Haynes interview

[Begin Tape 1, Side 2]
Warren: So what are your memories of serving on the board? What were the
highlights for you?
Haynes: I don't know highlights. Certainly the board is a very dedicated group of
extremely intelligent, hardworking, dedicated people. The board is one of those places
where you gain so much because of this accumulated wisdom. I think people on the

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board think so much, care so much about Washington and Lee, that they vote as they
think things ought to be, not as they want things to be or they think things should be.
They are very selfless, I think. That's the reason that coeducation was about more than
coeducation. Coeducation was about the Washington and Lee that people remembered.
And it was John Wilson's idea that it should be about the way the university would be
in the future. It was a prospective rather than a retrospective exercise.

         Coeducation passed, I believe, by one vote. If the vote had been said, "What do
you want to have happen?" instead of "What should happen?" I think coeducation
would have failed, because people would have thought that they really wanted W&L to
be as they remembered it, not as they could see it in some future idyllic situation. Does
that make sense?
Warren: It sure does. It's a very fine distinction to make. That is a very good way of
putting it.
Haynes: I was actually against coeducation. Most people in Texas were. I can't explain
that. It was the last bastion down here. But when I was invited to go onto the board
after that, I said to myself, "Now coeducation has passed, and you must be enthusiastic,
Dick Haynes, about its future." I think that was good I had that discussion with myself
and came to the conclusion I did, and I certainly supported coeducation after that. It
was hard not to support it. It had such a wonderful career, again thanks to John. We
were very blessed because we were just about the last male educational institution that
became coeducational. John tapped, as resources, the presidents of all these other
colleges, and asked, "How did you do it?" So we had all that wealth of background on
coeducation.

         I must say, I think coeducation at W&L was almost a casebook study, it went so
well. We just didn't have any problems, and the reason we didn't have any problems
was because John and the staff foresaw those problems and had taken pains to offer
plans which would correct the problems. The building of the sorority houses for the

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women is probably the last step in coeducation at W&L, and that will take place in the
next ten years, I'm sure.
Warren: Within the next fifteen minutes, if the sorority sisters have anything to do with
it. They're getting anxious.
Haynes: They are getting anxious.
Warren: Well, I know we only have a few more minutes. I would like you to, off the
top of your head, dictate a letter to the future. You did it for Dean Gilliam. What
would you like to see for the future now for Washington and Lee?
Haynes: I would like to see Washington and Lee continue to be a place of great honor.
I'd like to see it also become a place of great intellectual fervor, and I hope we continue
to have strong scholarship. A look at the catalog of Washington and Lee reveals
amazing things when compared with the catalogue of fifty years ago. At that time we
may have had a hundred course offerings. Today we probably have three or four
hundred in very erudite and interesting areas, but areas that one would think only a
very large university could offer. It's really incredible that W&L, this small, tiny
institution, is providing the kind of academic challenge that it is. I hope that continues,
as I hope the traditions of honor and civility continue.
Warren: Well, I don't think we have any plans to change any of that. You know we're
staring this anniversary in the face, this 250th anniversary. Is there anything in
particular you think we should be doing to make sure we do it right and celebrate it
right?
Haynes: Gosh, that's very hard for me to suggest. I applaud this emphasis on
Washington, because I think General Washington still has a lot to teach us that we don't
know. I think that is good. We can turn back to General Lee at another point, but I
think right now in our history and in the times we presently live in, it's nice to honor
General Washington because he was a man of great vision and great thoughtfulness. I
think his gift to Washington and Lee, or what was then called Liberty Hall Academy,

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was an extremely prescient gift, and I think we have to work hard to become aware of
that and worthy of that every year as his gift contributes to the education of all of these
young students.
Warren: What a marvelous way to end, to take us right back to the beginning. Thank
you so much. This has been a wonderful hour. I really appreciate it.
[End of Interview]

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