Water ResourcesPeople and Issues
it. These involved prior consultation on possible effects and alternatives. I
think some of those lessons were in the minds of the people who drafted the
NEPA legislation.
Q: So in 1945 you joined the University of Chicago faculty?
A: No. I was through in '46. But rather than going back to the University of
Chicago, I made my peace with Robert Hutchins, who was then president,
and asked to be excused. Instead I went to Haverford, where they had invited
me to be president. I spent the next nine and one-half years at Haverford.
Q: Was Haverford's Quaker background an inducement?
A: Yes. It was a small, high-quality college with a genuine Quaker commitment,
and that seemed to me where I'd like to try to put my energy as much as I
could.
Q: But of course, Haverford is an undergraduate college with no graduate school.
Did you see that as an advantage or a disadvantage, or did you think about it
at all? Because generally, of course, the colleges with the graduate schools
are going to have the larger research commitment.
A: Oh, yes. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do any significant research
while I was at Haverford. And I didn't know whether I would ever get back
to a full research program. But I felt, and my wife felt too, this was the kind
of service we wanted to undertake at that stage. We were fresh from the war
experience, and we felt it was important to promote education that was
international in outlook and that seriously looked at ways of preventing
another war. Haverford was one little spot in which one might have an
opportunist y to help further those concerns.
Q: So I assume you maintained your contacts with the American Friends Service
Committee too at this point?
A: I did, yes.
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