ROBERT SPROUL
___________________________________________________________________________

~ G. PAUL BISHOPS' PORTRAIT GALLERY ~

| HOME |  -  | GALLERY |  -  | HISTORY |  -  | INDEX PAGES |

 

 

| < BACK |









































































































 


President Robert Gordon Sproul

From the California Monthly's, Our Distinguished Faculty
1951
 

It is scarcely necessary to identify the picture appearing on the cover of this issue of CALIFORNIA MONTHLY as that of California's first citizens, Robert Gordon Sproul '13. But it may be news to most that on July 1 last he began his twenty-first year as standing president of the University, and thereby shattered the longstanding presidential endurance recorded for the Golden Bear course established some time ago by his greatest predecessor, the beloved Benjamin Ide Wheeler.

This is quite an achievement for a young fellow trained in civil engineering who as an undergraduate functioned as drum major for the band, and ran the two-mile for the track team. It is not easy to administer the largest university in the world for twenty years and do it to the satisfaction of twenty-three fellow Regents, not to mention what is perhaps the largest, finest, and most discriminating company of scholars at any university in the world.

There are some 900 years of tradition behind the concept of a great university, and every faculty with any pretentions of greatness knows that it must carry a torch for the fundamental principles involved. There is often a tendency to view with alarm any president who has not had an early background of teaching and research, because he might fail to understand the teacher's approach or to appreciate the importance of the intangibles upon which greatness rests. Faculties have usually preferred to select a scholar as president and take a chance on his administrative ability.

This procedure worked with fair success in the past years, but in the present day of very large, highly complex universities, a president without administrative experience or skill would soon find himself too snarled up to even think of greatness.

The more one reflects upon such facts, the more he comes to appreciate what Robert Gordon Sproul has meant to the University of California, and to know why the faculty and the regents have consistently joined forces to hold him whenever attractive opportunities to go elsewhere presented themselves.

It was outstanding administrative skill, demonstrated as cashier, comptroller, and vice-president, during the years 1914 to 1930, which won for Robert Sproul the confidence of the Regents. It was his consistent deference to the opinions of the Academic Senate, and his ability to represent the University brilliantly and successfully on every public front, which won him the respect and loyalty of the Faculty. He not only demonstrated an understanding and appreciation of true greatness in a university, but he provided the practical ability to maintain and increase that greatness. It has been his privilege to count as friends a tremendous number of those leaders who control sources of support, both public and private. No man could have had a greater test of loyalty than was provided by the unfortunate loyalty oath controversy.

On occasion "Bob" Sproul has smilingly said that he would never have survived the demands of the presidency without the Latin which he learned in high school from Monroe E. Deutsch '02. Later of course, he was bolstered by having fifteen universities confer doctors' degrees upon him, honoris causa, including the far-famed academic Emily Post, Harvard. If the truth must be told, his success results from nothing more than an extraordinary friendly personality and a wonderful sense of humor, backed up by a remarkably clear quick mind, a phenomenal memory, an inexhaustible store of energy, and a larynx commanding quality.

When "Bob" Sproul became president in 1930, there were a good many people who felt the concept of a single great university for the State of California, however desirable it might be, would soon be destroyed by a lack of confidence on the part of Southern California in any institution closely associated with Northern California for almost two-thirds of a century. If any single factor is responsible for the survival of the University of California, it is the confidence which "Bob" Sproul has won personally from the thoughtful and far-seeing leaders in the South.

"All -University Week End" a modern California tradition sprung straight from the core of the University family philosophy in an annual tribute to President Sproul, that philosophy's strongest advocate. It was significant, then, that students, faculty and alumni chose those few days last year to celebrate his twentieth year as president. This was the second major tribute among innumerable smaller ones that has been paid to "Bob" Sproul by students and alumni. In 1946, they awarded him the "Highest honor at their command" the alumnus of the year award for his "manifold services to University, State and Nation."

This brief sketch cannot hope to cover the subject of President R. G. Sproul. For a complete list of honors and achievements, see "Who's Who in America." We prefer the epitome coined by the late Professor Dixon Wecter, who said that God doubtless could have made a better university president that Sproul, but doubtless God never did.

__________

_____. "Our Distinguished Faculty: President Robert Gordon Sproul." California
     Monthly. Vol. LXI, Alumni Publication, University of California, No. (January
     1951), p. 12.
 

-----


   

--- All material is copyright protected ---