John Ewart Wallace Sterling (August 6, 1906 – July 1, 1985) was an American educator who served as the 5th President of Stanford University between 1949 and 1968.
[6] Sterling played football and basketball at the University of Toronto and coached both sports at Alberta.
[7] He began his doctoral studies in history at Stanford University in 1932, serving on the research staff of the Hoover Institution.
In 1948, he left Caltech to head the Huntington Library and Art Gallery and shortly afterward was offered the Stanford presidency.
Achievements during his tenure included: In 2022, Stanford University issued a public apology for its discrimination against Jewish applicants in the 1950s, which was documented through internal memos involving Sterling.