scheme of things. And as far as Herbert Hoover, University President Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur and Dr. Stephen Duggan the bigger picture was to look at the future and all were convinced the future was Stanford.
Here are those brief addresses, all crammed into a half-hour broadcast over NBC on October 10, 1935.
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