Fitting Lippmann Memorial

To the Editors:

Walter Lippmann, B.A. Harvard College 1910, died on December 14, 1974. Since that time several of us have tried to design a fitting and lasting memorial to him at his alma mater.

We are now happy to report that Harvard itself is committing $100,000 of Lippmann’s bequest to the University as the basis of a Walter Lippmann Memorial Fund to provide and endow new headquarters for the Nieman Foundation.

Since it was Lippmann’s advice that helped create the Nieman Fellowships in 1937, it seems to us entirely appropriate that the Nieman program be lodged in a permanently endowed structure to be called “Walter Lippmann House.” Harvard has made available to the Nieman Foundation a Cambridge landmark, a spacious 1836 house with gardens, just a brief walk from Harvard Yard.

In “Lippmann House,” the Foundation will have for the first time in its forty years of existence fully adequate headquarters, including a room large enough to accommodate all 16 to 20 Fellows at seminars—and much larger groups when necessary. There also will be study space for Fellows and adequate shelf space for Harvard’s “Nieman Collection of Contemporary Journalism.”

What we need in order to endow “Lippmann House”—to match and then triple the Harvard grant, and thereby cover future expenses—is $400,000. We are convinced that this goal can be reached because we firmly believe that Lippmann’s memory can be best celebrated through this exciting endeavor. Never in journalism have a man and a program been better joined for a better purpose—Walter Lippmann and the Nieman enterprise.

We deeply hope that you will share our excitement about this memorial to one of the great Americans of the century.

We look forward to your response, and we ask you to be as generous as possible.

Barry Bingham Sr., James MacGregor Byrne, Stanton R. Cook, John Cowles Jr., Katharine Graham, John S. Knight, Irwin Maier, William F. Schmick Jr., Dolph C. Simons Jr., Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, John I. Taylor, Robert L. Taylor, W. Davis Taylor, James C. Thomson Jr., Richard C. Wald