Richard Wall Lyman

Template:Short description Template:Infobox officeholder Richard Wall Lyman (October 18, 1923 – May 27, 2012) was an American educator, historian, and professor who served as the seventh president of Stanford University from 1970 to 1980.

Biography

An historian of the British Labour Party, Lyman spent two years at the London School of Economics in 1951 and 1952, researching for his PhD on the first Labour Government. He spent the period 1954-1958 teaching at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1957 his PhD was published as a book, entitled The First Labour Government, 1924. He joined Stanford in 1958.<ref name="Stanford Report">Template:Cite news</ref>

He served as the provost of Stanford between 1967 and 1970. He then served as president of the university from 1970 to 1980. During his tenure as provost and president, he confronted campus dissidents involved in protests against the Vietnam war and other social issues of the 1960s. In the spring of 1969, he called in law enforcement authorities to evict and arrest students who were occupying campus buildings and removing administrative files.<ref>"Stanford University under siege", Palo Alto Online, Palo Alto Centennial. Wednesday, April 13, 1994.</ref><ref name='stanfordmag-01-2009'>"At the Hands of the Radicals", Stanford Magazine. January–February, 2009.</ref> In referring to his leadership during his tenure, both of his immediate successors as president of the university have said that "Dick Lyman saved Stanford."<ref>"The Stanford Presidency," at Stanford on iTunes (iTunes U:Stanford:Campus Life:Stanford History-Video), Donald Kennedy at 19:30 mark of video; Gerhard Casper at 37:00 minute mark.</ref>

Lyman was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1971.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1983 he founded the Stanford Institute for International Studies and became its first director. He was the president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1980 to 1988.

In 1998, Lyman was elected to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Lyman earned his bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and his master's degree and PhD from Harvard University. He was a Fulbright scholar at the London School of Economics from 1951 to 1952. He came to Stanford in 1958 as a professor in history.<ref name=fsi-bio>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Richard W. Lyman Award was established in 2002 by the National Humanities Center in honor of Lyman.<ref>The Lyman Award Template:Webarchive, National Humanities Center.</ref> He posthumously won the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award from Hamden Hall Country Day School.<ref name="hamdenhall" />

He married Jing (1925–2013) in 1947 and they have four children. Jing Lyman was herself very active in the university and supported the founding of the Center for Research on Women (now the Clayman Institute for Gender Studies) in 1974.<ref name=crow>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was a "leading national figure in initiatives promoting fairer housing, community development and women’s economic empowerment."<ref>"Jing Lyman, 1925-2013", Times Higher Education, December 19, 2013.</ref> His granddaughter is radio producer Tina Antolini.<ref name="hamdenhall">Template:Cite web</ref>

The Lyman Graduate Residence built in 1997 on the west side of campus is named for Richard Lyman and the Jing Lyman Commons Building within it for his wife.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He died in 2012 of heart failure, aged 88.<ref name="Stanford Report"/>