UM’s third president, who died New Year’s Day at the age of 92, led the institution through challenging times.

President Stanford and students converse at a Forum at the Rock on May 12, 1972.

Remembering Henry King Stanford

It was the late 1960s, and like many college campuses across the nation, the University of Miami was embroiled in Vietnam War protests that were sweeping the nation.

At the helm of the Coral Gables-based institution was then-UM President Henry King Stanford, “who worked day and night to keep the campus free of disruption,” recalls one of his closest colleagues at the time, former vice president for student affairs Bill Butler.

Friday, Butler and hundreds of other colleagues, friends, and former students of Stanford's, joined the University in mourning the loss of its third president.

Stanford—who led UM during a period of sweeping change in the nation, ushered in the opening of several new campus facilities and spearheaded efforts to integrate the institution—passed away New Year’s Day in Americus, Georgia. He was 92.

“Dr. Stanford was deeply beloved by the University community,” says current UM President Donna E. Shalala. “Many alumni and longtime faculty and staff members have told me about how he would walk around the campus and greet everyone, even during times of student unrest. His enthusiasm for the University was infectious.”

Flags on the UM campuses flew at half-staff Friday, as the institution honored Stanford, who served as president from 1962 to 1981.

His administration was marked by emphasis on research, extensive growth in physical facilities during a time when funds were difficult to come by, and reorganization of the administrative structure. During his administration, the size of the faculty tripled, federal research funding increased by almost 700 percent, and the number of faculty with doctoral degrees rose from 50 percent to 75 percent.

A building on the Coral Gables campus, Stanford Residential College, and a major roadway, Stanford Drive, pay homage to the former president’s legacy.

Many former colleagues and coworkers recalled Stanford's humanistic side.

Stanford, left, with President Donna E. Shalala and former University of Miami President Edward T. Foote II.

“He was a person who never forgot a name once introduced to you,” says Butler, who was recruited by Stanford to UM in 1965. “He had total recall about names, spouses, family, and career backgrounds. And he always took time to say hello and shake your hand, whether you were the groundskeeper picking up paper, a student rushing to class, or a professor on the way to teach a seminar.”

“The consummate gentleman and the perfect president for the student-activist times of the ’60s and ’70s” is how Norm Parsons, UM’s director of wellness and recreation, remembers Stanford.

“He liked to say that as he left the house each morning, he would mention to his best friend and wife, Ruth, that he wondered what kind of student sit-in or other opportunities he would have that day,” says Parsons, who started working at the University in 1972 and came to know Stanford well. “He would attach his hallmark boutonniere to his jacket, and away he would go to do what he loved to do most: interact with and teach students. He truly loved working with them.”

One of those former students, Martin Weinkle, president of Boston-based Buddenbrooks, remembers Stanford for “his undaunted spirit, his kind heart, and open mind.”

President Stanford and family: Stanford, third from left, with his wife, the former Laurie Ruth King at his side, and their children Rhoda, Lowry, and Peyton (kneeling), at about the time of their arrival in Miami in 1962.

Weinkle grew up in Miami and actually met Stanford before he enrolled at UM. They became close when Weinkle began his academic career at the University in 1966, eventually serving as vice president of Student Government, a role in which he interacted extensively with Stanford.

“His door was always open,” Weinkle says. “In many ways, he left us with special life lessons, which have helped us to become better people today. He led the University of Miami during a very volatile time, and he made it a [better] place than it had been before he arrived. What a wonderful, long, and productive life he lived.”

Stanford was one of the driving forces behind integrating athletics at UM, insisting that the football team recruit a black player during the mid-1960s.

“Instrumental” is how Ray Bellamy, the first black student-athlete at UM—who played wide receiver for the Hurricanes from 1968 to 1969—described Stanford in 2007 during a pregame celebration to commemorate the last football game played at the Orange Bowl. “I probably wouldn’t be where I am today had it not been for him.”

Stanford was the linchpin in many other efforts aimed at creating diversity at UM. During his administration, the United Black Students organization was founded, and in 1968 Chester Byrd became the first black administrator hired at the institution. In 1970, the University hired its first black professors.

President Henry King Stanford, 1916-2009.

“The recruitment of black students was equally impressive, for we grew from just a handful of black students enrolled to over 1,000 within a few short years,” recalls Butler, noting that under Stanford’s leadership UM embarked on a worldwide recruitment program in the late 1960s that increased the institution’s international-student enrollment from 400 to 2,500 in just a few short years.

Stanford was also instrumental in the creation of the University’s renowned Cuban Heritage Collection, pushing for its establishment and serving as co-chair of the collection’s fundraising and outreach arm, the AMIGOS. Stanford created many educational and cultural programs that helped Cuban exiles adapt to their new lives in the United States.

Stanford graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history and German. He earned his master’s in government and management from the University of Denver, where he was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, and his Ph.D. in political science and public administration from New York University.

He married his wife, Ruth, in 1936 after they both graduated from Emory. Ruth died in 2002. The couple had four children.

Stanford, who was 46 years old when he became UM’s third president, also served as president at Georgia Southwestern State University, Georgia College and State University, Birmingham Southern College, and the University of Georgia.