Harris Llewellyn Wofford (b. 1926) (President, 1970 - 1978)
Marilyn Conover, 1978
Oil on canvas, 127.635 x 97.155 cm
1978.9

Students were not pleased to have a male president: on Wofford’s first day in office, he discovered a hymnal on his desk open to "Turn back O man; forswear thy foolish ways." Still, Wofford strove to satisfy students. He implemented special law and business programs, designated Perry House as the Black Cultural Center, expanded students’ professional opportunities, and struggled to preserve the Bi-College relationship. Yet Wofford is more celebrated for his accomplishments before coming to Bryn Mawr, when he served as an unofficial advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King and co-founded the Peace Corps. Time spent in Ethiopia as a director of the Peace Corps’ programs strengthened his belief in the value of international scholarship. At Bryn Mawr, Wofford established ties with foreign institutions, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, and aggressively recruited and financed international students. His idealism, although often at odds with students’ realities, shaped Bryn Mawr’s presence in the world. 

Clad in a suit and his Yale-blue law regalia, Wofford’s portrait adopts the black and blue shadowy background in Sargent’s portrait of M. Carey Thomas, but Marilyn Conover’s use of conspicuous brushwork and a smear of chartreuse invigorate his depiction. Like Sargent, she incorporates a chair into the composition, an object more ornamental than substantial. Yet unlike the portraits of Thomas and McBride, she does not have him sit. Instead, his hands rest over the chair’s collegiate inscription, referencing, without rivalling, the images of female presidents who preceded him.