Fulbright Iceland - Fulbrightstofnunin

April 14. 2005

Senator Fulbright's Hundredth Birthday

J. William Fulbright was born on April 9, 1905 in Sumner, Missouri, and so would have been 100 years old this year. He was educated at the University of Arkanas, where he was awarded the B.A degree in Political Science in 1925. He then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and received an M.A. degree. He studied law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In 1936 he returned to Arkansas, where he was a lecturer in law and, from 1939 - 1941, president of the University of Arkansas. He was the youngest university president in the country.

He entered politics in 1942 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1944 and became one of the most influential and best-known members of the Senate. His legislation establishing the Fulbright Program slipped through the Senate without debate in 1946 and was signed by then president Harry Truman.

Now, 60 years later, there are Fulbright Commissions in 51 countries and 89 other countries have signed a Fulbright bi-national agreement with the United Stated, to participate in the program.
This program has had extraordinary impact around the world. There have been more than 250.000 Fulbright grantees and many of them have made significant contributions within their countries as well as to the overall goal of advancing mutual understanding.

J.W. Fulbright's Senate career was in many ways an extraordinary one. In 1954 he was the only senator to vote against an appropriation for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which was chaired by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. He also lodged serious objections to President Kennedy in advance of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
He was particularly in the spotlight as a poweful voice in the chaotic times of the war in Vietnam, when he chaired the Senate hearings on United States policy and the conduct of the war.

After leaving the Senate, he remained active in support of the international exchange program that bears his name. In 1993 he was presented the Presidential medal of Freedom by President Clinton.

Senator Fulbright died on February 9, 1995 at the age of 89 at his home in Washington, D.C.

The Fulbright Commission in Iceland operates according to a bilateral agreement between the governments of Iceland and the United States and the contract was signed on February 23, 1957. In all, Icelandic Fulbright grantees - students, teachers and scholars - now number over 1200. Over 500 Americans have received Fulbright grants to come to Iceland to study, do research and teach.

Fulbright is the oldest formal university student exchange program operating in Iceland (as in many other coutnries), and very possibly the largest in the world, with some 7000 Fulbright grants of one kind or another awarded each year. Of those, there are about 3300 student grants.

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