Richard W. Lyman, Ex-President of Stanford University, Dies at 88 Richard W. Lyman, who as president of Stanford in the 1970s shepherded the university through an era of political turbulence, died on Sunday at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. His death was announced by the university, where Mr. Lyman was president from 1970 to 1980. An academic historian, Mr. Lyman joined Stanford in 1958 as an associate professor. He went on to hold various administrative posts there, serving as vice president and provost from 1967 to 1970, a period, amid the Vietnam War, when unrest shook campuses across the country. He stepped down as Stanford's president to become president of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, a post he held until 1988. As a Stanford administrator, Mr. Lyman drew criticism from both the left (mostly students) and the right (mostly alumni). In 1969, after students occupied the administration building, breaking windows and destroying files, Mr. Lyman, then provost, chose to bring in the police, something the university had not done in response to any previous demonstration. Though this demonstration was quelled without incident, Mr. Lyman, who publicly opposed the war, expressed dismay at the course of events. "Anytime it becomes necessary for a university to summon the police, a defeat has taken place," he said in an address on campus shortly afterward. The victory we seek at Stanford is not like a military victory; it is a victory of reason and the examined life over unreason and the tyranny of coercion. Mr. Lyman's handling of this incident and others was widely seen as stabilizing, although not everyone was mollified. In 1970, students hurled rocks and a paint-filled soda bottle through the windows of his home; the next year, the campus building housing his office was bombed. No one was injured on either occasion. Mr. Lyman also antagonized conservative members of the Stanford community. In 1976, after students invited the black radical leader Angela Davis to speak there, alumni donors pressured him to rescind the invitation. He declined, citing his "absolute duty" to protect the right of free speech. Richard Wall Lyman was born on Oct. 19, 1923, in Philadelphia and grew up in New Haven. He earned a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore, followed by master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard. During World War II, he served with the Army Air Forces Weather Service. A specialist in modern British political history, Mr. Lyman taught at Harvard, Swarthmore and Washington University in St. Louis before joining the Stanford faculty. As Stanford's president, he oversaw a successful $300 million capital campaign; increased the number of minority students admitted; and, in 1972, jettisoned the university's time-honored mascot, an American Indian. Stanford has remained mascotless since; its sports teams are now nicknamed the Cardinal. After retiring from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1988, Mr. Lyman returned to Stanford as the first director of what is now the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Mr. Lyman is survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Schauffler, known as Jing; four children, Jennifer P. Lyman, Holly Antolini, Christopher and Timothy; and four grandchildren. As much prudence as he exercised at Stanford's helm, Mr. Lyman could not foresee every contingency. Early in his presidency, a radical group threatened to bomb the campus stadium on the day of a big football game. Refusing to capitulate, Mr. Lyman secured the stadium, and the game began as scheduled. Soon there was an explosion. It took him a moment to realize that the blast came from a cannon. Stanford typically fired a cannon at home games whenever its team scored, and that day no one had thought to stay the eager hand of the cannoneer.