Ed Littlefield, lower right, poses with the friends in his bachelor group while attending Stanford University. Courtesy of the Edmund W. and Jeannik Littlefield Foundation Ed Littlefield began his studies at Stanford University with a sense of ambivalence. "When I started I had no idea of my major," he explained. "This was a real problem. During the Depression it was very hard to get positive advice as to what you should be. . . . My grandfather, who had not much education, was the head of the Six Companies, building the biggest job that had ever been built in the United States, the Hoover Dam. "I said, 'Granddad, what do you think I should be?' He said, 'Don't be an engineer. There are too many engineers. I've got engineers driving steam shovels.' "My uncle, Dr. Zeke Dumke, a fine surgeon, said, 'Don't be a doctor. I'm getting paid in sheep and goats and ears of corn.' "The only fellow that gave me any good advice was my father, who said, 'Be what you want to be. Be what makes you happy. That's the only important thing.'" Littlefield's pre-law major soon changed to English, for he loved to write, and then to economics and social science for the pragmatic reason that he could graduate in 11 quarters and still work during the summers. At the outset of his junior year, he became president of the Chi Psi fraternity. That experience, he wrote, boosted his self-esteem and required him to expand his skills. "I learned how to run what, in effect, is a small business. I also learned something about campus politics.... I had to deal with the officials of the university. I found out how miserable it is to have to deal with the press.... When I [later] came to San Francisco, I found myself taken in by these prominent San Francisco families that were members of my fraternity."