Interviews 131 - 140

Each Guide entry contains information about an interview, including biographical data about the interviewee (name, vital dates, dates at the UW-Madison, and principal positions held as of the interview date), information about the interview (interviewer, year conducted, length, and series, transcript, and restriction information if applicable), and a list of key topics discussed in the interview. For more detailed information about an interview, or to obtain a copy of an interview contact the Oral History Program.

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Background and career; Appointment by Clarence Dykstra; Separation of Economics Department and School of Commerce; Economics Department issues.

Reasons for establishing Green Bay and Parkside campuses; Enrollment projections; West side campus proposal; University-Industry Research program; UW rating, 1965; WARF funding of social sciences; His background; Reasons for coming to UW; McCarthy era; Faculty meetings; E. B. Fred's presidency; Associate deanship of Graduate School; Development of international programs; Conrad Elvehjem's presidency; Chancellorships of Robben Fleming and William Sewell; Assistance to fine arts; Dealings with WARF; Kellett Commission; Governor Patrick Lucey; Development of UW-Milwaukee; Keeping WARF funds for Madison campus; Carl Bogholt's philosophy seminar; Ferment in Agricultural Economics Department in 1950s.

Education; Farrington Daniels; Work on atom bomb during WWII; Chemistry Department; Research at UW; Deanship; Graduate School Research Committee; WARF; Campus Planning Committee; Chemistry TAs; Women in chemistry; Retirement plans.

Graduate studies; Botany faculty; Founding Arboretum; Experiments in prairie culture; CCC; Lilac collection; Birch colony; Leopold Pines; Tamarack bog; Wingra Woods; Pond; Arboretum administration; Friends of Arboretum; Finances; Research budgeting; Weed problems.

Background; Botany Department in 1930s; Work with Norman Fassett; Other faculty members; Appointment to Department in 1944; Junior Academy of Science; Leonard Huskins; Rebuilding of herbarium; Work for Extension; Departmental problems in 1950s; Research on lichens; Field study in Alaska; Salary issue.

Third Interview
and THOMSON, Olive (1915- )
Undergraduate student in Botany
At UW: 1933-37

Childhood and education; Meeting and engagement; John Thomson's Masters and PhD research on prairies and abandoned fields; Norman Fassett; Directorship of nature room in Manhattan; Collaborative work on the Bruel River; Appointment to UW-Madison; Junior Academy of Science; State Board for Protection of Scientific Areas; Aldo Leopold; Faville Prairie

Note: See also interview with Cottom #025.

135.   HARRINGTON, Fred H.  (1912-1995 )
Professor of History; President
At UW: 1937-1982

First Interview

Interviewed: 1978	Length: 4 hours	Transcript: 104 pages
Interviewer: Laura Smail

WARF; Getting funding for social sciences; Brittingham professorships; Memorial Library; Institute for Research in Humanities; Area studies; UW-Milwaukee.

Background and education; Appointment to UW; Early years in Madison; History Department in 1930s; University of Arkansas; Return to UW; Red scare and American history requirement; Developments in history; Teaching and writing; Increased involvement in campus-wide affairs; Graduate students; View of history.

Life sciences at UW; Reasons for their success; Research in Medical School and effect on life sciences; Conrad Elvehjem's presidency; Medical deanship issue.

Management of business affairs by regents and A. W. Peterson during Clarence Dykstra's presidency; Steps taken by E. B. Fred to return power to president's hands; His appointments; Peterson's role under Fred; Faculty opinion of Peterson; William Young's position in Fred administration; Young's effectiveness in budget work; His contacts with Legislature and state colleges; Fred's administrative style; His handling of regents; Ira Baldwin's role; Effort by social scientists to gain representation in administration; Harrington's budget policy; Robert Clodius; Contrast between Peterson and Neil Cafferty; Cooperation of UW business office.

Competition between state colleges and UW for Milwaukee campus; Politics behind development of Green Bay and Parkside campuses; Reasons for location of campuses; Eugene McPhee and expansion of state colleges; Choosing title of WSU; Governor Patrick Lucey's opinion of regents as factor in Merger decision; Relations between cluster campuses and Madison; Use of overhead in late 1960s; Background on 1983-85 faculty pay issue; Extension Merger; Background of Harrington's interest in extension; Efforts to develop urban extension and origin of Urban and Regional Studies Department; Cooperative Extension's move into urban work; Other universities' successes in merging extensions; State of Cooperative and General Extension in early 1960s; Extension leaders; Henry Ahlgren's national reputation; Political strength of Cooperative Extension; Harrington's decision to declare merger of two extensions; Reasons for regents' acceptance; Glenn Pound's appointment; Choice of Donald McNeil as head of University Extension; McNeil's drive for work in urban area; Milwaukee's reaction; Growing opposition to Extension Merger; Appointment of Ahlgren to succeed McNeil; Effects of University Merger on Extension issues.

Issues in final years of Harrington's presidency; Student protest movement.

136.   VAN VLECK, John H. (1899-1980 )
Professor of Physics
At UW: 1928-1934

Interviewed: 1978	Length: 1.5 hours
Interviewer: Donna Hartshorne

Childhood and education in Madison; Harvard; Choice of physics; Richard Hartshorne; Coming to UW; Madison personalities; Sports; Mark Ingraham; Harvard deanship of Engineering and Applied Physics; Nobel Prize research; Slichter family; UW in 1916-20 and 1928-34; Glenn Frank; Charles Slichter; Merger; Honorary degrees.

Background; Reasons for coming to UW; Political beliefs in 1963; Influential teachers; Wisconsin Draft Resisters Union; "We Won't Go" statement in Daily Cardinal, 1967; SDS and its members; Mother Jones, TAA, Mifflin Street Co-op and Connections; Sexual revolution; Research on regents; UW financial structure; Cardinal articles; Democratization of Cardinal; Research on Mathematics Research Center; Spying on campus; Accuracy of facts.

Family background; Early education and employment; Graduate work in biology; Research; WWII; Work in Washington, D.C.; Manhattan Project; Leo Szilard; Issues in science; Work at various universities; Farrington Daniels; Current work and plans.

Move into anthropology from history; Field work in Africa; Use of oral tradition for historical research; Research and writing; Origins and uses of oral history.

Involvement in Union activities; Programs for servicemen during WWII; Union Council; Union Directorate; Porter Butts; Hoofers programs; Social programs; Union operation; Union staff; Budget; Union committees; University of Florida's union; Student government; Her education; Favorite professors; Liberal arts vs. professionalism.

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