loading loading
Throwback Thursday: Benno's beginning
By Mark Alden Branch ’86
|
7:02am September 17 2026
Our October 1986 issue documented the inauguration of Benno C. Schmidt Jr. ’63, ’66LLB, as Yale's 20th president, 40 years ago this Sunday. (In the photo shown here, secretary John Wilkinson ’60, ’63MAT, and senior fellow Paul Moore ’41 present Schmidt with the presidential collar.) Schmidt devoted his inaugural address to a defense of free speech on campus, arguing that “to stifle expression because it is obnoxious, erroneous, embarrassing, not instrumental to some political or ideological end is—quite apart from the grotesque invasion of the rights of others—a disastrous reflection on ourselves.”
Filed under
Benno Schmidt, Throwback Thursday
 |
RECENT COMMENTS
RECENT POSTSARCHIVES
|
|||||||
Copyright 2015 Yale University. All rights reserved. As of July 1, 2015, the Yale Alumni Magazine operates as a department of Yale University. Earlier print and digital content of the Yale Alumni Magazine was published and copyrighted by Yale Alumni Publications, Inc., and is used under license.
Print
Email
