A Century of Liberal Education

The social sciences entered the Washington and Lee curriculum haltingly and late, as they did many American colleges. When the School of Commerce was established here in 1905 it was one of the early schools of business related with any collegiate institution, a quarter century after the founding of the Wharton School, in the University of Pennsylvania, the country's (and the world's) first university-related professional education for business.

Although W&L had a political economist, Henry Vethake, as its president for a brief period (1836-1838), his own subject was not taught here during that time, and, indeed was taught only intermittently for most of the rest of the century. President Lee's belief that W&L should expand its curriculum to include a number of applied fields that would contribute to the economic reconstruction and development of the South is well known, and in the latter 19th Century instruction was begun in agriculture, engineering, and journalism, but the only business courses taught were bookkeeping, "commercial arithmetic," and "penmanship" (!) some years within the college, sometimes by arrangement with a local proprietor outside the "regular" program of the college, and some years not at all. Political economy moved into and out of the curriculum several times, the reading assignments remaining excessively consistent over several decades.

The impetus for sustained offering and development of the social sciences, and indirectly, business, came with the appointment of William Lyne Wilson to the presidency of the university in 1897. His tenure was short, but his impact was large. After President Wilson's death in 1900, a national committee with Grover Cleveland as chairman raised more than $ 100,000 to endow the William L. Wilson Department - of Economics and Political Science. The Wilsonian influence continues under a bequest by William Lyne Wilson II (Class of '27) and his wife, Jean Wilson, to endow the Wilson Professorship, the Wilson Honor Scholarship, and the annual Wilson Symposium.

The year after assuming his position, President Wilson recruited to the faculty as Professor of Economics and Political Science the Goodyear old Henry Parker Willis, one of the first to gain a doctoral degree from the new University of Chicago. H. Parker Willis was an immediate star, who sparked the faculty intellectually, as well as the students. Under his leadership the program in economics and political science developed rapidly.

Professor Willis was on leave in academic year 1903-1904, in the Philippines, doing research for a major book published shortly thereafter. In his report on the department for academic year 1904-1905, however, Professor Willis noted large increases in enrollment in the courses in economics and politics, expressed high pleasure in the total progress of these programs, and recommended their expansion. But in the same report, after dealing with classroom space, the library, and other matters, he concluded by declaring that having been advised by President Denny of the improbability of any early expansion in the program, and having been offered a position elsewhere, which he had not sought, he intended, with much regret, to submit his resignation. He offered to hold that resignation in abeyance, however, pending more clear-cut indication of the future.

That report was dated June 10th, 1905. Just four days later, on the 14th of June 1905, in an action reported in their minutes in a single sentence, elegant for its directness and simplicity, the Trustees resolved "that the President be requested to make provision for a school of business." Moreover, it was directed that this school be developed within the departments of economics and political science, an innovation and a context that were half a century ahead of most business curricula in American universities.

Professor Willis felt that he already was obligated elsewhere for the following year, but he was granted another year's leave of absence, with the firm understanding that he would then return to Washington and Lee.

In the Fall of 1906 the W & L School of Commerce began formal operation under that name, with H. Parker Willis at its head. Preparation for law was cited both by the Trustees and in the catalogue as a specific function of the School, and it has, of course, in fact had an exceptional record of placing its graduates in leading law schools, where large numbers of them have excelled, and have excelled also in the practice of law. A 1929 graduate of the school, the Honorable Lewis Powell, was named to the United States Supreme Court by President Nixon, and became a key member of the Court for the next two decades. Previously he had been president of the American Bar Association, as had also Ross L. Malone.

Since returning from the Philippines Professor Willis had become the economic adviser to Representative Carter Glass, of the 6th District of Virginia (subsequently Senator for 3 terms), and known as "the father of the Federal Reserve System." During this academic year Willis went to Washington a number of times, and his absence from Lexington became an increasingly severe point of contention between him and President Denny. At the end of the year President Denny sent a memorandum to the Trustees stating that Professor Willis had been many times in violation of a faculty rule against being away from town during school term--an old rule of which Professor Willis was unaware, which President Denny had not mentioned previously to him, and which evidently had not been recently enforced against any member of the faculty. There was a considerable exchange of correspondence. Professor Willis argued that he had missed no scheduled class, nor neglected his teaching responsibilities in any way, but the exchange became increasingly unpleasant, and Professor Willis resigned, again.

When this fact became known to students, a most vigorous declaration of support for him was presented to the Trustees, signed by 67 students, who included James R. Caskie, subsequently a leader of the Lynchburg and Virginia state bars and long-time rector of the W&L Board of Trustees; Lucius Junius Desha, subsequently Professor of Chemistry at W&L and one of the legendary professors in its entire history; R. E. Witt, who made a fortune in Texas and became a substantial benefactor of the university; and Powell Glass, a relative of the Congressman, scion of the family that owned the Lynchburg newspaper for more than a century and subsequently its editor. [The letter is in the University Archives.]

But H. Parker Willis did, in fact, leave W & L. He became, of course, executive director of the National Monetary Commission, which had been created upon Congressman Glass! initiative, and of which he served as chairman. This commission recommended the establishment of a central banking system in the United States, the Federal Reserve System, and after the system was established in 1913, H. Parker Willis became its first Director of Research. He also had an appointment as Professor of Economics at George Washington University, and subsequently at Columbia University. He is well known within the Federal Reserve System today, and his relationship with Washington and Lee also is known well.

Later in 1907, acting on another of Professor Willis' complaints, the Board voted to reserve Newcomb Hall for the Department, " as soon as the new library is completed." [In 1980 the School of Commerce moved to new quarters, again "as soon as the new library was completed."]

In 19 10 Dr. Glover Dunn Hancock came to Lexington to begin a 39-year tenure at the head of the School of Commerce. In 1920 he was given the title of "Dean" for the first time. And in 1927 the School was accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (then called "American Association of..."). It was the -th undergraduate program [one of the first 5 or 6, I think--I don't have the exact number] in the nation to achieve this accreditation. The program and faculty and enrollment of the school expanded throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and by 1940, at least, the Commerce School had come to be recognized as offering many of the most demanding courses at Washington and Lee. During this period there was also the remarkable situation that a Professor of Economics, "Dr." Robert Tucker, a specialist in public finance and a primary architect (unpaid, I think) of the Virginia state budget for many years, was Dean of the College for some years!

In 1949 Dr. Lewis W. Adams, then 9th in seniority of a faculty that had grown to 13 full-time members, succeeded his mentor as Dean of the School. At the same time, separate departments, each with its own head, were created for the first time in economics, politics, administration (management), and accounting. Sociology, which also had been situated within the school since its formation, had been moved to the college three years earlier, by the new Dean of the College, Dr. James Graham Leyburn, an eminent sociologist.

During World War II Lew Adams had been executive officer of the Navy's V- 12 program at Harvard, and in that capacity he had been given equivalent Harvard faculty status as a dean. He attended deans' meetings, and he became a close personal friend of the deans of both the business school and law school. Under his direction in the 1950s, Washington and Lee adopted for its business program the "core fields approach" that had been developed at the Harvard Business School during the Inter-war period, an approach that now is nearly universal in collegiate business education (in contrast with the earlier industry-by-industry organization of the subject that had marked the early business programs at Wharton and elsewhere). It is believed that W&L was the first undergraduate business school in the country to adopt this approach as its primary organization of the business curriculum.

During the 20 years of Dean Adams' leadership more than 50 students went from W&L to the Harvard Business School. Nearly every one of them graduated there with honors. The late, famous Dean Baker, of Harvard, stated publicly on several occasions that on the basis of their experience he regarded Washington and Lee as I of the 3 best undergraduate business schools in the country. During these years, also, the penetration of W&L alumni in commercial banking in the Southeast, in New York, and elsewhere, and in other fields of finance, expanded rapidly.

Upon the retirement of Dean Adams in 1969, Dr. Edward C. Atwood, Jr., who had been recruited to W&L by Dean Adams 1953, and who in the interim had served also as Dean of Students, became Dean of the School, the fourth consecutive monetary economist to hold that position!

The present dean, Larry C. Peppers, came to W&L in 1986. Under his leadership the school has continued to develop in many directions. The full-time faculty now numbers 29, every one of whom holds a doctoral degree in her/his respective field. [Fall of 1997] The majority of the faculty have experience abroad, as students, practicing professionals, and teachers of their respective disciplines. It is without question the strongest faculty the school ever has had.

The School has moved strongly to integrate the computer-driven explosion of information access, storage, processing, and retrieval into its program, and to enlarge the international dimensions of its program. It has developed a large number of supervised internships for students, in various departments of the federal government and Congress, and in business. It is striving to expand these programs to a scale in which it could assure any student who wished such an experience, and who was judged by the faculty likely to benefit from it, could be assured of having it. An executive-in-residence program has been initiated, which has brought a number of stimulating visitors to the School for extended stays. And a Dean' Advisory Board has been established, a group that includes citizens of other countries, and which is contributing to the further development of the School in several dimensions.

In a textbook of Political Economy published in 1838, after he had become Professor of Political Economy in the University of Pennsylvania, former President Vethake included a chapter on "the encouragement of intellectual products"--a distinctive idea for its time. For nearly a century now the Washington and Lee School of Commerce has been conspicuous for the "intellectual products" of a business curriculum rooted strongly in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as of its programs in economics and political science. Large numbers of its alumni regularly rank higher in leading graduate and professional schools than they did in their classes at W&L, and then in outstanding performance and leadership in their professions. Reflecting comparably upon this university is their record of responsible and generous leadership in their communities, in many dimensions.

The School continues strongly in the path it has trod from the beginning: the liberal education of students for careers in business, in law, for economics and political science; and, whatever the profession, for responsible community leadership in many dimensions.

Compiled in 1995 by John A Gunn
Lewis Whitaker Adams Professor Emeritus of Economics