From 1873 to 2005, Words of Past BU Presidents from Their Inaugural Addresses
As the University celebrates Melissa L. Gilliam as 11th president, we look back at speeches from previous presidents
Former BU Presidents William F. Warren (1873-1903) (from left), Lemuel Herbert Murlin (1911-1924), and William Edwards Huntington (1904-1911) in 1918. Photos courtesy of Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
From 1873 to 2005, Words of Past BU Presidents from Their Inaugural Addresses
As the University celebrates Melissa L. Gilliam as 11th president, we look back at speeches from previous presidents
Melissa L. Gilliam will be formally installed as BU’s 11th president at an Inauguration ceremony on September 27 at Agganis Arena. The event, expected to draw an estimated 2,600 students, staff, faculty, alumni, and guests, will be a historic occasion for the University. In keeping with tradition, Gilliam is expected to outline her aspirations for the University in her address.
We asked BU’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center for the inauguration speeches from BU’s 10 previous presidents. The center’s staff dug deep into the archives to find historic photos and the texts, which we excerpt here.
Two former presidents, William Fairfield Warren and Aram V. Chobanian (Hon.’06), did not give an inaugural address. So we pulled quotations from Warren’s first annual report, in 1874, and from a letter Chobanian sent to the BU community on October 31, 2003, immediately after his appointment as president ad interim (he was later officially named the University’s ninth president).
William Fairfield Warren
(1873–1903)
“A crying necessity of the University is more room. It will be noticed that this is the refrain of nearly every Dean in his report of his respective department. Alma Mater’s thrifty children are fast outgrowing their cradles and cribs…a year from this time, we certainly shall have to provide enlarged accommodations, and it is therefore none too soon to canvas plans, particularly if any new erections or extensive changes shall be found advisable.”
William Edwards Huntington
(1904–1911)
“We are to remember that nothing can take the place of the living presence of the true teacher. It is not the place, or the building, or books, or apparatus that can impart the living force which issues alone from the soul of the teacher and fires the mental life of the student who sits before him.”
Lemuel Herbert Murlin
(1911–1924)
“The work before us is not alone to cure the evils which are already upon us, but to anticipate and prevent their coming; to set up a strong, positive current of civic health which shall prove a bulwark of defence against whatever endangers its life. Cure disease where we must; prevent its coming where we can; but above all, promote always, and by every means, a vitalizing, overcoming, resistless civic health—physical, intellectual, social, moral.”
Daniel L. Marsh (STH’08, Hon.’53)
(1926–1951)
“Boston University must stand for knowledge plus moral control. We aim to develop that high character which comes from a sympathetic and severe training of the known powers under right, moral and religious influence. We stand for the promotion of character, which is what one is in the dark or in the spotlight, that keeps one true in the dark and humble in the spotlight.”
Harold C. Case (STH’27, Hon.’67)
(1951–1967)
“This is a solemn moment. Expediency, specialization, secularism, and the threat of war challenge us to make life more ‘worthful’ lest it become utterly ‘worthless.’ They summon all men of good will and all women of good purpose to build deliberately for the welfare of mankind and not for his oblivion.”
Arland F. Christ-Janer
(1967–1970)
“I therefore pledge myself to steadfast dedication to the essential Boston University; to relentless striving for the highest integrity of the academic programs; to significant and effective education of the individual through the liberal arts and sciences and professions; to the quest for alert and appropriate responses to the present; and to the striving for wisdom with which to anticipate and thereby hopefully move forward toward the fulfillment of man and his world.”
John Silber (Hon.’95)
(1971–1996)
“In our instant culture, in which we have polluted not merely air and water but also the very temporal fabric of our lives, we know that recovery of respect for time requires the recovery of our past, the seeing of our present in terms of that past, and a strenuous effort to anticipate the future in the light of both.”
Jon Westling
(1996–2002)
“Boston University will foster its heritage of intellectual fortitude: by nurturing the individuality of students, by inspiring abiding social commitments, by leading educational reforms, and by remaining a community of robust opportunity. We shall marshal the spirit to face whatever adversities we must, knowing that great accomplishments often require great sacrifice.”
Aram V. Chobanian (Hon.’06)
(2003–2005)
“I will bring fresh perspective and hope not only to keep our institution running smoothly, but also to continue to move it forward. My leadership style has been and will continue to be to work closely with all members of the Boston University community. My focus will be on our schools and colleges, our faculty and staff, and most importantly, our students.”
Robert A. Brown
(2005–2023)
“Perhaps the most challenging vision I have is for Boston University to be known as one connected, integrated community of scholars and students, researchers and learners. While representing excellence in our individual disciplines, while educating the next generation of scholars and leaders, we have an enormous opportunity: we can become the large private university known for thinking about the whole.”
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