The president of Brandeis University replaced the late Eleanor Roosevelt in the Ford Hall Forum last night, and delivered a eulogy of her.

Dr. Abram L. Sachar, who accepted the speaking date after Mrs. Roosevelt died last November, said "there is no commitment I have wanted less to fulfill." He proceeded to give what he termed "a memorial salute--not a controversial address in the usual Forum tradition, but a salute to give permanence to her years."

For the first time in more than 20 years, no question period followed the Forum address Reuben L. Lurie, president of the Forum, called a question period after such a speech "a profanation."

Sachar said Mrs. Roosevelt's death "loosed a display of grief such as this nation has never known; everyone who was asked for a comment spoke as if a member of the family had been removed."

Dr. Sachar was a close friend of Mrs. Roosevelt, who had been both a trustee and a lecturer at Brandeis University. "There was never any real brilliance in her speaking," he recalled. "She was not an intellectual force. But hers was the spirit that surmounted nationalism and parochialism."