My student's will know that John Hennessy is one of my heroes due to his co-authorship of the Computer Architecture and Design book that is essential reading for my CA & D class. Professor Hennessy is also currently President of Stanford University and in his Stanford Magazine: January/February 2001: President's Column he emphasises that the study of the humanities remains the cornerstone of Stanford's undergraduate curriculum.

At freshman convocation this year, I told a story that I have repeated many times to prospective freshmen inclined toward science and engineering. In 1997, in my first year as dean of the Engineering School, I ran into an alumnus of our Medical School, whose son was a freshman at Stanford with a strong interest in engineering. We discussed what advice he had given his son about choosing among the universities that had offered him admission. In recommending Stanford, he said: "I wanted my son to know who Thoreau was, and what he wrote about."

Right on! I've read John Muir's books but I should supplement these with Thoreau.