Looking forward to his return to active teaching which he left as an assistant professor in 1927, he has recalled that he hasn't "read any book in the last 20 years besides detective stories and the General Education Report."

To be of full professorial ranking when he returns to the teaching staff next Fall, Dean Hanford expects to do "some research, writing and teaching in state and local government, an important field which has been neglected at Harvard in recent years, and also to take on additional tutorial instruction in which I have been almost continually engaged since 1917."

A native of Illinois and a member of the class of '12 at the University of Illinois, Dean Hanford came east originally in the capacity of an investigator of state constitutional government. Appointed as an instructor in 1916, he received his Ph.D. here in 1923.

Interprets "Liberal Arts"

In Dean Hanford's view according to his 1942 report, the object of a liberal arts education is to "furnish students with an idea of the accumulated culture and experience of the human race, show them the continuity of the present with the past, and provide them with some understanding of the complicated world in which they live."

Its ultimate purpose, he says, is "to free the minds of its students from ignorance and prejudice, to provide them with a set of values and standards, and to furnish them with the tools which will enable them to form intelligent opinions, judge wisely, and make sagacious decisions."

Wilbur J. Bender is New Dean

Wilbur J. Bender '27, who is to succeed Dean Hanford this month as Dean of the College, has been Counsellor for Veterans here since his discharge from the Navy in 1945.

A Midwesterner by birth like Dean Hanford, he earned his college education by teaching grade school and by working as a railroad hand. He studied for two years at Goshen College, Indiana, transferring to Harvard and graduating at the age of 24.

His educational career since graduation has been divided between Phillips Andover Academy and the College, Dean Bender having been particularly active under Dean Hanford a dozen years ago in the creation of the National Scholarship program.