Inaugural Ceremony Archive
Donald J. Brown
Philip R. Allen Professor of Econmics, Department of Economics, Yale University
I am honored to be with you today as a representative of the Ivy League and extend warm greetings to Vassar as Catharine Bond Hill assumes its presidency. We congratulate you on your choice.
I was fortunate enough to be the director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Economics during a part of President Hill's studies at Yale, and so the other day I went in search of her academic file in the department's archives, and much to my surprise, I found it! I know that even distinguished people can be made nervous by the thought that their early transcripts have been uncovered. No one need be nervous about this discovery, however, least of all President Hill. What I found is well worth reading at this celebration, in order to demonstrate how early President Hill displayed the traits of the perfect college president.
Let's start with a renowned professor of economics at Williams, who, while writing to Yale in support of Cappy Hill's application as a graduate student, noted many traits that would serve a president well. "Her major strength," he wrote, "is a rare clarity of mind. She can keep the most complex sets of issues ready to sort out and apply to the context that comes up. She never fails to see possible connections. Further, she has an extra ability of synthesizing that makes her outstanding."
Digging deeper in the file, I find that a fellow and tutor in economics at Oxford, in a long letter full of praise, notes that Catharine Hill has been awarded a first-class honours B.A. and reports that her exam grades place her "in the top 3% of 234 candidates examined," and I'll leave the year out. He adds that "she has a penetrating mind and gets to grips with the core of a problem quickly." And he concludes, throwing British understatement to the winds, "she is probably the best pupil I have had at this College in the course of eight years of teaching."
Nearer to the top of the file I am pleased to find myself writing to the International Monetary Fund that Catharine Hill is "one of the finest students in our Ph.D. program, both academically and personally. She is truly a wonder." And that her Yale thesis adviser continued to say, he counted her dissertation "a substantial contribution to the growing literature on macro-economic effects on international trade politics."
Great intellectual capacity. Excellent familiarity with numbers. Clarity of mind. The ability to sort through complex issues and see connections. The powers of synthesis. And sympathetic personal qualities to match these gifts. What better combination of qualities could there be, especially when combined with international experience, fine scholarly work, and provostial experience, to lead a great modern college?
Let me add one more. Several of her recommenders mentioned this but perhaps a professor from Williams stated it best. "Miss Hill," he said, " seems to have an unlimited appetite for hard work."
President Hill comes to Vassar following the distinguished presidency of Frances Fergusson, whose 20-year tenure few in the modern world of presidents have matched, and who left as her legacy a thriving modern college with great traditions, a magnificent library, a beautiful campus, a superb faculty, happy students, and a vital spirit. Observing all this, it is impossible for a Yale professor not to recall that, 40 years ago, Yale and Vassar mutually considered what Presidents Brewster and Simpson called a "possible coordinate relationship."
In February 1967 Brewster, addressing 1,000 members of the Yale alumni family, suggested such a merger would "substantially raise the moral quality of the four undergraduate years at Yale." President Simpson did not disagree. He added: "The possibilities of such a brilliant partnership . . . merit the most thoughtful study." Of course, the relationship did not work out, because Vassar turned us down. But it is a pleasure to note that the outcome was positive, since the nation still has two individually distinctive great colleges, instead of just one.
Forty years later, Yale takes pleasure in being present when one of its most accomplished Ph.D. students assumes the stewardship of a college with which we will always share close and affectionate ties. We take pride in the nature of President Hill's scholarly work, which holds benefits for all humankind; in her academic leadership at Williams; and now in the promise she brings to one of the nation's great colleges. This is all cause for thanksgiving. So I end with a request that the problems of the world make way for a moment of pure celebration, from a poem by Elizabeth Bishop, one of Vassar's most distinguished graduates:
Great shades, edge over,
Give the music room.
The gathered brasses want to go
Boom-----boom!