Grace A. Tanner Center History & Archives

During the summer of 1979, Dr. Eugene T. Woolf, who was appointed to direct the Tanner Lecture, met with Obert C. Tanner and Dr. Sterling McMurrin, Obert's friend and colleague, to discuss the possibility of incorporating the lecture into an entity to be called the Grace A. Tanner Center for Human Values.

Dr. Eugene T. Woolf
Dr. Eugene T. Woolf

The purpose of the meeting was to suggest that the funds provided by the Tanner Trust could be employed for a broader purpose than simply funding of the Tanner Lecture.

Obert Tanner responded favorably to the idea, and the first lecture was delivered in 1980.

Dr. Woolf, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Literature, was the first Director of the Tanner Center. He served in this capacity until his death in 2003.

The Tanner Room contains the Tanner Philosophical Library, so named because Obert Tanner had provided such a library at other universities around the country.

Grace Adams Tanner Lecture Archives

  • 1980: Vance Packard, "A Look at the Future" —
    Telecommunications and Downsizing the Automobile"

  • 1981: Ian Watt, "Humanities on the River Kwai"

  • 1982: Douglas R. Hofstadter, "The Tumult of Inner Voices or
    What is the Meaning of the Word 'I'?"

  • 1983: Norman Cousins, "New Dimensions in Healing"

  • 1984: Lord Asa Briggs, "Social History and Human Experience"

  • 1985: Rex E. Lee, "The Case for Federalism"

  • 1986: Julian Bond, "Politics for the People"

  • 1987: Arno A. Penzias, "The Computer-Enhanced Human Being"

  • 1988: Lord Harold Wilson, "A View from 10 Downing Street"

  • 1989: Barbara Thomas, "Hong Kong —
    A Story of Capitalism to Communism 1997"

  • 1990: Donald Kennedy, "Responsibility and the University"

  • 1991: Boris Notkin, "Good Evening Moscow"

  • 1992: Jack Anderson, "The Washington, D.C. Beat"

  • 1993: David P. Gardner, "The Case for the American University"

  • 1994: Sterling M. McMurrin, "The Crisis of Western Culture"

  • 1995: Douglas Hofstadter, "Hiroshima Ma Migonne:
    The Endlessly Creative Spark of the Human Mind"

  • 1996: Kenneth J. Arrow, "What Does the Present Owe the Future?"

  • 1997: President George Bush, "Reflections on the Presidency"

  • 1998: Carolyn Tanner Irish, "Disciplined Freedom"

  • 1999: E. Gordon Gee, "The 21st Century American University:
    Visions of a New Learning Community"

  • 2000: Sissela Bok, "Deceit and Truthfulness in Public Life"

  • 2001: Vartan Gregorian, "The Real Crisis in the Classroom:
    How We Have Devalued the Teaching Profession"

  • 2002: Sylvia A. Earle, "Wild Ocean"

  • 2003: Bryan Sykes, "Secrets of the Human DNA"

  • 2004: Omar Kader, "The Challenge of Promoting Democracy
    in the Middle East"

  • 2005: Steven Pinker, "The Blank Slate"

  • 2006: Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams"

  • 2007: Morris Berman, "Locating the Enemy"

  • 2008: Stephen Lewis, "Time to Deliver: Winning the Battle Against Poverty and Disease in the Developing World"

  • 2009: Kenneth Miller, "Darwin, God, & Design: America's Continuing Problem with Evolution"

  • 2010: Kwame Anthony Appiah, “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers”

  • 2011: Dava Sobel, “Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love”

  • 2012: Jared Diamond, “The Origin and Future of Human Rights”

  • 2013: Margaret Atwood, “The Futures Market – Stories We Tell About Times to Come”

  • 2014: Alfie Kohn, "Overhauling the Transmission Model: Creating a Learning Centered Classroom and Campus"

  • 2015: Nathan Wolfe, "Viral Forecasting for Pandemic Prevention"

  • 2016: Bart Ehrman, “Did the Early Christians Forget Jesus? What the Study of Memory Can Tell Us About the Gospels”

  • 2017: Jelani Cobb, "The Half-life of Freedom: Race and Justice in America Today"

  • 2017: Maria Hinojosa, "Narrative as Witness: America's Untold Stories"

  • 2018: Sarah Lewis, "Images, Place, and Restorative Justice"

  • 2019: Vijay Gupta, "Music, Community, and the End of Apathy"

Roman Closseum

Published lectures are available for purchase from the Grace A. Tanner Center for $12 each + $3 s/h = $15 total.

Women of Mind, the latest edition in The Great Minds Revisited Series, by Eugene Tanner Woolf and Eugene Terrence Woolf, is also available for $30 each.

Please send payment along with your order and shipping address to:

Grace A. Tanner Center for Human Values
Southern Utah University
351 W. University Blvd.
Cedar City, UT 84720

Questions? Call us at 435-865-8082.