Founded in 1885 by railroad magnate and political leader Leland Stanford and his wife in memory of their son, Leland Jr., who died as a teenager. Located 35 miles south of San Francisco, CA, at the northern tip of “Silicon Valley,” whose hitech business and research facilities the University spawned. Stanford emerged after the Second World War as one of America’s premier institutions. Its undergraduate and graduate schools consistently rank within the top five and it boasts numerous Nobel Prize winners on its faculty. Students and alumni have included President Herbert Hoover, Olympic gold medalist Summer Sanders, Astronaut Sally Ride, computer magnates William Hewlett and David Packard, Supreme Court justices William H. Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor and Secretary of State Warren Christopher.