30 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



Two years later, in 1961, the Board approved my recommendation for the 

 establishment of a Graduate School of Oceanography, one of the first graduate 

 programs of its kind in the country. Since that time, our commitment to ocea- 

 nographic resei^rch has been a strong and growing one. The foundation for our 

 program so solidly made in the marine laboratory's days by one of the real 

 fathers of oceanography. Dr. Charles Fish, for whom our present laboratory is 

 named, has been expanded to wider horizons by our resourceful and energetic 

 dean of the graduate school, John Knauss, whom to our great good fortune, we 

 lured here from Scripps. His attention to the coffee cups this morning indicates 

 to you that he has his eye on the nickels as well as on the dollars, and as a uni- 

 versity president, I'm grateful for that. Of course, he spends more money on 

 that boat of his than anyone else in the University, but we are happy with the 

 results! 



I give you this bit of history to indicate why the national conference with 

 such potential significance to research and to mankind is being held here in 

 Rhode Island. Our own objectives in oceanography- -graduate education, basic 

 research in physical, geological, and biological oceanography, and applied re- 

 source research on problems of importance to the state and region, parallel 

 in a very substantial way those of the original land-grant effort. One writer has 

 said of the Morrill Act, that it has forced education to fit the changing social 

 and economic patterns of an expanding nation. 



Further, it has been said of the land- grant institutions, that through their 

 efforts, higher education came to be regarded not so much as a luxury, as a 

 national necessity. Today, marine science has developed to the point where it is 

 no longer a poor relative in the groves of academic research, but rather a 

 vibrant and vital discipline keyed to national necessity and inevitably to the des- 

 tiny of much of the world's population. 



Man's study of the oceans has come a long way in the past few years. I'm 

 sure that this conference will conclude with new concepts and ideas which will 

 quicken the pace and marshal even greater forces in this unending exploration 

 of the so-called inner space. I wish you all a stimulating and rewarding experi- 

 ence here at Newport. I look forward to participating with you and learning 

 from you during the conference. Thank you. 



