News

In Fight Against Trump, Harvard Goes From Media Lockdown to the Limelight

News

The Changing Meaning and Lasting Power of the Harvard Name

News

Can Harvard Bring Students’ Focus Back to the Classroom?

News

Harvard Activists Have a New Reason To Protest. Does Palestine Fit In?

News

Strings Attached: How Harvard’s Wealthiest Alumni Are Reshaping University Giving

Brandeis President Sachs Lauds Eleanor Roosevelt at Ford Hall

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

The president of Brandeis University replaced the late Eleanor Roosevelt in the Ford Hall Forum last night, and delivered a eulogy of her.

Dr. Abram L. Sachar, who accepted the speaking date after Mrs. Roosevelt died last November, said "there is no commitment I have wanted less to fulfill." He proceeded to give what he termed "a memorial salute--not a controversial address in the usual Forum tradition, but a salute to give permanence to her years."

For the first time in more than 20 years, no question period followed the Forum address Reuben L. Lurie, president of the Forum, called a question period after such a speech "a profanation."

Sachar said Mrs. Roosevelt's death "loosed a display of grief such as this nation has never known; everyone who was asked for a comment spoke as if a member of the family had been removed."

Dr. Sachar was a close friend of Mrs. Roosevelt, who had been both a trustee and a lecturer at Brandeis University. "There was never any real brilliance in her speaking," he recalled. "She was not an intellectual force. But hers was the spirit that surmounted nationalism and parochialism."

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags