$2,000,000 Gift of Lucius N. Littauer For School of Public Administration

Under the terms of a $2,000,000 gift from Lucius Nathan Littauer '78, of New York City, a Graduate School of Public Administration will be established. It will be the thirteenth graduate school of the University.

In announcing the gift, President Conant said:

"Mr. Littauer's fine gift is for the declared purpose of promoting the 'science and art of government administration' and to improve our 'public administration -- national, state, and local -- for the welfare of our people.' The terms of the gift also include the provision that the 'new school shall be organized and conducted not merely to train technical specialists, but to educate men in a broad way for public service."

Commission Appointed

At the same time President Conant announced the appointment of a commission, of which President Dodds of Princeton will be chairman, to make a comprehensive report on university education for public service and to recommend plans for the organization of the new school.

In regard to President Dodds' acceptance, President Conant said: "I am very glad to be able to announce President Dodds' acceptance of the chairmanship of the commission to study the whole subject of university education for governmental service and to make recommendations as to the best use of Mr. Littauer's gift.

"Mr. Littauer has wisely recognized that the best available brains and experience should be brought to bear on the problem. No one could be better qualified than President Dodds, and, moreover, it is a happy instance of collaboration between our endowed universities in a problem in which they have a common interest and obligation."

Other Members

Other members of the commission will be Leonard D. White, of Washington, D. C., United States Civil Service Commissioner; William B. Murno, of Pasadena, California, professor of History and Government at the California Institute of Technology; Wallace B. Donham '98, Dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration; Harold H. Burbank, professor of Political Economy; and Morris B. Latuble, professor of Government, who will serve as secretary of the commission.

Half a million dollars has already been received by the University and the balance will be received within the next two years.

This one fourth will be used for the construction of a headquarters for the School, to be known as the "Littauer Center of Public Administration." At least three quarters of the fund will be reserved for endowment, in accordance with the recently announced policy of the University, to ensure good quality of the personnel, both teachers and students.

Littauer Statement

Mr. Littauer stated that in making the gift he was "carrying out a conception which has long been in my mind, but I am especially glad to be able to make the proposal at this particular time in recognition of Harvard's coming three hundredth anniversary."

Harvard's point of view was given by President Conant:

"For some time, Harvard has had under consideration plans for education directly related to government service, and various definite steps have been taken in this direction. Mr. Littauer's magnificent gift will promote the development of these plans and their coordination through the new School of Public Administration. I have every confidence that this gift will greatly strengthen Harvard's work in this field and enhance its ability to contribute to the country's welfare."

Gloves, Congress, and Philanthropy

Graduating from Harvard in 1878, Mr. Littauer returned to his birthplace and home at Gloversville, New York. Here he manufactured gloves until his election to Congress in 1896. He retained his seat for five terms, retiring voluntarily at the end of the 59th Congress in 1907.

Since then his activities have been largely in the philanthropic field. In Gloversville he erected the Nathan Littauer Hospital and Laboratory in memory of his father. This led him to a broad interest in the support of medical research, particularly in the fields of pneumonia, diabetes, cancer, mental hygiene, and heart disease.

Foundation Established

As a result of this interest he established a foundation on his seventieth birthday in 1929, endowing it with $1,100,000, the income and capital of which was to be used without restriction "to enlarge the realms of human knowledge, to promote the general, moral, mental, and physical improvement of society so that the sum total of human welfare and wisdom may be increased and the cause of better understanding among all mankind promoted."

With this broad purpose, he has provided the opportunity to hundreds of young men and women for higher education toward professional and social betterment careers. In 1925 he established the Nathan Littauer Professorship of Jewish Literature and Philosophy at Harvard