On December 14, 1903, Wilbur Wright won a coin toss with his brother Orville to make what was supposed to be the first powered flight in history. But as the Wright Brothers’ Flyer began its downhill roll, it lifted too early.  Airborne for three and a half seconds, the plane crashed to earth at the base of a sand dune, breaking one of its landing skids.

Yet Orville Wright would later say, “We were much pleased by the result.” Wilbur’s short flight was the result of thousands of experiments the two brothers had made with gliders and wind tunnels. Their failures and successes were a necessary part of what would take place three days later when Orville piloted the 700-pound Flyer into the air for 12 seconds, covering a distance of 40 yards. For the first time in history, a machine carrying a man had raised itself into the air by its own power and landed at a point as high as that from which it started.

A little over a half century later, (sixty-five and one-half years to be exact), Apollo 11 landed men on the moon.  To my mind, there is no other sequence that so graphically depicts the human potential for advancement. To stand beside the Apollo command capsule in the Smithsonian and gaze up at the kite-like Wright Brothers Flyer hanging above is to witness what human beings are capable of during a half century of time.  

Yet, I would argue that there is a strong analogy in how far Harvey Mudd College has come in a similar period.  Few other colleges have equaled our trajectory of success. In just a few brief decades, HMC vaulted to national pre-eminence, establishing a unique core undergraduate curriculum in engineering, science and mathematics that is the envy of higher education.

Joe Platt, our founding president, once wrote that a college begins with an idea. A new phenomenon was occurring in post-World War II America: technology was advancing too rapidly for society to adapt. Creating a curriculum that addressed this situation was the fundamental precept of the new HMC. The driving force from our college’s inception was to incorporate rigorous study of engineering and science with a breadth of studies in the humanities, requiring students to not only master thermodynamics and organic chemistry, but history, psychology, political science, ethics and the arts as well. In its infancy, Harvey Mudd College was unfettered, unbound by past tradition, open to innovation, and influenced by the Cold War, a time of hope and fear.

What began as an experiment as the liberal arts college of engineering and science, has evolved, through much experimentation, into an institution upon which rests the hopes of future generations. Our more than 4,500 alumni have piloted

Space Shuttles, run provisional governments, innovated everything from PC Solitaire to improved lithium batteries, helped developing nations, taught eighth-grade algebra, volunteered for the Peace Corps, founded companies, provided thousands of people with jobs, and solved untold problems—all, with a humanistic eye. Like Orville Wright in 1903, Joe Platt can safely say, “We are much pleased by the result.”

In the 1950s people believed that science and engineering could cure all our problems. Yet, the founders of Harvey Mudd College wisely knew that this was not the case. If the atomic age ushered in the need for Harvey Mudd College, it also underscored the necessity that technological advancement must be balanced with human needs on a global scale. HMC, because of its initial vision, is today uniquely positioned to develop the humane innovators who will help guide our future. 

As we approach the 50th Anniversary of our distinctive college, it is important for all members of the Harvey Mudd College family to challenge ourselves with what we can do, individually and collectively, to further the efforts of previous generations, not only in the advancement of science and technology, but in the betterment of human kind.