IV: President Gould
1945. The new president at work at his desk.
In his first years as president, Gould guided the college's response to the the demographic pressures created by a large influx of returning veterans. Fundraising was needed to meet Carleton's needs for a number of new buildings in the years ahead, beginning with a new library and a fine arts building. Gould exerted his leadership in pushing all departments of the college to ever higher levels of academic expectation and achievement. In 1946 he urged adoption of a uniform retirement age for faculty, and caused Carleton to become the first college in the Middle West to require that all applicants take College Entrance Board examinations. The following year he prompted the Board to clarify the status of longstanding affiliations with the Congregational, Baptist, and Episcopal denominations, and to declare that in the matter of student admissions church affiliation was distinctly secondary to scholastic attainments. 1948 saw the introduction of comprehensive exams for seniors. Seeking to attract and retain especially talented young teachers, he urged the Board to commit itself to increases in faculty salaries. He also sought to pursue longterm plans for strengthening Carleton's relations with her own alumni, and in pursuit of this aim committed himself to a heavy program of speaking engagements with alumni groups around the country. And of course he gave particular attention to what he always considered his most important duty, the making of appointments. In a day when most hiring was done directly by the president, Carleton benefitted tremendously by Gould's usually-shrewd judgment regarding the potential of young candidates for positions, and by his ability to persuade many of the best of them to come to Carleton.
1947 caricature drawn by John Furlow '49
The affection of the Carleton community for their charismatic president never wavered. This drawing which appeared in the 1947 Algol combined two of the recurring themes of that affection: penguins and the trademark red tie.
Larry Gould Day, 1949.
Every spring brought the annual ritual of Larry Gould day to the Carleton campus, when students would bedeck themselves in red in Larry's honor. Note that the neckwear extended even to the dog in the above photo.
Gould Day 1949.
This year a red fire engine showed up at the steps of Laird Hall to take Larry to lunch.
A New Look - date uncertain.
There is no date accompanying this photograph, but I would like to imagine it is from 1948 - and that "Stassen Republican" Gould (his political self-description at that time) is here symbolically endorsing Thomas E. Dewey's bid for the White House that year.
Jan. 1949, enroute to Scandinavia.
Gould continued to relish occasions when he could put aside his college president's hat and take up that of the geologist. Here he is departing the airport in New York on his way to deliver geographical lectures in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo.
Presenting the Amundsen note to Professor Strom, president of the Norwegian Geographic Society, Jan. 26, 1949.
For 19 years Gould had kept personal custody of the original note written by Roald Amundsen and placed in the tin can in the cairn in Mount Betty. (See the account of its discovery elsewhere in this exhibit.) On this occasion however, he completed his lecture in Oslo by retelling the story of the discovery of the note, and then presenting the original to the Norwegian Geographic Society.
A copy of the Amundsen note, and portraits of Amundsen and Gould.
Decorated by royalty.
On the same day as his appearance before the Norwegian Geographic Society, Gould had been presented to Norway's King Haakon, and was surprised when at the conclusion of their interview the king had conferred upon him the Knight's Cross, 1st Class, of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olaf, and suggested that he wear it to that evening's lecture. Gould was the recipient of dozens of impressive medals and significant awards, but he was particularly fond of this cross and wore it frequently in his lapel.
And decorating royalty in turn.
Several months after his meeting with the Norwegian king, Gould was called upon to crown a queen. Here he assists at the coronation of 1949 Homecoming queen Mary Dow.
April 10, 1950: Red Tie Dinner in the Twin Cities.
The occasion? Celebrating five years of the Gould era. Here Peg helps Larry with a new bit of neckware given him to mark the day.
Sketch appearing in the 1950 Algol.
After five years, much had been accomplished. The Art Building, Boliou Hall, had been completed, and hopeful plans were being developed for a new library and for the remodeling of Willis Hall into a Memorial Union. Gould issued a five year report that summer in which he addressed "the question of the permanent size we wish the College to be." Reflecting that the experience of community participation is impossible in large groups, he hesitated to state a definite figure for the "ideal" size for Carleton College, but did assert that "we who have experimented with and thought about the problem during the post-war years are convinced that for us it is certainly less than one thousand students."
"Carleton College is not an end in itself; it does not exist alone. It is a part of the total educational program of our country. It must have some specific contribution to make to that program, and that something is quality . . . Not all high-school graduates who seek higher education should go to colleges such as Carleton. We cannot, we must not, try to be all things to all people who seek higher education. We need to define our task rather sharply to cover a limited field, but to do that better than it can be done in any other kind of institution." [Report of the President to the Board of Trustees, 1949-50]
Freedoms Foundation Medal, 1951.
The reverse reads "For outstanding achievement in bringing about a better understanding of the American way of life." Note, however, that Gould's name is misspelled on the engraving.
Hosting Eisenhower at Carleton, September 16, 1952.
Gould was a great admirer of the General, and a strong supporter of him politically. On this occasion, Eisenhower's only address on a college campus during the 1952 presidential campaign, over 10,000 people filled Laird Stadium to listen to the candidate.

With Trustee Chairman Laird Bell, 1955.
Gould's relations with his Trustees were excellent, and President and Board valued one another's contributions tremendously. In the mid-1950s Gould was involved in a number of extracurricular activities which necessarily consumed a good deal of his time -- appointment by Eisenhower to the National Science Board, election as a Trustee of the Ford Foundation, and a key role in connection with planning for the International Geophysical Year -- all in addition to his usual heavy schedule of speaking engagements. In 1955 the Carleton Board of Trustees took note of these presidential commitments and wholeheartedly endorsed them, stating that by engaging in them President Gould was also promoting the best interests of Carleton College. However, they were also concerned to guard against overwork, and marked Gould's tenth presidential year by sending Peg and Larry on a seven-week vacation sojourn to South America, a rest and relaxation break taken at the Board's insistence.
Library Moving Day, May 22, 1956.
In 1956 the long-awaited new Carleton library was completed. Tuesday, May 22 was "Library Moving Day." Classes were cancelled, and students, staff and faculty spent much of the day transporting approximately 90,000 books from Scoville Memorial Library into the new building, carefully maintaining the proper shelving order.
Dedicating the Library, September 22, 1956.
Poet and former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish was on hand to deliver the dedicatory address for the building which Gould considered "the intellectual heart of the College."
Packing for a return to Antarctica, December 1956.
In July 1955 Gould travelled to Paris to head the United States delegation to an eleven nation planning conference on Antarctic research programs to be carried out during the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year (IGY). Subsequently he was appointed director of the United States IGY Antarctic Program, and in that role returned to Antarctica early in 1957 to inspect logistical preparations for the IGY being carried out as part of the Navy's "Operation Deepfreeze." Working out of the main American base on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound, Dr. Gould supervised scientific operations at five other United States observation stations, including one at the South Pole itself.
Welcomed back to Carleton, March 16, 1957.
Gould returned from his second voyage to Antarctica in March, stopping first Washington to attend a National Science Board meeting, and then in New York to become the 20th individual awarded the prestigious Explorer's Club Medal. [The bronze medal and accompanying certificate are on display nearby.] The following day he flew back to Minneapolis -- where he was greeted, much to his surprise, by a group of some 400 Carls who had rented buses to transport themselves, Mrs. Gould, and a Carleton pep band to Wold-Chamberlain Airport.
March 16, 1957.
In brief remarks at the airport, Gould told the cheering students, "I have been to the ends of the earth and in two wars, but this is the most heart-warming welcome I have ever received."
Gould in Antarctica, 1957.
At the end of 1957 Gould made another, month-long, trip to Antarctica, this time to accompany six members of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, who were inspecting the IGY Antarctic program and its scientific researches in the fields of meteorology, oceanography, geomagnetism, seismology, ionospheric physics, and glaciology. Although the scientific knowledge gained from the IGY research programs was enormous, Gould hoped that the "human and social results" would prove more important in the long run. "This vast global effort was carried out in a period of almost unprecedented worldwide turmoil and unrest," he wrote more than a decade later in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (December, 1970). "It was the IGY cooperative efforts in Antarctica, coldest of all the continents, that witnessed the first thawing of the Cold War....It demonstrated, as never before, that the international community of science is the most hopeful of all examples of world cooperation and organization."
The Antarctic Treaty.
As chairman of the Committee on Polar Research of the National Academy of Sciences, Gould testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in favor of the Antarctic Treaty, a milestone in international cooperation which reserved the entire continent as a scientific preserve "to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes." Gould later said of this agreement: "The Antarctic Treaty is indispensable to the world of science which knows no national or other political boundaries; but it is much more than that. I believe it is a document unique in history which may take its place alongside the Magna Carta and other great symbols of man's quest for enlightenment and order."
Memorabilia arising out of IGY work.
Displayed here are:
1) an unidentified Russian medal commemorating the three international cooperative science years of 1882-83, 1932-33, and 1957-58;
2) an Antarctic Service medal, inscribed on the reverse "Courage, Sacrifice, Devotion";
3) the U.S. Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award (the Navy's highest civilian honor), presented to Dr. Gould in the Pentagon, October 12, 1959;
4) a souvenir of a SCAR meeting (Chile, 1966). The Special Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) was formed during the IGY by the International Council of Scientific Unions, and Gould was asked to be its first U.S. delegate. From 1963 to 1970 he would go on to serve as president of this international committee responsible for administration of the Antarctic Treaty.
Some memorabilia of the Gould era at Carleton.
Displayed here are:
1) one of Gould's red ties, with signature - this was a prize given at Junior Carnival in 1953 to winners of the "Pin-the-Tie" contest;
2) a freshman beanie presented to "Larry" at some time and occasion no longer known;
3) the guest book for the "Red Tie Ball" hosted by the Twin Cities Carleton Club in 1960, to honor Gould in his 15th year as president.
Backyard barbecue, late 1950s.
Back at Carleton in the period following his IGY directorship, Gould was "cooking up" new plans for moving the college forward. In 1957 he outlined for the Trustees some things he hoped to accomplish before his retirement. Plans were already underway for building the two new dormitories that would become Musser and Myers; in addition, Gould told the Board that he hoped to raise eight million dollars for the following purposes: a biology and physics building, ten endowed professorships, scholarship endowment, a men's field house, a women's gymnasium, a new administration building, and general maintenance.
"In Pursuit of Excellence"
In October 1958, as Myers and Musser were dedicated, the College announced a major development campaign, with a goal of $10 million and the theme "In Pursuit of Excellence." The student body presented Gould with a gold plated shovel to symbolize their support for the ambitious program. That same year the Board gave approval to a plan gradually to increase the size of the student body to 1300 over a period of years.
Gould and Yamasaki, November 1958.
During the 1958-59 school year, Carleton engaged Minoru Yamasaki as college architect. Yamasaki would eventually design five new buildings on the Carleton campus.
At a faculty meeting in Boliou Hall, 1958-59.
People familiar with the Carleton of the late '50s and into the '60s will enjoy spotting familiar faces in this photo. During the Gould era full attendance at faculty meetings was expected -- Gould's secretary Sally Crandall would sit in the back of the room taking attendance, and missing faculty could expect a query the next day as to the reasons behind their absence. But these men and women were valued. When asked to name the one or two things he did that made his administration so successful, Gould replied "Oh, that is easy. Going out and getting the best faculty I could find, bringing them here, and letting them loose."
With the bust of Schiller, date uncertain.
The origins of Carleton's longstanding "Schiller" tradition --for the uninitiated...well, just ask any Carleton student of the past 35-odd years -- are not entirely clear, many conflicting stories having been told. Certain it is, though, that the mania for stealing, hiding, showing, and generally running amok with the plaster bust commenced in the Gould era, certainly by the 1957-58 school year.
Look Magazine photo, 1959.
In May of 1959 a Look magazine photographer spent 10 days on campus shooting pictures for possible use in an article about Gould and Carleton. (The article, a public-relations boon for the college, eventually appeared in June 1960.) This photograph from the Look series pictures "Larry Gould Day" 1959.
Look Magazine photo, 1959.
Another photograph in the Look series shows Gould in his element among a group of students on Evans Hill overlooking Bell Field. The crowd was observing events held as part of the 1959 Freshman-Sophomore Holiday.
Look Magazine photo, 1959.
Here Gould is posed looking up at junior Ivan Grimm -- who, as you might shrewdly guess, was the standout Carleton basketball star of his era.
Speaking engagements.
A heavy schedule of public speaking was a constant for President Gould. In the photograph above he is speaking at Cooper Union in New York, Nov. 2, 1959; the next day he was in Hanover, N.H. to deliver a lecture at Dartmouth. A supberb orator, Gould was in constant demand: from 1945 to 1962 he delivered 764 important addresses, or an average of about one per week the year round.
Relaxing outdoors, date uncertain.
In 1959 and 1960 a campaign was afoot to draft Dr. Gould to run for the United States Senate. In fact, though not a candidate, he was formally endorsed by the Goodhue county Republican convention. Gould, however, refused to consider the overtures while in the midst of a major fundraising campaign for Carleton.
At Notre Dame commencement, June 5, 1960.
Personal honors continued to pour in for the illustrious college president. In 1958 he was selected to give the presitigious Isaiah Bowman lecture before the American Geographical Society in New York. That same year he was elected president of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, became a trustee of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and was named as one of "Twenty Outstanding Minnesotans of the Twentieth Century" by the University of Minnesota School of the Air. Between 1958 and 1962 he was awarded 13 of his eventual 26 honorary degrees, from schools including Columbia (Warning: 587K image!) and New York University (Warning: 630K image!). In this 1960 ceremony at
Notre Dame his co-recipients, shown here, include President Eisenhower and Cardinal Montini--the future Pope Paul VI.
Summer, 1960?
This photograph was found in a Gould family photo album with the label "30th Anniversary." The location is the Goulds' summer cabin near Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
"Science and the News" seminar, September 1960.
In 1960 Gould headed the planning committee for an unusual conference in which many of the nation's top scientists and newspaper editors came together in the Minnesota pines for discussions on the popular reporting of scientific activity. This photograph shows Gould in attendance at the seminar.
Breaking ground for Olin Hall, May 10, 1960.
One of the best days of the Gould presidency came on February 6, 1959, when Charles L. Horn of the Olin Foundation of New York City announced to a packed Chapel that the Olin Foundation was giving Carleton $1.5 million to build and equip a science building for biology and physics. It was the largest single gift in Carleton's history, to that date. This picture shows Gould the following year using the golden shovel at official groundbreaking ceremonies for Olin Hall.
Dedication of Olin Hall, October 14, 1961.
A year and a half later, the building was complete and ready for occupancy. Here President Gould holds aloft the keys to the new building. To the left is zoology professor Thurlo Thomas, and to the right is Charles Horn of the Olin Foundation.
October 8, 1960.
Here Gould is speaking at a Homecoming faculty symposium on a subject dear to his heart: "What Does Carleton Mean by Excellence"? At left is new Dean of the College Richard C. Gilman; behind Dr. Gould is American history professor Carlton C. Qualey.
A return to the classroom, October 1960.
When geology professor Duncan Stewart made his own trip to Antarctica in the fall of 1960, President Gould assumed Stewart's teaching responsibilities for a few weeks--his first regular classroom lectures in sixteen years.
1960.
Shown here is the entire Gould family of that time: Larry, Peg, and their poodle, Jill. Throughout their long married life together, Larry and Peg adopted a long series of pets, always claiming that their current animals were unquestionably the smartest and nicest they'd ever owned.
Around the world trip, 1961.
Over two months early in 1961 the Goulds travelled to Indonesia, Burma, India -- and eventually completely around the globe, with briefer stops in Greece and elsewhere in Europe. The trip was made on behalf of the Ford Foundation, to examine Foundation programs in the Asian locations.
Meeting Indonesian President Sukarno, Feb. 5, 1961.
Their round-world excursion included a short meeting with Indonesian president Sukarno. Returning the U.S., Gould criticized Sukarno's euphemistically named "guided democracy" as essentially a monolithic dictatorship.
A souvenir of Indonesia, 1961.
Red tie on the watertower.
The January 7, 1961 meeting of the Carleton Board of Trustees was a busy one. There was discussion of the establishment of the Laurence M. Gould Science Fund. There was a decision to revise the goal of the ongoing development campaign upward to $12 million. And President Gould advised his Board that "since he was in his sixty-fifth year ... he wished to retire in the predictable future." Eventually his retirement date was fixed at July 1, 1962. After seventeen years, it was difficult for many to imagine Carleton College without Larry Gould at its head.

Larry Gould Day for the City of Northfield, April 12, 1962.
Gould's final weeks at Carleton featured a whirl of tributes. The City of Northfield proclaimed April 12 as its own "Larry Gould Day," and over 500 friends and neighbors gathered that evening for a red tie banquet at the St. Olaf Center to demonstrate their affection. Here are some mementos of the memorable evening: a plaque presented by the community to "Larry Gould, Neighbor - Friend - Citizen - Educator" and a large framed cartoon drawn at the request of Northfield's Larry Gould Day Committee by Carleton coach and artist Jim Nelson.
Gift from the Chicago Carleton Alumni Club, May 15, 1962.
This silver plate is engraved "A keepsake of your last official visit with your many loyal and devoted friends in Chicago."
The last Red Tie Day on campus, June 2, 1962.
On this occasion students assembled on the Bald Spot to witness Larry and Peg drive up in a bright red car accompanied by a student dressed as a penguin, who read a poem about Dr. Gould's accomplishments.
Tickets to Greece, June 2, 1962.
The student body then presented the Goulds with two round-trip tickets to Athens, to be used whenever they wished. In accepting the tickets, the Goulds promised to make a return visit to Carleton to report on their trip to the students. Four days later it was the faculty's turn to say farewell. At a evening reception at the Northfield Country Club on June 6, the faculty and administation presented the Goulds first with humorous remarks by Carleton professors Reed Whittemore and Alfred Hyslop, and then with the surprise gift of a new red jeep, to be used at the Goulds' Wyoming ranch.
Gould presented a Doctor of Laws by Harvard, June 14, 1962.
Yes, that is indeed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara seated in front of President Gould.
Final commencement, June 15, 1962.
Gould's final commencement ceremonies were kept a "family affair." At the request of the graduating class, Gould himself gave the commencement address, on the theme of "Noblesse Oblige."
Hooded by Carleton, June 15, 1962.
At the conclusion of the ceremonies there were two surprises. First, Carleton made Gould an official alumnus by conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. (This is the moment shown above. Dean of Men Merrill "Casey" Jarchow places the hood, while Dean of Women Leith Shackel looks on.) Second, Chairman of the Board Atherton Bean, presiding over the day's events, announced the successful completion that day of the College's four-year $12 million development drive.
Taking a final bow, June 15, 1962.
Gould's Carleton citation, written by Reed Whittemore, read in part: "Larry Gould has already his full measure of such tributes; his cup of honorary degrees runneth over. In marking, thus, his departure we are doing really nothing at all unless we can tell him what cannot be told by the gift of a degree. We need to tell him that this community prizes less the academic distinction he has done so much to bring it than the spirit in which he has done so; to tell him that the money he has found to strengthen our enterprises has been little beside the strength of his leadership; to tell him that his magnificent performance in the role of president was only possible because of the humor, gentleness and humanity he brought to that role; and, perhaps most of all, to tell him--as I now do tell him--that what we are doing now we are doing not out of a sense of duty but out of love."
A tribute from the Carleton Trustees, June 15, 1962.
That day, in recommending the election of Larry Gould as president emeritus of Carleton College, Laird Bell read the following statement:
"This Board cannot permit the president of the College to retire without some record, however inadequate, of its gratitude for what his administration has meant to us all. Building upon a college already distinguished, he has guided it to still greater stature. The new buildings are an expression of this growth; the endowment has increased many fold, thanks to his efforts; but his real contribution has been in his leadership in the academic field. His first concern has been the selection of a faculty whose primary devotion has been teaching, supported by genuine scholarship. He has maintained the College as a place of learning, without compromise with the shallow or superficial. He has unfailingly supported the faculty in its freedom to teach. Above all, by his own example he has showed what it is to be at once a teacher, a scholar, a public servant, and a man of affairs. He has lived up to the Whitehead principle that he often quoted - 'Moral education is impossible apart from the habitual vision of greatness.' It is the fervent hope of the Board that he may find in his new activities the satisfaction and happiness that his labors have entitled him to enjoy."

The Board signified its unanimous approval of this action with a standing ovation.
The inscription on this plate reads: "Presented to Laurence McKinley Gould Teacher, Administrator and Explorer of Far Places in the Minds and Ways of Men. Master Alike in Polar Colds and in the Warmth of Kindling Youth. By Members of the Board of Trustees of Carleton College, June 15, 1962.
A Legacy of Excellence.
In commenting on Gould's retirement in its June 25, 1962 issue, Newsweek noted that it was under his tenure that Carleton transformed "from a little-known Congregational institution into one of the finest liberal-arts colleges in the nation." The previous year the Chicago Daily Tribune had labelled the school "a little Harvard in academic distinction". Altogether Gould had given 30 years of his life to Carleton, and the identification between the College and its famous president was close. The association was unquestionably an advantageous one for the school, and Gould claimed that it was equally so for himself. "If I had my life to live over again," he stated shortly before his retirement, "I could not invest it with greater satisfaction to myself than I have done at Carleton College."

[Gould Navigation Bar]

[I: Young Man Gould] [II: Byrd Expedition] [III: Carleton Professor] [IV: President Gould] [V: Sun and Ice] [Gould Front Page]