William Jewett Tucker

{From The New York Herald-Tribune)

The great accomplishment of President Tucker was the development of Dartmouth from a small college to a college of commanding size and national prestige without the slightest sacrifice of tradition or of the rugged qualities that have distinguished it from the pioneer days of Eleazar Wheelock. In the expansion which he undertook and brilliantly achieved his object was "to open wide the channel for the transmission of the spirit of the college."

Dartmouth owes much to the discernment of the alumni, who persisted in offering the presidency to Dr. Tucker until he accepted. They recognized in him the leader capable of realizing the Dartmouth on which their hearts were set. Whatever the magnetizing force which has steadily continued to draw boys from all over the country to the remote campus among the New Hampshire hills, it was unused until Dr. Tucker put it in action.

He had working with him a body of alumni attached to Dartmouth with an almost religious devotion. The college had a missionary beginning and no institution has sons bent on its advancement with a more missionary zeal. There is a faith in Dartmouth that would remove the surrounding mountains if that were necessary.

The athletic rise of Dartmouth dates from Dr. Tucker's presidency. The coincidence is not accidental. From the day of his inauguration he was a steadfast friend of college sport. To the credit of athletics, he said, " it has introduced the idea of excellence into what is known as college life." He added: "A good reason for my respect for athletics is the beneficial character of its democracy.... It gives a man who is not of the highest scholarly aptitude the self-respect and courage of being able to do something well, something of recognizable value. J think that the loss of this privilege would on the whole lower the tone of college life."

Elder New Yorkers remember with affection Dr. Tucker's pastorate in this city. His preaching and all his dealing with young and old were invested with personal attraction. Of his Dartmouth days Professor Charles F. Richardson remarked : "In my opinion his largest, most important and enduring achievement has been the effect of his personality and teachings upon the undergraduate body. Every Dartmouth alumnus of the last sixteen years will agree with me that whatever he has got from the classroom societies, friendship or the athletic field, nothing quite takes the place in his tenderest memories of college days of Dr. Tucker's vesper talks Sunday after Sunday."

In the expansion of Dartmouth President Tucker had a granite foundation to build on. The new structure is as solid as the old.