“Man does not live by engineering alone. A truly great university must recognize all parts of the human spirit.” So said one of Stanford’s biggest supporters of the arts.
Ruth Levison Halperin, ’47, who worked for 60-plus years as a volunteer and contributor to Stanford. Halperin died of cancer November 20 in Atherton. She was 81.
She majored in political science and worked in retail before marrying Robert Halperin, who would become president of Raychem, in 1956. While raising their three children, she led efforts to improve the arts at Stanford and served as mentor to hundreds of Stanford volunteers.
During Halperin’s decade as a member of the University Board of Trustees, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused major damage to the Stanford Museum, forcing it to close for nearly 10 years. Halperin’s efforts helped the renamed Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts become a vibrant enterprise that engages artists with faculty and students. She also was instrumental in the arts initiative at Stanford, an effort based on the premise that education in the arts and humanities is the foundation of a liberal arts education.
Thomas Seligman, director of the Cantor Arts Center, called her an “exquisite citizen” who truly appreciated learning about art. She often traveled internationally to help the museum identify and collect art. Seligman said he and Stanford appreciated “her advice, her wisdom, her unbelievable spirit [and] curiosity.”
She served in a wealth of volunteer positions, including on the Cantor Arts Center opening steering committee and as founding leader of the contemporary collectors circle (which she chaired for more than 22 years). With her husband, she endowed two chairs in the department of art and art history, as well as a curatorship in modern and contemporary art at Cantor. The couple commissioned artist Andy Goldsworthy to create Stone River for the campus: the serpentine wall was crafted from sandstone salvaged from Stanford buildings in the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes. Halperin was awarded the 2007 Gold Spike Award, the Stanford Associates’ highest award for exceptional volunteer leadership service in development.
Survivors: her husband of 52 years; three children, Peggy Halperin Dow, Philip, ’85, and Mark; a sister, Barbara Levison Napolitano, ’50; and eight grandchildren, including Robert, ’11.
