Wallace Sterling

Who was Wallace Sterling?

John Ewart Wallace Sterling was an American educator who served as President of Stanford University between 1949 and 1968.

Sterling was born in Linwood, Ontario, the son of Annie and William Sterling, a Methodist clergyman. He pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Alberta.

He began his doctoral studies in History at Stanford University in 1932, serving on the research staff of the Hoover Institution. Upon receiving a Ph.D. in 1938, he joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology. In 1948, he left Caltech to head the Huntington Library and Art Gallery and shortly afterward was offered the Stanford Presidency.

During his 20 year term as president he oversaw the growth of Stanford from a financially troubled regional university to a financially sound, internationally recognized academic powerhouse, "the Harvard of the West". Achievements during his tenure included:

⁕Moving the Stanford Medical School from a small, inadequate campus in San Francisco to a new facility on the Stanford campus which was fully integrated into the university to an unusual degree for medical schools.