William Edwards Stevenson, eighth president of Oberlin College, was born in Chicago in 1900 to Florence Day (1874-1956) and the Rev. J. Ross Stevenson (1866-1939), a Presbyterian minister, teacher, and President of Princeton Theological Seminary (1914-36).  Stevenson attended Phillips Academy (Andover) from 1915 to 1918 and Princeton University, graduating in 1922.  He received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he read law at Balliol College, receiving the degrees of Bachelor of Jurisprudence and Master of Arts (1925).  In 1925, he was admitted as Barrister-at-Law of the Inner Temple.  While at Oxford, he competed in several track and field events, winning the American quarter-mile championship in 1921, the English championship in 1923, and an Olympic gold medal in the 1600 meter relay at the Paris games in 1924. 

In January 1926, Stevenson married Eleanor Bumstead (1902-87).  Two daughters were born to the Stevensons: Helen (b. 1928) and Priscilla (b. 1929).  Stevenson continued his legal career in the offices of Emory Buckner, U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, prosecuting from 1925 to 1927 violators of liquor trafficking laws.  In 1931, Stevenson joined with Eli Whitney Debevoise (b. 1899) to form the firm Debevoise Stevenson Plimpton and Page.  He left the practice in 1942 to become the American Red Cross Delegate to Great Britain, North Africa, and Italy.  Stevenson was responsible for establishing and administering recreational and relief units for the troops of the American Fifth Army as they advanced from North Africa to Sicily to the Italian beachheads.  In 1945, General Mark W. Clark (1896-1984), Allied ground commander in Italy, awarded both William and Eleanor Stevenson the Army's Bronze Star Medal for their service.

In 1946, the trustees of Oberlin College, led by Erwin N. Griswold (b. 1904), called Stevenson from his New York law practice to the Oberlin presidency, citing his administrative experience and interest in education.  During his tenure at Oberlin (1946-59), Stevenson presided over the design and construction of Hall Auditorium, the modernization of the college's administrative structure through the creation of new positions, including the modern Office of Development, and the organization of a major fund-raising drive.  In the summers of 1959 and 1960, President Stevenson headed an economic development mission to Tanganyika, Africa for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.  Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson traveled extensively in the Middle East in the winter of 1960/61 where Mr. Stevenson served as Chairman of a Commission to survey American higher education in that area.  At age 59, Stevenson resigned from the Presidency of Oberlin College in search of a new field of public service.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Stevenson U.S.Ambassador to the Philippines.  He served with distinction until 1964.   From 1965 to 1973, Stevenson served as a Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the American Red Cross and of the League of Red Cross Societies at Geneva.  In 1967, Stevenson became Vice President and Executive Director of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, a private, non-profit research center in Chicago founded for the study of the world's most pressing problems.  In the same year, he was named President of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, having served since 1960 as a trustee.  The Aspen Institute brought together professionals from various fields with leaders from government, the arts, theology, law, and education to discuss the evolution of key ideas in Western thought.  Stevenson served as President until 1970.  On April 2, 1985, William Stevenson died at his home in Ft. Meyers, Florida.

Eleanor Bumstead Stevenson was born on March 9, 1902 in Decatur, Illinois, the home of her mother, Luetta Ullrich (b. 1870).  Her father, Henry Andrews Bumstead (1870-1921), was a physicist at Yale University who served in London as Scientific Attache to the American Embassy during the First World War.  Eleanor grew up in Washington, D.C. and New Haven, attending Rosemary Hall boarding school in Greenwich, Connecticut.  She graduated from Smith College with a B.A. degree in English in 1923.  In 1924 on a visit to England, Eleanor met William Stevenson.  They married in January 1926 in New Haven and settled in Stamford, Connecticut. 

Eleanor's Red Cross career began in 1942.  Placing her two girls in the care of her mother in New Haven, Eleanor joined her husband in Great Britain.  Soon after, she was ordered transferred to Algiers.  Following the invasion of Italy by the Allies, she served for eight months in 1943-44 as a field representative for clubmobile operations in Italy, working under fire at Salerno and Anzio and in the evacuation hospitals in order to establish clubmobiles.  For her service, she was awarded the Army's Bronze Star Medal in 1945 by General Mark W. Clark for taking an "active and important part in all types of Red Cross activities without regard to her personal comfort or safety."  Her account of the experience appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in the fall of 1944 and led to the publication by Penguin Books of I Knew Your Soldier in November 1944.  The book's popularity fueled demand for Eleanor Stevenson as a public speaker during the post-war years.  In 1946, Smith College awarded Mrs. Stevenson an honorary Master of Arts degree.

At Oberlin College from 1946-59, Eleanor Stevenson was active in a number of causes and organizations.  In 1947, she joined Oberlin student Carl Rowan (b. 1925) in trips to Columbus to try to pressure the Ohio Legislature to pass a fair employment practices law.  She carried on her Red Cross involvement with a group of Oberlin students who visited veterans hospitals in the area on weekends.  Her home at 154 Forest Street was a source of hospitality for friends, family, and students, who long remembered "Bumpy" Stevenson's graciousness. 

Eleanor Stevenson served on several boards, including the Board of the American University in Cairo (1948-61) and the Board of the Fund for the Republic (1952-61), chaired by Robert Maynard Hutchins (b. 1899).  She accompanied her husband when he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines in 1961, traveling extensively in the region and welcoming diplomatic colleagues to her Manila residence.  She continued to be active following her return to the United States in 1964, but her health declined suddenly during the early 1980s.  She fell several times, breaking both hips, and her eyesight deteriorated.  She died of pneumonia on February 22, 1987 at her home in Ft. Meyers, Florida.