Alumni on the cover of Time Magazine

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The following appeared in GW News in 1970:

EDITOR'S NOTE: George Washington University has had its share of well-known alumni whose names have become "house hold words." Time magazine, which portrays newsmakers on its weekly magazine covers, has featured at least seventeen prominent GW alumni there. Some sketches of these alumni, along with the Time magazine covers which featured them, are presented here. Other GW alumni who also graced the covers of Time, but could not be included because of space, are: Patrick Hurley, attended '12, LL.D. '32; Henry Stevens, Ph.D. '34; Nelson Trusler Johnson, attended '06-07, LL.D. '32; Syngman Rhee, A.B. '07, LL.D. '54; Margaret Truman, A.B. '46; Allen Dulles, LL.B. '26, LL.D. '59; Charles S. Rhyne, LL.B. '37; Robert D. Murphy, LL.B. '20, LL.M. '28, LL.D. '58; Charles Ernest Chamberlain, attended '42; Charles Bates Thornton, attended '36-37 and '41, D.C.S. '64; and Robert G. Baker, attended '50-52.

His name is a "household word," Time said of its man on the cover, J. Edgar Hoover, in the Aug. 5, 1935, issue. (Hoover also appeared on the Aug. 8, 1949, Time cover.) In the ten years preceding that story, Hoover had dramatically rebuilt the Federal Bureau of Investigation as its director.

Praised as a fighter of disorder and crime and criticized as an overly zealous crusader against leftist causes, Hoover has passed from a household word into a national institution. A native of Washington's southeast section, Hoover received his bachelor of laws in 1916 and his master of laws in 1917, both from GW.

John Foster Dulles had not yet become Secretary of State when Time covered (Aug. 13, 1951) his successful handling of the Japanese Peace Treaty. (Dulles again appeared on the Oct. 12, 1953, and Jan. 3, 1955, covers of Time.) In his cabinet post in the Eisenhower administration, Dulles was to dominate the field of foreign affairs in the 1950's with a mixture of what Time called his "diplomacy with morality" and international brinkmanship. A 1911 graduate of the GW law school, Dulles was a strongly religious man who worked with the formation of the United Nations and served briefly as an interim U.S. senator from New York. His devotion to governmental service came as no surprise, as he was greatly influenced by his grandfather, Secretary of State during the Presidency of Benjamin Harrison. A native of Washington, Dulles died May 24, 1959.

In its cover story on Jacqueline Kennedy (Jan. 20, 1961) on the eve of her husband's inauguration, Time wrote, "Hers will be a difficult, demanding and often thankless role, and no one knows it better than Jackie." That statement well describes the very public life of this 1951 graduate of GW.

As a member of a socially prominent Long Island family, as the wife of a bright young senator and President, as a widow who was linked on each new magazine cover to this diplomat or that ambassador, and now as the wife of a Greek multimillionaire, Jacqueline Onassis has always been in the public's and the camera's eye. Though some people reacted with bitterness to her remarriage, to others she is still the same Jackie who gaily rode horseback, elegantly wore Cassini gowns and diplomatically brightened the White House as First Lady in the years of Camelot.

Everything was coming up Ramblers when Time put George Romney on its November 16, 1962, cover (also featured in the April 5, 1959, issue). The father of the compact car had just won the governor's chair in Michigan where he had earlier risen to political fame by helping hammer out a new state constitution. Romney, who attended GW in 1929-30, had been a missionary to Scotland and England, a tariff specialist for Senator David Walsh and an executive for Alcoa before tackling the motor industry and politics. Although, Time noted, "he denied any presidential pretensions," Romney later campaigned for the White House. He is now back in the driver's seat as President Nixon's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. His wife, Lenore, was graduated from GW in 1929; she is now the Republican candidate for the Senate from Michigan.

Dr. Paul Carlson stood for all the Americans and Europeans who tried to bring peace, hope and relief to the strife-torn Congo, Time said in its Dec. 4, 1964, issue. But this cover story was a tragic one. Dr. Carlson, a 1956 graduate of the GW medical school, was one of 60 people massacred by Simba rebels as a relief force of Belgian paratroopers were pushing into Stanleyville. The father of two, Dr. Carlson had left his California medical practice in 1963 to become a medical missionary in Africa. A statement he once made is sadly prophetic: "In this century, more people have died for their witness for Christ than died in the early centuries, which we think of as the days of the martyrs."

Sen. J. William Fulbright, Time stated in its Jan. 22, 1965, cover story, "has always been an internationalist, and yet he has had every chance to become the opposite.” A native of Missouri with a law degree from GW (Class of 1934), Fulbright had made a career of being counselor to and critic of presidents as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At the time of this cover, Fulbright was conferring with then Secretary of State Dean Rusk on a reevaluation of foreign policy. An Oxford graduate, Fulbright taught law for a year at GW, later was president of the University of Arkansas and is the namesake of the international Fulbright Scholarships.

Document Information

Images: 3
Photographic Credit: University Archives
Author or Source: GW News, Fall 1970
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 16, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist

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