Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Information about Access
Ownership & Copyright
Cite As
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Description of the Collection
Language of Material:
Undetermined
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Robert Averill Walker papers
Identifier/Call Number: SC0546
Physical Description:
23.25 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1950-1995
Abstract: Papers pertain largely to his
administrative duties at Stanford University and include correspondence, minutes, agenda,
memoranda, and reports; subjects include the overseas studies program, the political science
department, international studies, curriculum reviews, and faculty/staff housing on campus.
Also of note are the minutes with indexes from the Committee on University Policy, 1959-68,
and the Advisory Committee on Land and Building Development, 1951-57. Collection also
includes photograph albums and slides of the Stanford overseas campuses and/or programs in
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Japan.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Gift of the estate of Robert A. Walker, 1998.
Information about Access
This collection is open for research.
Ownership & Copyright
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must
be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special
Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright
owner, heir(s) or assigns. See:
http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of
digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Cite As
Robert Averill Walker Papers (SC0546). Department of Special Collections and University
Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Robert A. Walker was a professor of political science whose specialty was public
administration and urban planning, Walker was also tapped by former President Wallace
Sterling and Provost Frederick Terman to help draft land use plans for Stanford-owned open
space surrounding the campus. As a member of the university's committee on land and
buildings from 1952 to 1969, he helped write plans for Stanford Industrial Park and as chair
of the committee on faculty-staff housing, he oversaw the development of three faculty
housing subdivisions: Pine Hill I and II and Frenchman's Hill. He also prided himself as
being among those who fought a winning battle for maintaining the campus architectural
tradition of sloped red tile roofs at a time when architects proposed less expensive flat
tops.
A generation of students knew him best, however, for the "green sheet," an extensive list
of required courses outside their majors, which he ushered in as director of general studies
in 1956, and as the man who made possible their first experiences abroad.
Aided by the strength of the American dollar, Walker leased whole airplanes to take
Stanford undergraduates to overseas campuses that he and Professor Friedrich Strothmann
started in 1958, first in Germany, and then in France, Italy, Austria, Great Britain and
Spain. At a time when other universities were sending a few exceptional students to study in
foreign universities, Walker wanted to expose as many as possible to other cultures,
believing that an international perspective was an essential part of a liberal education.
Three of every five Stanford undergraduates, 8,000 in all, went abroad for two quarters
during his tenure as director of overseas campus programs, which ended in 1973. With so many
students away, the university also was able to increase its total enrollment.
"I grew up on a farm near Phoenix. When I got to Austria, I was so excited about seeing the
place that I could scarcely think about doing work," recalls Lowell Price, A.B. '66,
currently secretary to the Stanford Board of Trustees. "I think that's why we got a
reputation for being on a travel lark," said Price, who, like many other students, met his
future spouse, a fellow Stanford student, abroad.
"For his time, Bob Walker was a tremendous innovator," Price said, conceding he would not
be so pleased today if his own children spent as much time away from the books as he did in
Europe. (The overseas program, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, has
since been given a more rigorous academic focus and expanded to Asia and Latin America.)
Walker also used the European campuses to try out co-educational housing at a time when
university officials carefully kept male and female students housed across campus, said
Price, who later worked for Walker. He also developed small group learning experiences, by
recruiting faculty to travel abroad, teaching and living with the students in the host
countries long before the university began encouraging faculty mentors to live in student
residence halls.
Not all went smoothly, however, according to one of Walker's sons, who also took advantage
of the overseas experience. "Some students sat around and moaned about having to eat
sauerkraut and wurst in Germany," said his son Jerome, A.B. '65 and Ph.D. '72, now associate
provost at the University of Southern California. "My father's philosophy was that we
weren't about to take American food to Europe."
In a 1971 publication for students, the senior Walker warned that "some students are so
provincial that they live in nearly private cocoons which quite successfully insulate them
from new experiences abroad."
Walker's ideas about a liberal education included reading the "Great Books" and were
derived from educational philosopher Robert Maynard Hutchins, who was president of the
University of Chicago when Walker and his wife, Louise, were students there. They became
lifelong converts to the classics and belonged to a Stanford faculty group that regularly
met to read parts in plays in the late '40s. Walker introduced a liberal curriculum at
Kansas State, where he headed the "Institute of Citizenship." At Stanford, he chaired a
1955-56 committee on undergraduate education, which developed the first plan for
undergraduate studies at Stanford in 40 years. The curricular reforms lasted until the late
'60s when the university undertook another major study and revision.
Born Jan. 11, 1914, in Spokane, Wash., Walker earned bachelor's and doctoral degrees from
Chicago. In 1937 he and his wife drove across country gathering interviews with city mayors
and planners for his doctoral thesis on urban land use planning, Jerome Walker said. "They
had to choose between buying a radio or a heater for the car. They chose a radio and my
mother always regretted it."
In 1939, Walker joined the National Resources Planning Board, where he got into trouble
with a supervisor over his yet-to-be-published thesis, which eventually became a textbook on
urban planning. Walker had argued that city planning boards had become overly dominated by
real estate and construction industry interests, and his supervisor wanted him to modify his
conclusions, Walker later told his son. "Dad wouldn't change it, so he had to leave, but his
professors at Chicago found him a research fellowship," Jerome said.
Walker then worked in administrative positions for the Departments of Agriculture and State
before becoming a professor at Kansas State. He came to Stanford in 1949, when the regional
university was setting its sights on developing a national reputation.
"He took over as chair of the political science department [in 1958] at a time when it had
less than 10 faculty members, and it wasn't number one in quality of political science
either," recalls Kurt Steiner, a professor emeritus of political science who earned his
doctorate at Stanford in 1955. "He brought in people such as Heinz Eulau and other
luminaries that finally brought the department onto the national map."
Walker wrote or co-authored several books, including one about California governance in
1953, and taught courses on public administration until his retirement in 1976. "He was a
New Deal Roosevelt Democrat who believed in the enlightened civil servant who would run
government for you," said his son Richard, A.B. '69, now chair of the geography department
at the University of California-Berkeley.
Working closely with Sterling and Terman, Steiner said, Walker was known more among
Stanford political scientists as an administrator with hands-on experience than as a
researcher or theoretician. "In a field like politics, a little practical experience
connected with a sound academic background is a useful thing," Steiner said, "but I remember
when he retired I gave a talk in which I said he wasn't very popular in our department
because he tried to put administrative principles to work. There was a certain resentment
that, as chair, he tried to really administer at a time when most chairs didn't do too
much."
Within overseas studies, however, his administrative skills were more appreciated, said
Giuseppe Mammarella, an Italian political scientist who was the first director of Stanford's
Florence campus. "Bob found the [foreign campus] sites, negotiated the contracts, designed
the programs in close contact with the departments at home," Mammarella said, and was known
for his enthusiasm and endurance " After several hours of discussion, there was only one
person around the conference table who was as fresh as a rose, smiling and bursting with
optimism: Bob Walker," Mammarella said.
History Professor Mark Mancall, who took over as director of overseas studies from Walker
in 1973, said that he "played a major role in developing the concept of general studies at
Stanford and in integrating international education through overseas studies" into the
curriculum. "He also was extraordinarily helpful and cooperative in various transitions" in
the programs, he said.
Walker is survived by his wife, Louise, of Stanford; brother Tom of Pittsburgh; sons Jerome
of Los Angeles, Robert of Stanford and Richard of Berkeley; and four grandchildren. Family
services will be held Monday morning, Feb. 9, at Alta Mesa Cemetery. A memorial service is
planned for Stanford's Memorial Church at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, March 16.
By Kathleen O'Toole, Stanford University News Service
Description of the Collection
Papers pertain largely to his administrative duties at Stanford University and include
correspondence, minutes, agenda, memoranda, and reports; subjects include the overseas
studies program, the political science department, international studies, curriculum
reviews, and faculty/staff housing on campus. Also of note are the minutes with indexes from
the Committee on University Policy, 1959-68, and the Advisory Committee on Land and Building
Development, 1951-57. Collection also includes photograph albums and slides of the Stanford
overseas campuses and/or programs in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and
Japan.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Foreign study.
Slides.
Universities and colleges -- Curricula.
Universities and colleges -- Administration.
Photoprints.
Stanford University. Department of Political
Science
Stanford University. Committee on International
Studies
Walker, Robert Averill
Stanford University. Overseas Study Program