HOW DID STANFORD GET TO BE SO OUTSTANDING?

But first, a few more Iran war news items:

• The death toll of Americans almost doubled, as all 6 members died when a U.S. Force refueling plane crashed in western Iraq yesterday.  Apparently was not caused by friendly nor hostile fire.
• I asked Google AI:  Is this the first time war in the Middle East closed the Strait of Hormuz?  The answer is surprising.

Yes, the March 2026 closure of the Strait of Hormuz is considered unprecedented. While the waterway—a vital chokepoint for global oil—saw heavy threats and tanker attacks during the 1980s "Tanker War," the 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis - Wikipedia following joint US/Israeli action marks the first time it has been fully closed to maritime traffic. 

• 
  Just checked the price of WTI crude oil:  $99.70/barrel.
• How much is the war costing you?  Read that.
• Once feared, apparently Iran has not established cells of revenge operators in the USA, for all these isolated incidents indicate that the War in Iran just inspired a few Muslims to react without much planning.  For example, there has been no suicide bomber nor anything like what occurred on 9/11/2001.

My posting today was inspired by a Quora posting.

George Schmilinsky

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Studied at Nevada Union High School7y

How did Stanford and MIT become top universities despite being founded much later than other top universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton?

I would argue that in Stanford’s case it made a decision before World War II that changed its history forever. Best summarized by Stanford and Columbia professor Steve Blank in his blog entitled, “The Secret History of Silicon Valley—Backstory”. In the blog, and if you’ve had him as a professor he goes into much more details, Steve Blank recites how the government first went to Harvard to solve a military technology problem; Harvard refused that opportunity while Stanford (playing second fiddle at the time) did not.

To facilitate involvement in solving the government problem, Stanford agreed to help fund student/alumni businesses with the mission of solving the government problem and reaping the rewards by receiving a hefty government contract. The university adopted this atypical model rather than keeping the intellectual property and profit to themselves. Stanford, to this day, is one of the few universities to have such a generous philosophy. This decision by Stanford, in turn, spurred budding entrepreneurs from Stanford’s ecosystem to take risks, in part because those risks were born by the university with money and the use of their facilities. One of the earliest and best examples of this is HP—-see the history of William Hewlett and Dave Packard, but Google and many other firms were born from this ecosystem.

The budding entrepreneurs in Palo Alto attracted investors. These entrepreneurs and investors began the Silicon Valley and Venture Capital that we know today. Take a look at how many businesses have started with Stanford alumni or students. Indeed the environment was and is perfect for those connected to Stanford—money, a nearby university willing to help with innovation, facilities etc., and an ecosystem for growing businesses in the form of Silicon Valley.

With so much wealth growing from the region, and an appreciation for the school from which this wealth was made possible, many former students rewarded Stanford with not only pieces of their business but also huge donations.

These donations helped Stanford build their endowment and consequently their prestige. Also, if you’re an intelligent young person wanting adventure (in the form of Silicon Valley), as well as good weather—where would you go?

Like everything in life, success is born from many things and rarely can be summarized with sound bites of information—this explanation is just one possible reason.

Here was a response:

Sue Kayton

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Studied Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Graduated 1978)Upvoted by 

Ron Scott KBE

, Internal AB Physics, Princeton University (1979) and 

Carol Novitsky

, studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1981)7y

Harvard, Yale and Princeton began as divinity schools to train ministers. Their curriculum was Latin, Ancient Greek, Philosophy, and Rhetoric. In the late 1800s they began to add secular subjects like math, physics, etc. In that sense, serious subject instruction at MIT (founded 1861) predates that of Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Until the 1960s, Harvard, Princeton and Yale remained the bastions of privileged white sons of the rich. MIT and Stanford had no such restrictions, but admitted based on merit. Stanford was founded in 1885 and also took its secular subjects seriously long before Harvard did.

And another:

Reid Sheftall

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Studied Physics (college major) at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUpvoted by 

Ross Callon

, M.S. Operations Research, Stanford University and 

Ron Scott KBE

, Internal AB Physics, Princeton University (1979)

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7y

Joshua is right in that MIT’s rise is partly due to the military/technological advancements they contributed during WWII. But the real reason Stanford and MIT have , for the most part, passed the big three Ivies is because the Ivies missed the Technology Tidal Wave. MIT and Stanford were on the crest of it. As the world becomes more advanced technologically with the telecommunications revolution, 

… (more)

So I asked Google AI:  What is the most remarkable advancement of an American university in the past century.

Based on the transformation of research, technology, and economic impact, the most remarkable advancement of an American university in the past century is Stanford University’s development of the "Silicon Valley" model of academic-industrial partnership. 

While many institutions grew, Stanford’s deliberate fostering of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the mid-20th century, particularly under Frederick Terman, transformed it from a regional institution into a global powerhouse. 

Here is why this, and other, developments are considered the most remarkable:

1. The Stanford/Silicon Valley Model

• Pioneering Tech Entrepreneurship: Stanford cultivated a "pioneering spirit" by encouraging faculty and students to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial application.
• Impact: This model directly led to the foundation of companies like Hewlett-Packard, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and Netflix.
• Impact on Region: It turned a fruit-growing region into the world's leading technology hub. 

2. Post-1945 Federal Research Funding Expansion

The most significant systematic change affecting all elite universities was the post-WWII shift toward massive federal funding for research, transforming universities into major economic and scientific engines. 

• Scientific Dominance: This allowed US universities to dominate global Nobel Prize awards in the second half of the 20th century.
• Key Players: Johns Hopkins, MIT, and Stanford became leaders in leveraging these funds. 

3. Key Institutional Transformations

• University of Chicago's Rise: In the last 25 years, the University of Chicago transformed from a "safety school" for many into a top-three, highly selective institution, competing directly with Harvard and Yale.
• Medical & Scientific Breakthroughs: The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 1998 isolation of human embryonic stem cells, which birthed regenerative medicine, and the development of the MRI scanner by SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 1977.
• The GI Bill & Access: The post-1945 influx of students via the GI Bill, which launched an "unplanned educational revolution" and created the modern "Golden Age" of higher education. 

Summary of Impact

The most remarkable advancements are characterized by a move away from purely academic study toward a model that integrates innovation, economic impact, and high-level research.

Incidentally, it was Frederick Terman's father, Lewis, a Stanford psychologist, who was associated with eugenicist views, and was therefore the controversial person in the family.

• Frederick was not involved, but this link to his father led to the modern legacy about renaming buildings, schools and such.  In fact, Terman Middle School in Palo Alto was renamed Ellen Fletcher Middle School in 2018.  
• Mind you, Lewis was outstanding in another way, for he created a new version of a French Intelligence test, calling it the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, which is still in use today.

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  Son Fred went to MIT for his doctorate in 1925, returned home just for the summer, found out he had a serious medical condition, so stayed in Palo Alto and became a Stanford faculty member.  He recovered to in World War II direct a staff of more than 850 scientists and engineers at the Harvard Radio Research Lab.  Returned back home, founded the Stanford Research Park and went on to become the Father of Silicon Valley.  One more aside, Frederick Terman introduced two of his students to each other, William Hewlett and David Packard. 

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  When I was a freshman at Stanford, David Packard Jr. went around seeking $10,000 from classmates to invest in his father's company, which was adjacent to the campus.  Supposedly, that amount would have been worth a million dollars about a decade later.  
• Today, HP is a leader in the advancement of artificial intelligence.  

• 
  Finally, David's sister, Julie, got her parents to provide $57 million to create the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  She served as executive director over 40 years and retired last year.  The three top aquaria in the U.S. are in Georgia, California (Monterey) and Chicago.

I'll close with a sequel to my posting of a week ago about Earl Finch:

Earl Finch moved to Hawaii in 1947 to be closer to “his boys” and went into business with many 442/100 friends. One company they formed was named Tropical Enterprises. In 1947, it bought the famous Waikiki Lau Yee Chai restaurant.

Finch, Ralph Yempuku and Tom Moffatt went into concert promotions. They put on 34 Your Show of Stars concerts in Honolulu.

Today in Bob Sigall's Rearview:

I was surprised to learn that the person who first brought Neil Sedaka to perform in Hawaii was Finch. He spotted Sedaka on the mainland and signed him to headline a concert on Aug. 21, 1959, at the Civic Auditorium.  Sedaka was 20 years old at that time, and his Hawaii show was his first professional engagement. Coincidentally, Aug. 21, 1959, was the day that Hawaii became a state.

Sedaka returned many times over the past 50 years for concerts produced by Moffatt.

Sedaka passed away on Feb. 27. Today would have been his 87th birthday.

I coincidentally had a special post about Neil Sedaka on March 6, the day before my Finch article.

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