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College presidents' names reveal historical power structures

Ellsworth Toohey
Sep 22, 2025
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Pope A. Duncan or Duncan A. Pope?

College presidents' names from the mid-20th century sound remarkably interchangeable, as if assembled from an elite Anglo-Saxon name generator. Veteran NBC newsman Edwin Newman highlighted this curiosity in his 1974 book Strictly Speaking, noting how Columbia's Nicholas Murray Butler would sound equally authoritative as …

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