Campus & Community

This month in Harvard history

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  • Oct. 16, 1948 – The World War II Memorial Committee formally presents its report to the Directors of the Harvard Alumni Association. The Committee makes a similar presentation for the Executive Committee of the Associated Harvard Clubs on Nov. 19 in Boston. Both bodies approve the Committee’s recommendation.The group recommends (unanimously, with one abstention) that the names of Harvard’s World War II dead be inscribed on the wall adjacent to the World War I Memorial Room in the Memorial Church. The estimated cost is $60,000 to $75,000.
  • Oct. 6, 1955 – WGBH-TV begins a weekly series on “The Facts of Medicine,” funded by an educational grant from the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. to Harvard and the Lowell Institute. David D. Rutstein, head of the Dept. of Preventive Medicine, conducts the 40-part series, “which has few predecessors in the world of telecast.”‘Through these carefully planned programs,’ President [Nathan Marsh] Pusey announced, ‘we hope to make it possible for the individual to understand the nature of recent medical developments and to help him reach wise decisions, in consultation with his own physician, on matters affecting his own health and that of his family and his community.’ ” (Quotations: Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Sept. 24, 1955)

    – From the Harvard Historical Calendar, a database compiled by Marvin Hightower