times and he sort of makes her the icon for the health care reform and most the stories are like that. people you write back-and-forth many times. >> the new book ten letters and the stories americans to other presidents. ..

x 5 l st. less than a block opposite the green. each of us has stories to tell about john morton blum. he touched each of our lives in a distinct and different way. that was his style. i can promise you that he has told me at least one story about almost everyone in this room. john blum came into the chauncey family's life 70 years ago. my father was charged by harvard to crisscross the united states looking for bright, able young men at that time. in order to change the traditional face of harvard which had been a bastion of the wealthy anglo-saxon northeasterners.

my father and built bender discovered john and brought him first to handover and then to harvard. to say my father was proud of john is an understatement. my father believed that marriage was the only real test for admission to college and don deserved to be at harvard and proved it throughout his life. at my father's 90th birthday party aside from his own family, and and john were the only outsiders to be invited as though they were really family. the year i started working at yale as an assistant dean was the same year pam and john came to newhaven. our friendship was cemented when they found a plot of land in vermont. a stone's for a from their

country home and john and i played golf rather badly. he counseled me when i was kingman brewster's assistance from the beginning. he called me his editor on his final, as yet unpublished mystery story, a country killing. to hand over vermont politics. he used -- eating roles by calling me and asking if i would have a cook out so that he could have his favorite food, hot dogs. but where it counted most was john knew better than anyone i have ever known how to move gracefully from being a mentor

to be a friend. it meant obligation to my father, he repaid that debt of thousand times over. one day i awoke to find that he was my friend. ham was my friend and pamela and richard and annie and peter and tom and nancy and the next generation as well. i have tried to be a mentor too but i am not as good as john. always be as good a friend to others as john was to me.

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>> it is difficult for me to talk about my dear friend of so many years, difficult that i can no longer seek the advice i saw it for so many different situations plead with the difficult because friendship no matter the hard, and as someone said the heart has its own

reasons, reason knows not of. standing here, speaking of our deep loss, i can't help smiling when i remember one of john's favorite terms of dismissal was lugubrious. my god, he would grown around the tables of sullivans or murrays and say lugubrious face. as many of us know, john often found himself in situations that would have made any man or even frighten but always refused to give in to fear. some years ago my wife and i arrived at the hospital hotel expecting to find him in a very bad way.

he looked unwell. and exhausting hospital stay. as we took our chairs on either side of his bed he clasped our hands grinning like the schoolboy and said i have a very funny story that'll you can appreciate. our smiles froze as he told us about the efforts his intensive care had seen, been forced to make when he was crashing. so i found myself being slapped by a beautiful young women who kept shouting professor! stay with us! and i couldn't take it anymore. i set up all these tubes coming out of me and said young lady, please calm down. i know that i am going to die someday but it is not here and not now. then he turned to marie and said

don't you hate it when people around you lose their heads? so being a colleague who are hope had nothing lugubrious to say in john's presence i will try to talk about my friend and yours, in a bracing manner of his own personality. i know i am not the only one here who has profited from the insight that john brought to every human problem presented to him. yale, the only university that benefited from that, for many years he was one of the trustees also of harvard. i know he took that responsibility as he took all responsibilities, very seriously. on a personal note i trusted john so much that when my children were small i named him

as their guardian in my will. john always recognized before others when a problem did not have to be the problem that people made of it. he never hesitated to take sides when something important was at stake. he was keenly aware of the aphorism that academic disputes are so large and so ugly and the state so small. when the stakes were high he knew how to act. on's role of amicably bringing heated disputes to a close went hand in hand with another characteristic, people in charge recognized. namely that he was good at taking charge. when the new president of yale, brewster, discovered at the yale library was in disarray he did

not know any senior librarian capable of fixing it. but kingman had known john earlier at mit. john's specialty as head historian of the 20th century from sources he went to were often private collection as papers, politicians and statesmen, not yet deposited in any archived. so he found what he needed in the yale library and had no previous experience as a librarian. but kingman knew about him that john could size up people and situations objectively. that he would turn a deaf ear to self-serving, spluttering, had a knack for recognizing and motivating capable people. so john became without further

ado yale library and. not an inordinate number of men who were unwilling to change their way of doing business had to practice their professions somewhere else. and deserving staff members with long service and inadequate recognition of their work may receive promotions and a free hand with procedures and acquisitions. within a year john had a happy staff and libraries were functioning as never before although he sometimes remarked pointing to his neck brace i got this trying to sort out the surly memorial library. having fixed the situation, john devoted himself to finding and able successor. as soon as he succeeded in that quest he stepped down. not many people like john to

stepped in and rescue institutions from mismanagement or misguided policies. it is equally rare when the rescuer steps back and resumes doing the work he actually prefers. john was so good at running thing that it was hard for anyone to believe running things was not what he mainly enjoyed doing. yes, when he absolutely had to, he took satisfaction in doing well what predecessors had done badly. there's always a certain pleasure in taking the things that are worn out and damaged and making them work so things like internal combustion engine or university. john would have been no good tinkering with an automobile.

speaking as a former machinist i would not have trusted him with a carburetor. pam sometimes said with a smile on would never dream of putting a chisel or a hammer in those mandarin hands. but people and human institutions are much more complicated than carburetors. when something went badly wrong with the organization of human beings john must have felt gratified and called upon to get it working at peak performance after others had run around. when john blum insisted he would rather not fix things it was not because he lacked the confidence and skill to do it. he was much better at it than most people ever are. but then he was also much better at rating than most writers are and at teaching than most

teachers are. if he preferred the classroom to the office and the board room, it was because he was such a gifted teacher. what made john such an extraordinary teacher was an irrepressible desire to communicate. i first noticed this need in action when we were both on at yale expedition to promote relations with the university of munich. neither of us had much german beyond what we had crammed in order to passed a preliminary examinations with a doctorate but what seems a high hurdle to me was all in and day's work for john. i remember trying to express the concept of ambivalence which is actually much the same in german as if it is in part. there was john underlining his points by gesticulating with his

pipe while uttering phrases like -- [speaking german] -- how in hell do i say ambivalent in german? i could not come to his rescue being convulsed with laughter. excuse me. lost my place. sorry about that. but anyway, john would always get his idea across one way or another. he was unstoppable and people loved him for it. so being a colleague, i hope i said nothing lugubrious about

john. i want to talk about my friend and yours in a positive manner of his own personality. i know i am not the only one here who has profited from the insights that john brought to every human problem presented. as far as yale's the only university to have benefited from that wisdom. for many years he was also trusting of harvard and i know he took that risk as he took all responsibilities very seriously. on a personal note i trusted john's practical judgment and when my children were small and named them as my guardian and i'm afraid i repeated myself here. when john blum insisted he would rather not fix things it was not because he lacked the confidence. he was much better at it than most people ever are.

but then he was also much better at writing than most people ever are, than most writers ever are and better teaching than most teachers ever are. if he preferred the classroom to the office and the board room it was because he was such a gifted teacher. what made john such an extraordinary teacher was irrepressible desire to communicate his thoughts. i first noticed this need in action when we were both and, at yale expedition with the university of munich. neither of us had much german beyond the little we crammed in order to pass examinations for doctors were what seemed a high hurdle to me was all in a day's work for john. i remember trying to express the concept of ambivalence. i am repeating myself.

i am sorry. when he first came here he began a survey course in united states history in the 20th century which quickly became the most popular undergraduate history course at yale. john knew how to convey his thoughts and insights in an and rehearsed speech. he was asked pam have called him the ultimate rock on tour. his talent was in using word pictures to portray distinctions of culture, vision and conflict and subtleties of character and psychology. in these lectures he rarely consulted notes. always directing himself to his audience so that anyone presents could feel that he or she was the individual receiving the force of john's ideas.

i once asked him to show me his note for a lecture describing the complexities of the federal reserve system. it was scribbled in his remarkable hand on the back of a 3 x 5 index card. i thought at the time he may have been showing you a card just to tease me but in fact he didn't use notes at all. john was entitled to tease me for we were so close that i have trouble thinking of a future without his good humored probing and joshing about the wisdom of his advice and without himself. thank you.

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>> my name is bill lilley. i have been a friend of john's for more than 50 years at first as a student and as a colleague and then as a trusted -- for in number of years in careers in government and business. i just want to diverge for a moment and say it is a unique honor to be in the presence of two men who were my best friends

and best mentors at yale, john and ed. i have to say this about ed. notwithstanding the fact that -- he tried to show me how to trim a log. i do not have the slightest idea what he was showing me to do. lauder? i had not the slightest idea what he was showing me to do but he was very happy doing it. about john. celebrated for two ft in what he called the academy. he was a widely acclaimed historian and a widely sought after administrator. he brought me to exceptional gifts. a fierce concentration on

accuracy, detail and facts. he wrote like an angel. his life spanned from 1948 to 1953 with the roosevelt, his -- eight volumes of tea are letters are a model for his selection and explanation and his breathtaking 61 page analysis called a republican roosevelt is a model of historical pros for spirit, diction and rhythm. not one unnecessary word, not one clumsy bridge. not one analytical gap. the roosevelt two prong effort was the first of john's other ridings and editings.

john match his history skills with administrative skills. he chaired the department, he chaired controversial university -- he was known as the go to guy for difficult tasks. he did not administer just here. he was selected to harvard corporation, forbes still well that some of his colleagues wanted him to stand. that is the measure of the man. reinforced in his autobiography, a life in history. nonetheless i believe john's greatest sway in a near lifelong role he played as a teacher, mentor, colleague and friend. these are qualities that can shine in the academy but are not special to it. you find them in the military,

as john did. in government, in business, everywhere. they are four distinct worlds. being great in one does not confer greatness in others. john achieved greatness in all four all time. he was a great human being. if john was your friend then he was your teacher, your mentor, your colleague for all your life no matter what you did or where you were and remarkably another side of his greatness, his friendship was just as helpful outside the academy as inside. in my case the farther i was from the academy, greater helped he was. i am talking about in tangibles

perhaps best exemplified by a story where you can see the intangibles at work and at work against odds, a man being friendly personal teacher, and mentor over multiple human fronts in difficult terrain. back in the 1980s when i was managing several departments at cbs in new york, a time when cbs was dominated by broadcasting and recorded music, john never shied from offering the advice. john loved studying the media especially the new york media. he was shrewd. he called me one day and i remember well the ensuing dialogue. he thought he would forget. he began i have someone here in graduate school who can help

you. oh no, i thought. someone coming down from the rarified role of graduate studies to world of overnight ratings, soap operas and michael jackson? john, are you sure? he asserted peritoneum oh yes, quite sure. foolishly i tried to deflect him. john, i said, things are pretty rough down here. nobody plays knife. i know, you have some good openings. so i let him have it. the earliest cbs then you. the pr department. they are dropping like flies. the print media hates us and the financial analysts are sharks. they love tearing up cbs and they are as smart as they are vicious.

just what john needed. a real challenge. he said i know your enemy. i read them. i had just the right person. a smart, tough woman who wants out of academics. she will do fine. and over that silent phone i could still hear the 35 theatrical applause followed by did i forget to tell you that she is quite good looking? john was right. he knew his media world. a quick study star, she rose through the department and over the next year's john sent me several more who were capable of academics and he would packages them with suggestions as to where they would fit and where not. i tells this tale about john for

obvious reasons. he was playing all four walls off campus with multiple players. this was a person who cared so much about his students protegees, he was mentoring them into faraway world where a friend and colleague who he had mentored would treat them as he wanted and all would benefit. a measure of any man to reckon his worth. unlike most, john's worth metric for what he did for the success of others. he was that kind of remarkable human being.

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♪ ♪ >> the blums very much wanted david kennedy, prof. of meredith at stanford university to speak today but he could not be present and he asked that i read use these thoughts.

david was john's student and colleague and dear friend. no life can be fairly sound in a single service especially when the life is as productive and consequential and touched so many other lives so deeply as john blum's. yet no one believed as ardently as john in the virtue of the incision. an arcane but characteristically opposed the word he taught me and with which i am afraid i have been known to intimidate others as he long ago did to me. so i take the necessity of brevity of these remarks not as a limitation but as a challenge. the challenge to live up to john's striving to render life in words both clear and few. words were john's stock in

trade. his tools, his natural medium, his greatest love. he savored them, crafted them with the pride and care of the master workman. he found precisely the right words to restore theodore roosevelt's reputation, reduce woodrow wilson's, secure henry morgan's new deal to life, make sense of the postwar years and unapologetic patriot and self-styled democrat that he was probed the shortcomings as well as the excellences of the american left. he then found the words to capture his own life in a compelling narrative whose art reaches from new york to hand over to harvard to south pacific to harvard again and to yale. whether his words flowed onto

the page or out over the roads of wrapped students in the law school auditorium they were always cogent and authoritative without being authoritarian and never short of perfect in pitch. if they were spoken, especially from the lecture platform, they pealed forth in that unforgettably resonant voice which surprised many listeners as some kind of miraculous emanation from that compact sailor's body. john was not simply a great historian and magical teacher, he was an educator in the fullest sense of the word. a first citizen of the republic of learning. to countless students he gave time and attention well beyond the call of duty. to yale he gave legendary service as department chair and

librarian. to harvard nine eventful years on the corporation. to students, friends and colleagues alike unfailingly consider it and why is, always in words well chosen and remarkably attuned to his interlocutor's need. i was beneficiary of that council of the student and later as a friend. john mentored this aspiring his story with a touch so deft that was only later that recognized its subtlety and genius as i tried to emulate it with my own students. he said of the hired standards without pontificating, shepherded me fml