After graduating from Swarthmore and earning a master’s at Penn, Alan Valentine went to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. While at Oxford he became the first American ever to win a rugby “blue” playing in the match against Cambridge three times. Valentine, who earned a reputation in British rugby circles as a devastating tackler, was one of the organizers of the U.S. team for the 1924 Olympics. The gold medal he won literally proved to be “tarnished.” When Valentine tried to turn it over to the Roosevelt Government in answer to an appeal during the depression, it was rejected as being “only lead, washed with gold.” After leaving Oxford, Alan Valentine held many academic appointments and until 1935, while he was at Yale, he was professor of history arts and letters; chairman of the board of admissions; and Master of Pierson College. In 1935, he became president of the University of Rochester, at 34 one of the youngest men to ever head a major university. In 1948 and 1949 Valentine headed the Netherlands Mission of the Economic Stabilization Agency – better known as the Marshall Plan. In 1950, President Truman named him chief administrator of this plan. Valentine also wrote numerous books and held several honorary degrees.
United States