Dudley Kenworthy : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In this oral history, Dudley Kenworthy recalls his student days at Stanford in the late 1940s and early 1950s, his work as a development officer at Stanford, and the growth of fundraising at the university, including the ambitious PACE campaign. In 1959, he joined an Office of Development with a staff of about thirty-five; in 1993 he retired from a university with a much larger and differently structured development function.
- Summary
- In this oral history, Dudley Kenworthy recalls his student days at Stanford in the late 1940s and early 1950s, his work as a development officer at Stanford, and the growth of fundraising at the university, including the ambitious PACE campaign. In 1959, he joined an Office of Development with a staff of about thirty-five; in 1993 he retired from a university with a much larger and differently structured development function. Touching briefly on his family background in Pasadena, California, Kenworthy credits his high school counselor’s recommendation with bringing him to Stanford in 1946. Through a job as a “hasher” providing meal service, he explains, he met fellow student Marion Brummell in what he calls “a romance made over a garbage pail.” Courting on walks around campus and the adjacent open countryside, he recalls, they discovered a tunnel between the Inner Quad south of Memorial Church and the Hoover Library. When the campus woke on April 1, 1951, to find huge footprints up the side of Hoover Tower, Dudley and Marion knew how the prank was pulled off. Marion, Kenworthy points out, was on the winning freshman team in the only women’s football game ever played at Stanford. In 1952, they were married, and in 1953, Kenworthy received his MBA from Stanford; he briefly sketches a series of jobs he held as he and Marion started their family. In 1959, he recalls seeking career advice from a Stanford placement counselor and leaving with a job as a development officer in a program notable because “we knew enough about fundraising to know we knew very little.” An enormous boost, Kenworthy asserts, came when the Ford Foundation selected Stanford as one of five universities to receive funds through the PACE [Plan of Action in a Challenging Era] program: a $25 million grant if Stanford could match it with $75 million in private gifts within three years. Kenworthy attributes success to Kenneth MacLean Cuthbertson, vice president in charge of finance and development. Thanks to his collaboration with then-President J. E. Wallace Sterling and Provost Fred Terman, the campaign exceeded the goal, raising $114 million, Kenworthy says. The funds helped to build the faculty and structures to accommodate booming postwar enrollment. Kenworthy describes his PACE role as creating a follow-up development program, with important input from the Stanford Associates, alumni volunteers, and from a doctoral study that defined three steps to successful fundraising. In a pre-digital age, Kenworthy points out, staff kept handwritten records of large donors, drafted individual letters of acknowledgment, and prepared punch cards for processing in the controller’s office. The development staff doubled to seventy during the PACE program, he notes, with staff growth linked to funds collected. Turning to his time as associate dean in the School of Earth Sciences, Kenworthy says that positions within each school dedicated to development issues became the model at Stanford, with each school increasingly responsible for its own fund raising. Kenworthy explains how large gift prospects were identified and discusses the special events that attracted corporate affiliates. He recollects how funds were raised to support Harry’s Last Lecture, honoring Harry Rathbun, who taught business law at Stanford. Kenworthy concludes with kudos for the gift-giving studies of doctoral students.
Description
| Type of resource | sound recording-nonmusical, text, still image |
|---|---|
| Extent | 2 audio files; 1 text file; 1 photograph |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | April 3, 2017 - 2017-04-10 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Kenworthy, Dudley C. | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Kenworthy, Dudley C. | |
| Interviewer | Thomson, Jan | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford University. Graduate School of Business |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences |
| Subject | Stanford Alumni Association |
| Subject | Fund raising |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile |
Dudley Kenworthy was born in 1929 in Glendale, California, and soon moved to Arcadia, California, where his parents operated the Supreme Dairy as producers and distributors of milk products for the northern Los Angeles area.
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|---|---|
| Transcript |
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| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/wc788mf1759 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- Digital recordings from this collection may be accessed freely. These files may not be reproduced or used for any purpose without permission. For permission requests, please contact Stanford University Department of Special Collections & University Archives (speccoll@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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