Centennial video series: President Lovett’s office

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Centennial video series: President Lovett’s office
Rice University’s weekly centennial videos run through Oct. 12

HOUSTON – (June 14, 2012) – One of the most iconic and photographed buildings in Houston is named for the first president of Rice University, Edgar Odell Lovett. Originally called the Administration Building, Lovett Hall was the first academic building at the new Rice Institute when it opened in 1912 and was also home to Lovett’s personal office on the fourth floor. Lovett was appointed president in 1907 and retired in the 1940s, but he maintained an office in Lovett Hall until his death in 1957 at the age of 86. His desk belongings were boxed and stored in the Rice archives.

Working with Centennial Historian Melissa Kean, video producer Brandon Martin takes a look at Lovett’s historic office. To learn more about Rice’s history, visit Kean’s blog at www.ricehistorycorner.com.

To help celebrate the university’s centennial Oct. 12, Rice University is producing weekly videos exploring the school’s unique history.

The video, available on YouTube at http://youtu.be/5MuHDccfpnM, is also available to media in high quality and without music for editing purposes. For higher-quality video, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

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To see other stories in the centennial video series, go here.

Related materials:

In April, a panoramic picture of Lovett Hall won first place in the “Celebrate Rice” photo contest held by the university’s Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. Neil Martin of West University Place received a $1,000 prize for his entry in the contest, which was held in conjunction with Rice’s centennial year.

Martin photo:

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is known for its “unconventional wisdom.” With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 4 for “best value” among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to www.rice.edu/nationalmedia/Rice.pdf