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T3535? April 14, 1980,
JOSHUA LEDERBERG

PRESIDENT

Dr. William A. Clebsch °
Faculty Presidential Search Committee
Stanford University ,

P. O. Box 2349

Stanford, California 94305

Dear Bill:

Thank you for the opportunity to communicate with
the Search Committee.

Don Kennedy is, of course, a premier candidate whose
talents are well known to you.

You can only gain by also considering the virtues of
people like Sid DrellI, Dick Atkinson (NSF) and Bill Miller.
Searching interviews with each of them about the presidency
should precede a final vote. They are all doubtless quali-
fied. I would hurry about Dick lest UC/SD tie him up.

 

David Hamburg would be unsurpassable as president --
better than, say, as provost with its imperatives for detail.
I don't know if he has categorically refused any deflection
from his prospective role at Harvard. A team like Hamburg-
Kennedy or Hamburg-Drell would be unmatchable in every di-
mension. ,

How many exciting intellects of breadth are there these
days? And are these the qualifications of a university
president these days - what does Jim March say?

I am afraid I cannot suggest any women or "minority"
candidates of comparable stature and relevant experience for
the specified role. I am sure that. Patricia Harris would be
an estimable university president but more appropriately for
a state system than for a private research university campus.
Dr. William A. Clebsch
April 14, 1980

-2-

I prefer that you limit the circulation of this letter
to your immediate colleagues. If you would wish me to re-
spond more openly to specific questions I will be happy to
try.

Good Luck.

Yours sincerely,

Jogfua Lederberg

P. S. It may save us both an iota if I record a gratuitous
but categorical Shermanian for myself. I have just
begun to discharge my responsibility here; and yes,
I am enjoying it very much, though there are many
elements of the Stanford community for which it took
the deprivation to realize the want.