There's the story of Jane Stanford overseeing construction, using the tip of her parasol to measure the depth of the intricate stone carving in the Quad. And there's the time the University's third president, Ray Lyman Wilbur, bluntly lectured students about the dangers of owning an automobile. "It often leads," he warned, "to life off the campus, to extravagance and much foolishness. . . ." And not to be forgotten: the "D.A.R.s," a nickname given to the older, industrious students who filled the campus after World War II. It stood for Damned Average Raisers.
In a new book, Stanford: Portrait of a University, author Susan Wels, '78 (former managing editor of Stanford), weaves such snippets together to produce a chronicle of the University from its earliest days through the growth of the 1920s and '30s, the postwar science boom, the turbulence of the Vietnam Era and the eruption of Silicon Valley. Published by the Stanford Alumni Association, the 165-page volume was two years in the making and involved tracking down more than 200 photos and dozens of artifacts. "It was like rooting around in grandma's attic," says Holly Brady, '69, the association's director of publishing ventures and the book's executive editor. It's an attic brimming with treasures.
