Lewenstein, Marion
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In the first interview, Marion Lewenstein talks about her background and career trajectory at Stanford. She speaks about her family, her work at Women’s Wear Daily and Fairchild Publications, and her work in Stanford’s Department of Communication. She remembers many stories along the way and talks about people who were instrumental in her career, including the head of the communication department, Lyle Nelson, who hired her. She mentions people she has interviewed for her articles, including David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett Packard, and David Harris, the first husband of singer Joan Baez. She speaks fondly of Richard Lyman, president of the university when she arrived at Stanford, and of his wife Jing Lyman. She speaks of her cordial working relationship with Condoleeza Rice when Rice was Provost. She talks about how her supportive husband made it possible for her to juggle career with family responsibilities. Toward the end, she reminisces about one of the most memorable events in her Stanford career – her selection as a winner of the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education – a recognition she never anticipated but gratefully accepted. In the second interview, Lewenstein goes into more depth about her remembrances of people within the communication department and how both the department and the university changed over time. She talks more about Jing Lyman’s influence on the university and how Lyman encouraged the hiring and promotion of women because of her involvement in the women’s movement. She speaks about President Lyman’s role in keeping the university intact through the tumultuous years of protests on the campus during the Vietnam War era. Reflecting upon changes at Stanford over time, she delves into how the collaboration between and among departments has resulted in major innovations, including medical and technological breakthroughs that have profoundly changed today’s society. Her personal relationship with Fred Terman, who supervised Bill Hewlett and David Packard while they were students, resulted in her having interesting insights into Hewlett’s and Packard’s influence on the practices of Silicon Valley companies. She mentions her interactions with President Donald Kennedy, whom she credits with continuing to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations that positively changed the university and resulted in popular new courses, like human biology. In speaking of her role as academic secretary, which gave her the opportunity to get to know many faculty members, she talks about meeting Nobel laureate Steven Chu and his wife in their home and their search for the Nobel Prize. As the interview concludes, she summarizes her thoughts about the greatest challenges and accomplishments of her life, and reflects upon the changes in society as a whole, especially with respect to technology.
Description
Type of resource | mixed material |
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Date created | March 15, 2013 - September 11, 2014 |
Creators/Contributors
Author | Lewenstein, Marion | |
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Contributing author | Tobey, Karen | |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
Subject | Marion Lewenstein |
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Subject | Stanford Historical Society |
Subject | oral histories |
Subject | interviews |
Subject | Department of Communication |
Subject | Silicon Valley |
Subject | journalism |
Bibliographic information
Related item |
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Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/cc890wz9624 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
Marion Lewenstein (2014).
Oral history. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at:
http://purl.stanford.edu/cc890wz9624
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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