No Squeak, No Whirr

What should a college president be like? Last week in the Nation, Stanford University's scholarly Albert Guerard, professor emeritus of general literature, proposed a model of his own: the late Ray Lyman Wilbur, who died in June at 74. Wilbur, onetime Secretary of the Interior (under Hoover) and for 23 years Stanford's president, was a gaunt and gangling man who "belonged physically to the race of Lincoln . . . Like Lincoln he had humor: his own brand, unexpected, spare, with a sharp flinty tang." But it was a good deal more than humor that made Guerard admire him. Wrote Guerard:

"Voltaire, blessing newborn America . . . said 'God and Liberty.' We have amended that 18th Century creed into 'Efficiency and Liberty.' On both counts Ray Lyman Wilbur was Homo Americanus par excellence ... He was the perfect executive: he saw, diagnosed, decided in a flash ... his powerful and intricate thinking machine was constantly in perfect order. Not a squeak, not a whirr. A stupendous normalcy . . .

"He did not go out of his way to challenge tradition; but he would quietly ignore tradition if it became an obstacle . . . Swift to decide, swift to assume responsibility, swift to act when not opposed, he never desired to ignore or stifle opposition ... He gave his best to his two ideals, efficiency and liberty: but if a conflict should arise between the two, his choice was unhesitating. Even though democracy . . . should lead to 'sloppiness' #151; his own word--he would submit to the sloppiness he abominated, if the alternative was dictatorial efficiency." Meanwhile, recalled Guerard, "the business of the university proceeded without fuss or bluster; its smoothness was so perfect as to seem automatic . . . [Once] in the pandemonium of registration day, a freshman burst into Wilbur's office and requested him to help her fill her formidable registration booklet. He did so ...

Then he asked her: 'Why did you pick on me?' 'Why, you were the only person round who seemed to have nothing to do.' 'This,' Wilbur added, 'was the highest praise I ever received as a president.' "

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