{"id":21174,"date":"2024-11-11T16:03:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T21:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/sibley\/?p=21174"},"modified":"2025-11-17T09:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T14:48:16","slug":"nov11-nov17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/sibley\/2024\/11\/nov11-nov17\/","title":{"rendered":"Nov 11th-17th: Inauguration of President Alan Valentine"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1763390766007{padding-top: 40px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1731509462094{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”]Published on Nov 11th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n

Back to This Week at Eastman<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1726852979961{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”1935: Inauguration of Dr. Alan Valentine to the Presidency of the University of Rochester” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1763390884801{border-top-width: 0px !important;border-right-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;border-left-width: 0px !important;border-left-style: solid !important;border-right-style: solid !important;border-top-style: solid !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;border-radius: 1px !important;border-color: #dddddd !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1729000374562{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1762958481905{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]\"AlanEighty-nine years ago this week, the Eastman Theater was the venue for the Inauguration of Dr. Alan Valentine as President of the University of Rochester.\u00a0 The Inauguration ceremonies on November 14th<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup>, 1935 confirmed once again the Eastman Theater\u2019s prominence and significance as the University\u2019s gathering place of choice since its opening in 1922.\u00a0 Alan Valentine (1901-1980), fourth President of the University of Rochester and also its youngest President to date, was the first to have been inaugurated in the Eastman Theater, which has been the venue for each President\u2019s inauguration since then, the most recent having been President Mangelsdorf, the 11th<\/sup> President, in 2019.<\/p>\n

Alan Valentine, an alumnus of Swarthmore and Pennsylvania and also a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, had previously served on the faculties of Swarthmore and Yale.\u00a0 A biographical sketch<\/a> appears on the University Libraries website, and a substantive Appreciation of his life and career was published in the University of Rochester Library Bulletin <\/em>(displayed here).\u00a0 His years as UR President were a time of profound transformation, on the local, national, and international fronts, locally, encompassing the later years of the Depression, the entirety of the Second World War, and the sweeping post-War societal changes. \u00a0President Valentine eventually submitted his resignation in 1949 to answer a call to international service with the Economic Stabilization Agency under President Truman, an international aid and recovery effort (1950-53) more famously known as The Marshall Plan. The website of the George C. Marshall Foundation offers an account of the history<\/a> of the Plan.\u00a0 Dr. Valentine\u2019s specific position was as mission chief in The Hague, Netherlands. \u00a0A further mark of distinction is that Dr. Valentine remains, to date, the only UR President to have been an Olympian.\u00a0 He was a member of the U.S. rugby team at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris,<\/a> where the Americans upset the heavily favored French team to win the gold medal.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1729000374562{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1731531797421{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]The 1935 Inauguration was an extended sequence of events, with proceedings taking place on two successive days.\u00a0 The University published a separate order of ceremony for both days, each displayed here.\u00a0 Significantly, musical forces of the Eastman School of Music were active participants in the proceedings.\u00a0 Harold Osborn Smith[1]<\/a> <\/sup>played the organ at the Thursday morning ceremony, offering the preslude, the processional, and the recessional.\u00a0 Between the Invocation and the several addresses, the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra performed Dvor\u00e1k\u2019s Carneval <\/em>Overture, conducted by Paul White.[2]<\/a> <\/sup>\u00a0At the Friday morning ceremony, Robert Berentsen[3]<\/a> <\/sup>was the organist, offering a prelude, the processional, and the recessional.\u00a0 The Eastman School of Music Symphony Orchestra again performed Dvor\u00e1k\u2019s overture Carneval. <\/em>\u00a0On the Thursday afternoon there were conferences taking place at the Men\u2019s College, the Women\u2019s College, and the School of Medicine and Dentistry. The Inauguration festivies concluded on the Friday evening with a concert in the Eastman Theater by the Eastman School of Music Symphony Orchestra under Dr. Howard Hanson\u2019s direction.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” gap=”20″ equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” css=”.vc_custom_1731093341024{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1731528215801{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_images_carousel images=”21185,21186,21187″ img_size=”330×500″ wrap=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1731530940065{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=””]\u25ba Order of ceremonies for November 14th<\/sup>, 1935, outlining the morning ceremony, the afternoon conferences, and the Friday evening concert.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1731528223642{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_images_carousel images=”21176,21177,21178,21179,21180,21181,21182,21183,21184″ img_size=”340×500″ wrap=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1731530978262{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=””]\u25ba Order of ceremonies for November 15th<\/sup>, 1935, which also included the names of the many attending participants. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1731530797571{padding-top: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_images_carousel images=”21199,21200,21201,21202″ img_size=”330×500″ wrap=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1731531156007{padding-right: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=””]\u25ba An appreciation of the life and career of Alan Valentine (1901-1980), published in the University of Rochester Library Bulletin (1980). <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1729000374562{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1731531820493{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]The Benediction at the Thursday morning ceremony was given by Dr. Clarence A. Barbour, President of Brown University, who had previously served in Rochester.\u00a0 In 1890 Dr. Barbour had been appointed Pastor of Lake Avenue Baptist Church, and in 1915 he had been appointed President of Rochester Theological Seminary, to which he had been appointed in 1915. Dr. Barbour\u2019s wife, Florence\u00a0 Newell Barbour, was a pianist and composer of some note.[4]<\/a><\/sup> The Barbours had left Rochester for the appointment to Brown University.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1731529992435{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Apart from the published orders of ceremonies, the University also published a complete account of both days\u2019 proceedings in book form that contained the full texts of the various addresses and statements that were delivered on both days, including President Valentine\u2019s inaugural address, \u201cThe Aims of Education\u201d.\u00a0 The book also included the text of an extended message delivered in real time by outgoing President, Dr. Rush Rhees, who was speaking remotely, as he and Mrs. Rhees had been unable to attend the Inauguration in person.<\/p>\n

The Inauguration ceremonies and also the Friday evening concert were recorded by Eastman School personnel.\u00a0 Master discs are maintained in the Eastman School\u2019s audio archive, and digital preservation tapes were formatted during preservation work several decades later.\u00a0 The Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation at Rush Rhees Library holds a collection of souvenirs and press clippings<\/a> dating from the Inauguration. \u00a0In addition, Alan Valentine\u2019s papers as President of the University reside in the University Archives.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1729000374562{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1731528698664{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Besides such high-profile occasions as presidential Inaugurations, the Eastman Theater has been the venue for annual Commencement ceremonies, for occasional Convocations for distinguished visitors (such as former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir in 1974), and for gatherings of civic purpose and of industrial purpose.\u00a0 The Eastman Theater continues to serve as a multi-purpose space\u2014motion picture cinema, concert hall, opera house, auditorium, and convention hall, thereby fulfilling Mr. Eastman\u2019s vision of an edifice serving the public for the enrichment of community life.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1729000374562{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_separator color=”black” css=””][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1731527684928{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][1]<\/a>\u00a0 Harold Osborn Smith, organist, vocal coach, and instructor of English, served on the ESM faculty 1924-54.\u00a0 He died in 1955.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Dr. Paul White, Eastman alumnus, was a violinist, composer and conductor; he served on the ESM faculty 1928-65.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Robert Berentsen, organist and instructor in the Eastman School\u2019s program for film accompaniment organists, served 1923-30.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0 On musical grounds I feel obliged to offer the following.\u00a0 Dr. Barbour\u2019s wife, Florence Newell Barbour (1866-1949), a native of Providence, Rhode Island, was both composer and pianist.\u00a0 She enjoyed some success as a concert pianist, both as soloist with orchestras and as solo recitalist, and also performing her own compositions in radio broadcasts.\u00a0 Locally, Mrs. Barbour gave numerous performances under the auspices of the Tuesday Musicale, a Rochester concert society (1891-1926).\u00a0 Given the mor\u00e9s of the time, she was frequently identified on concert programs as \u201cMrs. C. A. Barbour\u201d in relation to her husband.\u00a0 Besides performing, Mrs. Barbour composed prolifically for the piano and also for voice, setting texts by a variety of poets. Her principal publisher was Arthur P. Schmidt (Boston); in addition, some of her works were published by Carl Fischer, M. Witmark, and Luckhardt and Belder, all of New York City. In Rochester, her music was published by Gibbons and Stone.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1726852979961{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_empty_space]\n\n\n<\/svg>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1631195300893{margin-top: 40px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”3″ item=”17490″ css=”” grid_id=”vc_gid:1763390862012-1f13eac0-77a7-10″ taxonomies=”18″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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