The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved.
© 2008 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved.
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[Identification of item] Frederick Emmons Terman papers, SC 160. Stanford University Archives, Stanford, Calif.
Sincere thanks are due to all whose efforts contributed to this project, especially to Dr. Frederick E. Terman, who made the generous gift of this collection, and financial support for its processing. In addition, this project would not have been possible without the work of former University Archivist Ralph Hansen, and the current Archivist Roxanne-Louise Nilan, who were responsible for arranging the transfer of these papers, and overseeing the complicated logistics accompanying a collection of this size.
PREFACE
Frederick Terman ranks as one of the most successful of American administrators of science, engineering, and higher education in this century, a reputation that has eclipsed his deserved stature as a leading researcher and teacher in the field of radio engineering. Terman figured prominently in the development of electrical engineering as an academic discipline, the mobilization of American science and engineering in support of the war effort between 1942 and 1945, and the rapid growth after the war of an international center of industry based on advances in science and technology which we know today as the "Silicon Valley." It is fitting that the preservation of Terman's personal, scientific, and administrative papers should match his other accomplishments as a unique and virtually inexhaustible legacy, this time to historians.
The Terman papers will be approached from a variety of angles, a fact recognized and encouraged by the organization of this guide. Historians interested in the institutional basis of science and technology in wartime will be drawn to virtually complete records--including scarce or unpublished administrative histories and technical reports--stemming from Terman's role as director of the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory. Utilizing documents generated or collected by Terman during his tenure in a succession of offices at Stanford and within the national engineering community, the historian can trace the development of numerous organizations in science and engineering, including the Institute of Radio Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, the President's Scientific Advisory Committee, the Institute for Defense Analysis, the Stanford Electronics and Microwave Laboratories, and the School of Engineering at Stanford University. As a Stanford University administrator, most notably as Provost of the University from 1955 until 1965 and consultant to the President of the University until 1975, Terman formulated a philosophy of faculty selection and research funding based on the notion of "steeples of excellence." Example's of Terman's application of this philosophy abound in his administrative files, preserved in this collection, so that the historian will find here a laboratory in which to examine in unusual detail and intimacy how a broad range of academic disciplines were supported in a particular institutional setting.
Terman's papers are a rich resource regarding the ideas and instruments of science and engineering. His own research, inventions, teaching, and consulting activities are well documented. Yet, Terman's contemporaries and proteges best remember him as the man with his finger in every pie and on every pulse; attention to detail, his astonishing memory, and ready access to voluminous and well-managed files struck most Terman watchers as the keystones of his success as a judge of talent and recruiter. Terman's carefully organized observations and reports on the careers and work of others amount to a running reportage on the progress of research at Stanford and numerous other universities and industrial labs; the reports he prepared as scientific advisor to the Television Shares Management Company between 1948 and 1978 provide a particularly noteworthy example of Terman in his role as commentator on the technical achievements of his day.
As voluminous and complete as the Terman papers may be, additional sources are available to Terman biographers and historians wishing to investigate his life and times. Foremost among these is a series of interviews with Terman conducted by Arthur L. Norberg, Charles Susskind, and Roger Hahn, transcripts of which are housed at the Stanford University Archives and The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Collections of the personal, scientific, and administrative papers of scientists and engineers associated with Terman and with Stanford University, such as those of Felix Bloch, William W. Hansen, David Locke Webster, and Leonard Schiff further illuminate many of the events and projects with which Terman was involved and are housed in the Stanford University Archives, while the papers of Cyril F. Elwell, housed in the Department of Special Collections of the Stanford University Libraries, provide additional background material concerning the early development of the electronics industry in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Henry Lowood
Bibliographer for History of Science and Technology Collections, Stanford University Libraries
Frederick Emmons Terman, the first child of Lewis Madison and Anna Terman, was born in English, Indiana on June 7, 1900. Due to Lewis Terman's chronic tuberculosis, the family sought a more salubrious climate, moving to the Los Angeles area in 1905. With the elder Terman's appointment to the Stanford University Education Department in 1910, the family settled permanently in the Stanford area.
Lewis Terman, an eminent psychologist and educator, is perhaps best known for his development of the Stanford-Binet intelligence tests. His work on IQ testing was however, only one aspect of a life-long professional interest in individual giftedness and leadership. Frederick was undoubtedly influenced by some of his father's concepts, and later integrated them into his own system of identifying faculty and students of unusual promise, and encouraging the fullest realization of their potentials. Growing up in an academic environment also instilled an early and thorough understanding of university operation, later to serve well in Dr. Terman's administrative career.
Childhood at Stanford University had its less serious aspects as well. Dr. Terman recalls hiking in the Stanford foothills, fishing in Felt Lake, and swimming in Lake Lagunita. At the age of fourteen, Frederick and his neighbor, Herbert Hoover, Jr., began experimenting with "ham" radio, resulting in Dr. Terman's life-long involvement with radio.
Nine years old before he began primary school, Dr. Terman progressed rapidly and graduated from Stanford University in 1920 with a degree in Chemistry. After obtaining an additional degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford under Professor Harris J. Ryan, Terman went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate study under Professor Vannevar Bush. Bush emphasized the practical, industrial applications of engineering in addition to theoretical research.
Upon the completion of his doctorate in electrical engineering in 1924, Dr. Terman accepted a teaching appointment at M.I.T. Health was to play a decisive role in Frederick Terman's career as it had for his father. While visiting his family at Stanford in the summer of 1924, he had a serious attack of tuberculosis, keeping him bed-ridden for a year.
For his recovery, the California climate was preferable to Massachusetts, and the following year Dr. Terman accepted a part-time instructorship in electrical engineering at Stanford University. He continued his convalescence throughout the academic year of 1925-26, getting up only a few hours each day to teach. Despite serious illness, these years were very productive. With the intense concentration characterizing all his endeavors, Terman used the time to read extensively the existing radio engineering literature and to begin drafting his own first book.
In the academic year 1926-27, Terman began full-time teaching at Stanford, specializing in electronics. Although the electronics laboratory suffered from a severe shortage of funds, in the years between 1926 and 1941, Dr. Terman was able to build up a program distinctive in its output of ideas, people and publications.
Meanwhile, Dr. Terman's own career was flourishing. In 1937, he became a full professor and executive head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Five of his seven books were published and were well received. More than 600,000 copies would be published in nine languages. According to Dr. Terman, his books "reflect his interest in the systematic organization of knowledge, and his desire to find simple quantitative ways to treat each topic."
He was also active in numerous professional societies, particularly the Institute of Radio Engineers. In 1941 he was elected President of the I.R.E., a notable honor signifying the growing national visibility of Dr. Terman and the Stanford electronics program.
Pre-WW II years were significant in his personal life as well. In 1928, he married Sibyl Walcutt, a graduate student in psychology. Their three sons, Frederick, Terrence and Lewis, were born between 1929 and 1935.
The outbreak of World War II was a turning point for Dr. Terman. He was appointed to organize and direct the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory, which was responsible for developing countermeasures against enemy radar. This research project eventually had more than 850 employees. It devised electronic radar jammers; designed tunable receivers for locating and analyzing radar signals; and manufactured billions of aluminum strips (called "chaff") which confused enemy radar reception when dropped from airplanes. The Radio Research Laboratory (operating over Europe) was credited with saving many of the allied bombers, and Dr. Terman was decorated by both the American and British governments for his wartime efforts.
At the same time that he was directing the Harvard Laboratory, Dr. Terman was educating himself in the strategies of successful university administration. He benefited by living near the treasurer of Harvard University, from whom he learned how Harvard's administrative structure and policies contributed to its pre-eminence among universities. Other issues discussed were the future of government support for university research after the war, and how such funding could best be utilized. Terman felt World War II had clearly demonstrated the importance of technological superiority in military success, and as a result, the federal government would place a new priority upon sponsoring advanced engineering research.
Terman returned to Stanford in 1946 as Dean of Engineering. In his new position of responsibility, he was able to carry out the concepts he had developed for strengthening the engineering program at Stanford. There were three basic components in his plan: the use of government research contracts; enhancement of the symbiotic relationship between local industry and the university; and distribution of funds for maximum academic benefit.
The contacts Dr. Terman had made as director of the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory were useful in obtaining the federal government contracts for Stanford. The newly established Office of Naval Research sought Dr. Terman's assistance, and with the approval of Stanford president, Donald B. Tresidder, research projects were initiated in chemistry, physics, and electronics in 1945 and 1947. Terman developed administrative guidelines to assure that sponsored research would benefit, rather than compete with, the educational mission of the University. Among the important aspects of these guidelines were that all research projects should be built around the specific interests of individual faculty members, rather than being obtained by administrators and assigned to the faculty, and that research should actually be carried out by students and faculty as an integral part of their academic programs rather than being undertaken by professional research staff as an adjunct to educational goals. The conditions established with these original sponsored projects have continued as the basis for the successful applied research programs at Stanford.
Dr. Terman had long been opposed to the "ivory tower" image of universities. He recognized the practical and mutual benefits that could accrue from interaction between industry and academia, and encouraged a closer relationship between them.
Palo Alto is often called the "birthplace of electronics" in honor of Lee DeForest's pioneering research with the audion tube in 1912, but when Dr. Terman began his teaching career in the 1920's, there were very few innovative engineering companies in the Bay Area. Terman was disturbed to find most of his best students moving to the east coast to find jobs. In the 1930's Professor Terman attempted to ameliorate the situation by helping talented students establish their own small companies. His greatest success was the Hewlett-Packard company; Terman arranged for a 8500 research assistantship to bring his former student, David Packard, back from a job at General Electric in New York to collaborate with William Hewlett, another of his inventive students. Terman was the "godfather" of this and several other student-initiated ventures that formed the nucleus of the San Francisco Bay Area's industrial development, today's "Silicon Valley."
As Dean of Engineering, Dr. Terman could effectively foster cooperation between Stanford's engineering program and local research-oriented companies. He encouraged faculty consulting, developed industrial affiliates programs through which companies could keep informed of the latest scientific developments in their fields, and initiated the Honors Cooperative Program, allowing employees of local firms to study part-time toward advanced degrees at Stanford. These arrangements proved to be mutually beneficial. Innovative industries benefited from the intellectual stimulus of a strong university, whose graduates also provided an exceptionally qualified work force. Programs like the Honors Cooperative became added recruitment incentives. In return, the Stanford Engineering School received financial support through the affiliates and cooperative programs. Potential students were attracted by the favorable employment environment as well as academic excellence. The opening of the Stanford Industrial Park in the 1950's strengthened the university-industry liaison, and the Stanford pattern has since been emulated throughout the United States.
More important to the Engineering School's development than sponsored research or industrial cooperation was Dr. Terman's program for obtaining maximum benefit from available resources. As Dean, Terman directed the fiscal policies of the School. He was firmly committed to the concept of investing in faculty, not in buildings. As an expression of this, he felt money should be directed towards hiring the finest research-oriented engineers possible. He considered it wasteful to construct new buildings, filled with expensive equipment, without top-quality scientists to use them. He also felt it was better economy to pay the high salaries necessary to attract a few leading engineers, than to use the same amount of money to hire a greater number of mediocre professors at lower salaries. He has compared his strategy to a track team, saying, "It's better to have one seven-foot jumper on your team than any number of six-foot jumpers.
He called this principle the "steeples of excellence." These steeples consist of very small groups of experts in significant fields, who by leadership in their professions, can attract grant money, as well as the finest students and junior faculty members. Terman's formula for the judicious combining of federal money with industrial support propelled the Stanford Engineering School from a merely regional institution into national prominence.
With his appointment as Provost of Stanford University in 1955, Dr. Terman assumed broader administrative responsibilities. Although President J. E. Wallace Sterling, historian, and Frederick Terman, engineer, had different academic backgrounds, they shared similar administrative and educational philosophies. Like Terman, Sterling believed institutional superiority was based upon the outstanding achievement of individual faculty members. Highest priority was placed upon hiring and retaining the finest scholar-teachers, and faculty search, selection, and tenure polices were made more rigorous and competitive at all levels. As can be seen in Series III of this collection, Dr. Terman and his Provost's Office staff kept meticulously detailed data on the operations of every department throughout the University, including average class sizes, number of student contacts for each faculty member, Ph.D. output per professor, faculty salaries and anticipated retirement dates. Dr. Terman often had a fuller knowledge of the workings of a department than did its chairman. These statistics were invaluable for strengthening and streamlining the academic programs in all areas of Stanford. During the Sterling-Terman administration, the University experienced unprecedented growth in national academic prominence and prestige.
Although Dr. Terman retired as Provost in 1965, he has continued to serve as a part-time consultant to the President, and has designed and carried out several studies on school and department budgets, faculty planning, benefits and retirement. Dr. Terman has continued to be active in many professional societies, holding elective offices or committee appointments in the Institute of Radio Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the National Academy of Engineering, and Sigma Xi.
In keeping with his belief that the United States must maintain technological superiority in a highly competitive world, he has served as a consultant or advisor for the Institute of Defense Analysis, the Defense Science Board, the President's Scientific Advisory Committee, and the Navy, Air Force, and Signal Corps.
Since his retirement in 1965, he has devoted particular attention to the development of higher education in science and engineering, both in the United States and abroad. Among these project have been the Southern Methodist Foundation for Science and Engineering, the Korean Institute for Advanced Science, and a U.S. Office of Education mission to the U.S.S.R.
Dr. Terman once said, "I most enjoy helping to build something up, taking an unformulated enterprise and making it into what it could become." Today Stanford University, and the surrounding communities of technical scholars, bear witness to the continuing influence of that idea.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The papers of Frederick Emmons Terman, dating from 1920 to 1978, document all phases of his long and influential career as an educator, electronics engineer, administrator, and author. The collection consists of nearly 200 boxes of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, speeches and miscellaneous materials accumulated by Dr. Terman and his staff throughout his professional life. Because of Dr. Terman's varied career, and the corresponding breadth of this collection, these papers will be a valuable resource for researchers in many disciplines, including the history of science, military history, educational administration and even urban development.
The bulk of this collection was donated by Dr. Terman in April, 1977. Since that time, he has continued to send smaller groups of materials as he no longer needed them. The actual processing of the collection began in December, 1977, and was completed in the summer of 1980. The project costs were generously underwritten by a grant from Dr. Terman.
The files had been divided between his campus office and his home study. When the papers arrived, they had, for the most part, already been segregated into discrete groups such as "Provost's Personal Files," and "Institute of Radio Engineer's Records." In arranging these papers, I have respected Dr. Terman's own organizational scheme as much as possible.
Because the collection is so large and varied, a series structure was devised to provide more convenient access for researchers. In some cases, such as the "Harvard Radio Research Laboratory Records," the current series is equivalent to Dr. Terman's own compilation of records on that subject. But in some other cases, such as the "Professional Organizations Series," several smaller groups of papers were brought together topically as subdivisions of a larger series. Thus, a researcher with a particular interest in the history of engineering societies, for example, needs only to consult Series IV of the collection.
Within each series, I have arranged the papers according to their original organization when possible. In some series, this work was limited to merely rearranging a few misfiled papers. In other groups , the plan of organization was not apparent, so the folders have been ordered in a manner consistent with the overall structure of the collection.
There are two modes of access to this collection: through the subject-oriented box and folder register; and through the index of correspondents, both of which are divided by series. The researcher is advised to consult the series descriptions to determine which are most relevant, and then check through the inventory and index of the appropriate series. This procedure will insure maximum coverage and accessibility of the collection. The index is available for use in the Stanford University Archives.
This series consists of correspondence, reports, committee minutes, newspaper and magazine articles related to Dr. Terman's tenure as director of the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory during World War II.
This laboratory, which at its peak had approximately 880 employees, was responsible for the two major aspects of radar countermeasures: first, designing devices to jam or otherwise confuse enemy radar; and second, to build receivers that would determine the location and operational characteristics of enemy radar installations. Among the laboratory's inventions were various transmitters, both air-borne and land-based that would emit electronic signals to jam radar, and "chaff," strawlike aluminum strips that when dropped in large quantities from airplanes would reflect radar beams to confuse the radar image. The Harvard Radio Research Lab was credited with having saved many of the American bombers that operated over Germany. Its equipment also played an important role in the Normandy invasion.
The laboratory was administered by the National Defense Research Committee, which in turn was a component of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, created by President Roosevelt's Executive Order of June 28, 1941. For further information on the administration and history of the H.R.R.L. and its overseas branch, the American British Laboratory, see Box 9 of this series.
Box 1: Stanford -Radio Research Lab (R-R-L). Correspondence, 1941-46. Alphabetically arranged subject files of correspondence between Dr. Terman at the Radio Research Lab, and Stanford University faculty, students, and administrators, chiefly on University business. Included is one folder concerned with Dr. Terman's appointment as Dean of Engineering, a position he assumed immediately upon returning to Stanford.
Boxes 2 -4: R.R.l. General Files, 1941-46. Alphabetically arranged subject files of Dr. Terman's correspondence and memoranda relating to all aspects of the Laboratory's operations.
Boxes 5 -8: Project Committee, 1941-45. Minutes and supporting documents of the Project Committee, which assigned and supervised the research project of various working groups within the R.R.L.
Box 8: Publicity, 1945-46 . News releases, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs and other publicity materials related to the R.R.L.'s wartime efforts.
Box 9: Administrative histories and operational reports. Published and unpublished histories of the R.R.L. and A.B.L., and operational reports on the use of radar countermeasures. Most of these were written soon after the war ended, in 1945 and 1946.
Boxes 10 -16: R.R.L. Reports, 1941-46. Technical reports, including those issued by the Laboratory as a whole, and separate series issued by the various working groups within the Lab. These reports, primarily in published form, are filed according to the numbers assigned by the R.R.L.
Box 17: Chaff and rope samples. Examples of the various forms of aluminum "chaff" and "rope" developed at R.R.L. to confuse radar reception.
Box 18: Photograph album with images of staff, labs, tests conducted on the roof, airplanes and the Bedford hangar, machine shop, wood shop, and other parts of RRL including printing, publishing, and document workers. There are also images of equipment displayed in the Press Show and the Navy Press Show and a few images of German antennae and other Allied labs. The images are undated but labeled. The album also includes a few newspaper clippings, 1944-45.
Frederick Terman participated in the activates of the Stanford School of Engineering at all levels, first as a student, and later in-teaching appointments ranging from Instructor in Communication to Dean of the School. The papers in Series II document his entire range of professional service to the School. For further information on the history of the Engineering School at Stanford, see Stanford University Archives collection SC 165, Engineering School Records.
Boxes 1 -4: Electrical Engineering Correspondence, 1931-46. Alphabetically arranged subject files of correspondence and memoranda related to Dr. Terman's career as a faculty member, and from 1937 to 1945, Executive Head of the Department of Engineering.
Boxes 6 -9: Student-faculty research, 1928-35. Laboratory notes, reports, graphs, articles and correspondence related to research projects undertaken in the Electronic Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Terman. Some of these projects were collaborative efforts between Terman and his students, while others were entirely student work. Each folder contains the papers pertaining to a specific research project, and the folders are filed chronologically.
Boxes 10 -12: I.T.T. invention disclosures, 1936-42. Research notes, reports, and correspondence related to an agreement with the International Telephone and Telegraph Company. I.T.T. supported the Communication Laboratory in two ways, First, it provided grants to underwrite the cost of certain specific research projects that interested the company. Further, it made an annual lump sum payment to support basic research in the laboratory. In return, I.T.T. was given "first refusal" rights on any inventions which were discovered in the course of this research. The general research problems were usually suggested by Dr. Terman, and worked on by graduate students as assignments of theses. If any promising ideas arose, they were submitted to I.T.T. as invention disclosures, and the company determined whether it wished to negotiate for patents. Although no major inventions resulted from this arrangement, it was very beneficial to Stanford, providing needed support to the Communication Laboratory in a significant stage of its development. This group of papers shows an early stage of the University-industry cooperation that Dr. Terman actively fostered.
Boxes 13 -17: Stanford Electronic Laboratories Correspondence, 1951-5 As Dean of Engineering, Dr. Terman was also the director of the Stanford Electronics Laboratories, which consisted of the Electronic Research Laboratory, primarily for unclassified basic research, sponsored research contracts. These boxes contain the administrative files of the laboratories, including general correspondence, contracts, personnel and budget information, arranged alphabetically by subject.
Box 18: Microwave Laboratory Correspondence, 1949-54. The Microwave Laboratory was administered jointly by the Physics and Electrical Engineering Departments. Edward L. Ginzton was the director of this laboratory, and most of this box actually consists of copies of Dr. Ginzton's administrative correspondence made for Terman's information. The folders are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Box 19: Teaching materials. This box contains syllabi, lecture notes, and course evaluations for several electric engineering courses taught by Dr. Terman. All of these items are undated except the evaluations, which date from 1952 to 1954.
Boxes 1 -60: Provosts' Personal Papers, 1955-65. These files consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports and clipping covering all phases of Dr. Terman's activities as Provost. They were called "personal" by Dr. Terman's office because they were controlled by Terman's own secretary, rather than being a part of the central President's and Provost's record group. The contents, however, deal strictly with University-related matters. These records provide revealing insights into Dr. Terman's philosophy and methods of strengthening academic departments as well as the general functioning of the highest levels of university administration. The files are arranged alphabetically by subject, and chronologically within each folder.
Boxes 61 -63: Provost's staff meeting, 1959-65. Agenda, minutes, and supporting documents for the biweekly meetings of Dr. Terman's office staff.
Boxes 64 -67: Studies for the President, 1966-75 Following Dr. Terman's retirement as Provost in 1965, he continued work part-time as a consultant to the President of the University. In this capacity, he carried out several studies for President Sterling and his successors, including control of faculty size, fringe benefits, retirement pensions, and funding of Stanford's professional schools. These four boxes contain correspondence, data, working papers and reports related to these studies.
Boxes 68 -75: Data processing in the Provost's Office, 1955-75. When the Registrar's Office computerized its operations in 1955, Dr. Terman saw the opportunity to obtain a vast amount of statistical data on the educational activities within Stanford. With a grant from the Ford Foundation, Terman and Professor Robert Oakford were able to program the system to provide a variety of information in a form that was useful to the Provost. These boxes contain computer print-outs divided into volumes by topics, which include statistics on courses taught by each instructor, enrollment statistics, age and salary distribution among faculty.
Boxes 76-77: Budget working papers, 1955-65. Binders containing memoranda, data, and calculations compiled by Terman to be used in figuring yearly budgets. Arranged chronologically.
Box 78: Miscellaneous administrative files, 1948-65.. Folders 1 -7 contain files on graduate division accounts; and Terman's study of undergraduate education. Folders 8 -13 are concerned with the search for the successor for Stanford's deceased President Donald B. Tresidder. Terman was elected to the Faculty Advisory Committee which recommended presidential candidates to the Board of Trustees. These files contain correspondence, minutes, agenda, and lists of candidates relevant to this task.
Box 1: American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1934-49. Although he was a member of this group, and served on its Communications Committee, Dr. Terman was not particularly active in the organization. He was more active in the competing electrical engineering society, the Institute of Radio Engineers. In 1963, the two groups merged, forming the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. the A.I.E.E. folders are arranged alphabetically by subject, and chronologically within each folder.
Boxes 2 -4: American Society for Engineering Education, 1946-77. From the time he became Engineering Dean in 1946 until his appointment as Provost in 1955, Dr. Terman was active in this society, including serving on its board of directors and holding a vice-presidency. During his years as Provost, he had little time to participate in the society, but after his retirement in 1965, became active again. Terman was awarded the Lamme Medal for distinction in engineering education in 1964, and was elected to the A.S.E.E. Hall of Famein 1968. Since 1969, the Hewlett-Packard Company has sponsored the A.S.E.E.'s Frederick Emmons Terman Award presented annually to an outstanding young electrical engineering educator. These files, containing correspondence, minutes, and reports are arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically within each folder.
Boxes 5 -7: Institute of Electric and Electronics Engineering, 1963-77.
I.E.E.E. was created in 1964 by the merger of A.I.E.E. and I.R.E. Dr. Terman became active in this group following his retirement in 1965, and was particularly involved in the activities of the Life Member Fund Committee, serving as its chairman for several years. He was also a member of the I.E.E.E. History Committee, and developed active cooperation between the two groups. In addition, he was an editorial advisor to the I.E.E.E. magazine Spectrum from 1973 to 1976. These papers pertain primarily to these three activities. The folders are arranged alphabetically by subject, and chronologically within each folder.
Boxes 8 -16: Institute of Radio Engineers, 1936-52. The I.R.E. was the professional society in which Dr. Terman was most active, serving on many committees. He was elected president in 1941, the first Westerner to hold that office. In the course of his presidency, he restructured-the central offices of the I.R.E., and effected several other significant changes to upgradeadministrative efficiency. The files are arranged alphabetically by subject, and chronologically within each folder.
Boxes 17 -18: Institute for Science and Technology in New Jersey, 1965-69. This organization was formed by a group of corporate executives with major research laboratories in northern New Jersey. They had observed the positive influence of Stanford University on the surrounding high technology companies, and wished to create a similar environment in their area. They formed an industry committee to study the feasibility of creating and underwriting a suitable institution, and engaged Dr. Terman to work out in detail its design and cost. This proposed educational center was never built, because although most of the participating companies agreed with the plans in principle, they did not wish to fully commit themselves financially. The final report that Terman wrote for this project is especially interesting, for it describes in detail his concept of the ideal university-industry liaison. These topically arranged files contain background material and general correspondence; Terman's research and working materials; and his reports.
Boxes 19 -26: Sigma Xi, 1955-76. Sigma Xi is a national honorary society similar to Phi Beta Kappa which emphasizes ability or potential in scientific or technical research. Dr. Terman has been a full member of the Stanford Chapter since 1924, but these files are concerned with his more recent involvement in the society, after his retirement from University administration. He served on the Executive Committee from 1968 to 1976, and was the national president in 1975. Some of his important duties during this time were site visits to evaluate campuses wishing to affiliate with Sigma Xi, and presiding over the installation of new clubs and chapters. The files are arranged alphabetically by subject, and chronologically within each folder.
Box 1 -Box 3, folder 5: Patent applications, 1926-40. Dr. Terman's invention disclosures; correspondence with attorneys; and correspondence with the U.S. Patent Office to obtain letters of patent for various electronic devices and systems. The files are arranged alphabetically by subject, and chronologically within each folder.
Box 3, folder 6 -Box 4: Correspondence and negotiations, 1928-35. Correspondence negotiating sale of Terman's patent rights to various individuals and companies. The folders are arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent or company.
Boxes 5 -10: Miscellaneous consulting, 1928-78. These boxes contain papers documenting Dr. Terman's commercial consulting career as a technical advisor, or in some patent cases, as an expert witness,-for various individuals and companies including Cyril Elwell, Encyclopedia Britannica, Federal Telegraph, General Electric, Gilfillan Brothers, and Heintz and Kaufman. These folders are arranged alphabetically by the name of the company or individual.
Of particular interest in this group are the papers related to the Television shares Management Company (Box 6, folder 9 -Box 10), an investment firm specializing in electronics and other high technology stocks. From 1948 to 1978, Dr. Terman was a scientific advisor to the company, keeping it abreast of the latest technological developments that might affect stock performance. In this capacity, he wrote monthly reports on electronics activities in the Bay Area that will be useful to researcher in the hisory of technology.
Box 11: Miscellaneous research materials, 1923-39. Dr. Terman's student reports and papers; laboratory notebooks; and notarized papers related to his personal research.
Dr. Terman has served on numerous advisory boards and technical committees sponsored by the various branches of the Federal Government, both military and non-military. Although some of these groups, like the Institute of Defense Analysis were not actually government agencies, they are included because they operated exclusively on government contracts.
Boxes I -2: Board of Foreign Scholarships, 1944-75. Chronologically arranged files containing minutes, agenda, and some correspondence related to this Board, which selects Fulbright Scholars. The Board is composed of well-known educators who are appointed by the President. Terman served on the Board from 1960 to 1965, first appointed by President Eisenhower, and reappointed by President John F. Kennedy.
Boxes 3 -7: Institute for Defense Analysis, 1958-73. Chronologically arranged files of minutes, agenda, correspondence, and annual reports. The I.D.A. was a consortium of universities, organized in 1955 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a contract operation for the Department of Defense. The mission of this group was to perform operations research on topics such as alternatives in weapons systems, and tactics for use of various weapons. Stanford was a member of the original five-university group that also included M.I.T., California Institute of Technology, Tulane University, and Case Western Reserve. Later, seven more universities were added. Each of the participating institutions had two person on I.D.A.'s Board of Trustees: the university president or his deputy; and a business officer. Dr. Terman was appointed by President J.E. Wallace Sterling to serve in the former capacity. Terman was a member of this board from I.D.A.'s inception in 1955 until mandatory retirement in 1973.
Boxes 8 -9: National Academy of Sciences Battery Additives Committee, 1948-53. Chronologically arranged correspondence files and test reports. This committee of scientists, to which Dr. Terman was appointed, was the final arbiter in a controversy, that although insignificant of itself, assumed national importance due to political circumstances. In the late 1940's, an Oakland businessman named Jess Ritchie began selling a battery additive which he claimed lengthened the life of automotive batteries, and in some cases could restore function to dead cells. The National Bureau of Standards tested the additive and reported that it was useless. Consequently, Ritchie's mailing privileges were withdrawn by the Federal Trade Commission. Ritchie retaliated with various testimonials and test reports which purported to show the usefulness of his substance. He charged that the big battery manufacturers were using the Federal Government to harass him, a small businessman working in the best interest of the public. The incident became more complicated when Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks fired Allen V. Austin, head of the National Bureau of Standards, for his role in the affair. Various congressional hearings resulted, and finally this N.A.S. committee was set up to evaluate all the evidence and determine if further testing was necessary. The committee concluded that the material was indeed useless, and that no further tests were needed.
Boxes 12 -14: Naval Research Advisory Committee, 1956-70. Chronologically arranged files of correspondence, minutes, agenda, and reports. This committee is a group of approximately ten significant civilian scientists appointed by the Secretary of the Navy to advise on technical matters. The group reports to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chief of Naval Research, the two highest Naval officers. This committee is purely advisory, but because of the high caliber of its members, usually has considerable influence on Navy policies. Dr. Terman served on the N.R.A.C. from 1956 to 1964.
Boxes 15 -16: President's Scientific Advisory Committee, 1959-71. The Scientific Advisory Panel was formally established by President Eisenhower soon after the U.S.S.R launched Sputnick. This panel occasionally sponsored committees to study specific topics in the national interest, and Dr. Terman was appointed to two of them both dealing with scientific and engineering manpower and education. These papers, containing correspondence, minutes, and reports are divided into groups by the committee, and the folders are arranged alphabetically by topic.
Boxes 17 -19: Signal Corps and miscellaneous defense committees, 1948-68. Beginning in the years following World War II, Dr. Terman served on advisory boards to technical groups in all branches of the military services, particularly the U.S. Army Signal Corps. These three boxes contain Terman's files of correspondence, minutes, and reports related to membership on these committees, arranged alphabetically by the name of each working group, and chronologically within each folder.
Box 20: Miscellaneous non-military consulting, 1946-64. Dr. Terman served briefly on several committees of the Commerce Department and National Bureau of Standards, concerning such topics as patents, telecommunications, and industrial research and development. The files in this box are arranged alphabetically by group name, and chronologically within each folder.
Dr. Terman was always concerned with the state of engineering education in the U.S., and after his retirement in 1965, was able to pursue this interest more actively. This study, designed and carried out by him in 1968 and 1969, determined the instructional costs per student credit hour granted in the engineering schools of major colleges throughout the country. The survey also attempted to correlate these costs with the academic stature of each institution's engineering program.
Box 1: Contains the survey questionnaires completed and returned to Terman by the participating schools, and some related Correspondence. This box is arranged alphabetically by the name of the college.
Box 2, folders I -3: Correspondence and list of institutions invited to participate in the survey, but either refused to participate or did not return the questionnaire.
Box 2, folders 4 -6: Correspondence requesting copies of Dr. Terman's report on the study, arranged chronologically.
Box 2, folders 7 -8: Tabulated results and working data for the study.
Box 2, folder 9: Articles by, and correspondence with, other researchers studying engineering education costs.
Researchers interested in engineering education should also see Series X of this collection for articles and reports on Terman's other educational studies.
The four boxes of this series contain drafts, notes, and occasionally transcripts of speeches given by Dr. Terman; and correspondence related to his speeches. All materials are arranged chronologically by the date of the speech. Terman spoke before both scientific and general audiences. Most of his talks for general audiences were related to the history of electronics, and stressed his influential concept of academic-industrial interaction.
Box 1 -Box 3, folder 4: Chronologically arranged files of clippings and articles about Dr. Terman and the programs with which he was affiliated. All of the newspaper and magazine articles cited in the bio-bibliography in this guide can be found in this series.
Box 3, folders 5 -7: Chronologically arranged files of correspondence generated by articles.
Box 4, folders 8 -13 -Box 5: Correspondence related to Terman's books. Contains correspondence with editors and publishers about production; and with readers of his books.
Box 1 -Box 3: Chronologically arranged files of Terman's articles, papers and reports.
Box 4 -Box 5: Correspondence related to Terman's publications.
All three boxes of this series contain alphabetically arranged subject folders on topics related to the history of electronics and electrical engineering. The folders consist primarily of newspaper and magazine clippings compiled by Dr. Terman; and some correspondence with and about important figures in electronics. In addition, there are unpublished autobiographies of Cyril Elwell and Peter Jensen filed under their respective names. Researchers interested in the history of electronics should also see Series V, boxes 6 through 10 of this collection.
The boxes in this series contain personal correspondence and papers of Dr. Terman. Included are two boxes of genealogical papers containing information on the Terman family and on his wife, Sibyl Walcutt's family. Boxes 3-5 contain correspondence between Terman and Sibyl Walcutt Terman, as well as letters from and to their parents, children, other relations and friends. Boxes 6-7 contain the professional files of Sibyl Walcutt Terman, including correspondence, manuscripts, and records from her work teaching children with reading problems and her involvement in the effort to reform how reading is taught in the public schools.
The boxes in this series were added to the collection in 1980, when the remainder of the collection had already been processed and a list typed. These files were thus made into a separate series instead of being integrated into earlier series. They include files on Terman's consulting activities, some folders connected with Stanford 'University administration, miscellaneous correspondence and reprints of articles and papers, office calendars from 1965 through 1978, and files on Terman's relationship with Vannevar Bush, Herbert Hoover, and Herbert Hoover Jr.
The boxes in this series were added to the collection in 1980, when the remainder of the collection had already been processed and a list typed. These files were thus made into a separate series instead of being integrated into earlier series. They include miscellaneous correspondence files arranged chronologically from 1965 through 1981 as well as miscellaneous correspondence files arranged alphabetically by subject ranging from 1947 through 1981; correspondence dealing with the Stanford PACE program; long range planning papers on the Stanford PACE program; articles, information sheets, and publications; engineering Ph.D. student files; office calendars from 1971 through 1979.
notes, lab reports, graphs, reprints, correspondence about papers, arranged chronologically
Contains minutes, agendas and supporting documents (memoranda) -arranged chronologically by meeting. For each meeting the agenda is filed first, followed by various attachments-relevant to meeting, and finally the minutes of the meeting. The supporting documents are not necessarily filed chronologically, but instead in the order in which they were attached to agenda.
These two large binders contain the data and calculations compiled by Terman on all financial aspects of Stanford faculty retirement.
Task force chaired by Dr. Daniel Bershader to review question of budget allocation in other Stanford professional schools.
(binders containing memoranda, data and calculations compiled by Terman to be used in figuring yearly budgets)
In a speech entitled "Education -A Basic Resource for Electronics" delivered at the Oct. 12, 1960 luncheon of the 16th National Electronics Conference held in Chicago, Dr. Terman pointed out the lack of R & D progress in Chicago area Industry, and how this was causing industry to lag seriously behind developments on both coasts. This speech caused considerable comment, both positive and negative. Folder contains typescript of the speech, copy of it as printed for distribution, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and notes related to speech.