Chancellor Emeritus Danforth receives a standing ovation. The Danforth Lecture Series, with its "Higher Sense of Purpose" theme, continued throughout the year, featuring lectures on "Medicine and Society," "Faith & Politics," "The Social Responsibility of Business," "The Social Impact of a University," and "Access to Higher Education and the Professions."

Perhaps no name is as recognizable--or has been as important to the success of Washington University--as the name Danforth. In fall 2006, Washington University marked a pivotal era in its emergence as a leading international educational and research institution by naming the Hilltop Campus as the Danforth Campus--honoring former Chancellor William H. Danforth, his family, and the Danforth Foundation, all instrumental in that rise.

In a September 17 Graham Chapel dedication ceremony with 1,000 attendees, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said of his predecessor, "From his earliest days as chancellor, Bill envisioned a world-class future for this University, and he set about bringing together the people and resources necessary to realize his vision."

During Danforth's 1971-1995 tenure as chancellor, he oversaw the establishment of 70 new faculty professorships, endowment growth to $1.72 billion, the tripling of available student scholarships, and completion of what was then the most successful fundraising campaign in U.S. higher education--the Alliance for Washington University--which raised $630.5 million.

"Naming the main campus the Danforth Campus is a wonderful double play," says Frank H.T. Rhodes, president emeritus of Cornell University. "It's a great tribute to the Danforth family, especially to Bill and Ibby (Danforth's late wife), who poured their lives into that campus, and also to Jack, Dottie (Miller), and Donald and their family foundation, which was so generous to the University."

Danforth's faith in the simple virtues and in optimism based on hard work and a sense of the possible were implicit in his actions. The culture of inclusion, integrity, academic freedom, collaboration, and accomplishment this modest man painstakingly tended had much to do with what he and the thousands of individuals he inspired were able to accomplish. As Wrighton said when he announced the campus naming: "He personifies Washington University."

Speakers at the Graham Chapel dedication included David W. Kemper, chairman of the Board of Trustees; Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and director of the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences; University senior Laura Kleinman, a Danforth and Truman scholar; and Harold T. Shapiro, president emeritus and professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, who gave the keynote address, "A Higher Sense of Purpose: Research Universities and Society."