Fulbright, James William
From GWUEncyc
Alumni
Senator J. William Fulbright (1905-1995) was an Arkansas Democrat whose congressional resolution in 1945 signaled that body's willingness to have the United States join the world peace organization that came to be known as the United Nations Organization, thereby marking the end of America's traditional isolation from world affairs. Fulbright earned his LL.B. degree from GW in 1934, finishing second in a class of 165. After law school, Fulbright became a special attorney in the Justice Department’s antitrust division. He left a $2,500 a year job to take a $3,500 teaching position at GW’s Law School in 1935. Students remembered him as well organized and demanding. Even then he began to urge the brightest to consider public service. It was their duty, he would tell them, citing his mother: “To whom much was given, much was expected.” He returned to the University of Arkansas in 1936 to teach and served as President from 1939-41.
In 1959, he was present on campus when ceremonies were held for the retirement of long-time GW President Cloyd Heck Marvin. On that occasion, Fulbright described himself modestly as a former student and instructor at The George Washington University. Fulbright is, of course, best remembered in academe for initiating the program of international student exchanges, which bears his name. Fulbright fellowships are still highly prized, and GW students have won their share of them.
The following is the citation given to James William Fulbright on the occassion of his receving an honorary degree from GW at the anuual commencement, June 3, 1959:
Plato said that there would be no cessation of trouble for the state until philosophers became kings or king s became philosophers. Although he was speaking of a monarchy, the principle has great significance in a democracy. The sovereign people, in recognizing this principle, add strength to government.
Of this fact the man whom we now honor stands as a fine example. That he is a philosopher he would of course be the first to deny. That he is a politician in the Greek sense of the word he would be too modest to claim. But becoming as that modesty may be for him, we shall not deny ourselves the privilege of citing him as one who exemplifies in word and in deed the philosopher-statesman.
The academic path to this distinction led from Missouri to the University of Arkansas, thence to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and finally to The George Washington university for the Bachelor of Laws. The path then propitiously led back to the University of Arkansas, first as Lecturer in Law and then as its President. Four years later he came to Washington for the second time, to represent the third congressional district in the Seventy-eighth Congress.
In January 1945 all the people of his state claimed him and have insisted ever since on maintaining his progressive seniority. He has brought to that seniority an open yet disciplined mind, a judicial temperament, a scholar's breadth, a leader's insight.
Lawyer, teacher, educator, statesman, whose name has become a synonym of educational exchange and whose contributions to international understanding and good will as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations give strength and courage not only to the United States but to all the nations of the free world-I confer upon James William Fulbright the degree of Doctor of Laws, with all the rights, honors, and privileges pertaining thereto.
Document Information
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Photographic Credit: GW University Historical Photographs Collection
Author or Source: Alumni biographical files; article by Dr. Peter Hill; GW Magazine, Fall 1996
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist
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