Commencement Climax of 171st Year

A Review of the Weekend's Colorful Events and Highlights As Seen By 470 Seniors and 3000 Guests, Reuning Alumni and Families

WITH all the solemnity and animation which paradoxically accompany the Commencement season, Dartmouth College brought its 171st academic year to a close in a three-day program culminating in the award of bachelor degrees to 470 seniors on Sunday evening, June 16. Against the backdrop of European war and possible American involvement, the events of Class Day, Alumni Day, and Commencement Day took on a special seriousness this year, and addresses by officers of the College, alumni, and members of the graduating class were invariably related to the world crisis. Despite the national uncertainty, Hanover was filled with one of the largest Commencement crowds in recent years, and extra beds had to be placed in a number of the dormitories to accommodate reuning alumni.

,The three-day program, from Friday through Sunday, ran smoothly on schedule, except for the raining out Saturday morning of what would have been the most colorful spectacle of the week-end—the Alumni Parade from the campus to the gymnasium. The sun was out brightly after a short downpour, however, and by 2 o'clock the senior guests and bedecked alumni were sweltering in the bleachers at the Dartmouth-Yale baseball game. For the remainder of the week-end the weather was such as only Hanover can provide.

Although, strictly speaking, the Commencement program opened on Friday, June 14, the Board of Trustees and the Alumni Council assembled in Hanover the night before to begin their respective Commencement meetings. With President Hopkins presiding, the Trustees of the College gathered in Park hurst Hall to tackle the usual June docket of degrees and faculty matters. The main business of the evening, related to neither of these, was the reelection of Edward S. French '06 of Boston as Alumni Trustee for a term of five years. Mr. French, president of the Boston and Maine Railroad, has served the College in many important alumni positions, leading to his election in 1935 to his first five-year term on the Board of Trustees.

The Trustees also elected Prof. Gordon Ferrie Hull to the position of Professor Emeritus of Physics upon the occasion of his retirement from active teaching after 41 years on the Dartmouth faculty. Two Tuck School faculty resignations accepted were those of Prof. Victor Z. Brink, who will teach at Columbia next year, and Richard L. Funkhouser '30, who will go to Washington, D. C., to be secretary of the American Statistical Association. To fill the vacancies thus created the Board ratified the appointment of Henry Duncombe, Chicago '34, as Assistant Dean and Instructor in Business Statistics at Tuck School, and of Cecil N. Brennan, University of British Columbia '33, as Instructor in Accounting and Finance. Other faculty appointments approved by the Board were those of Dr. Thomas Vance as Assistant Professor of English, George K. Beebe as Instructor in Spanish, Warren B. Scobey and Adrien Stejer as Assistants in Geology, and Emil Schnap as Teaching Fellow in Pathology in the Medical School. Promotions were voted to two Thayer School faculty members: Arthur N. Daniels from Instructor to Assistant Professor of Power Engineering, and Edward S. Brown Jr. '34 from Instructor to Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering.

The Board of Trustees also voted to accept the recommendation of a special committee, headed by Bursar Max A. Norton '19, that a group hospitalization plan for all employees of the College be inaugurated in the fall. Details of the plan will be worked out during the summer by the same committee, which also includes Prof. Francis J. Neef and Prof. Andrew G. Truxal.

ALUMNI COUNCIL MEETS

While the Trustees were busy in Parkhurst Hall, the Alumni Council was assembled just a stone's throw away in the Sanborn House library. There, under the presidency of Warren C. Kendall '99 of Washington, D. C., the Council held a discussion of developments and policies of the College and alumni organizations. It was announced at the opening session that four new members had been elected to the Council: Leslie W. Snow '12 of New York City, representing the Middle Atlantic States; Henry E. Atwood '13 of Minneapolis, Minn., representing the Middlewestern States; Sherman Baldwin '23, representing the Secretaries Association; and Prof. Francis L. Childs '06 of Hanover, representing the faculty. Members reelected for three-year terms were announced as Thomas A. Foster '10 of Portland, Me., representing the New England States; William R. Abbott Jr. '27 of Chicago, representing the Central States; A. Pollack Boyd '22 of Chattanooga, Tenn., representing the Southern States; and Thomas D. Cunningham '13 of Denver, Colo., representing the Rocky Mountain and Pacific States.

The Council reassembled in Sanborn House on Friday morning and after further reports and discussion elected its officers for 1940-41. Harold P. Hinman '10 of Canaan, N. H., was elected president; Sigurd S. Larmon '14 of New York City was chosen vice president; and Sidney C. Hayward '26 of Hanover was reelected secretary. The executive committee for the coming year will consist of these three officers and two other members, George G. Clark '99 of Plymouth, N. H., and Fletcher R. Andrews '16 of Cleveland Heights. Ohio. Clark Weymouth '26 of Rochester, N. Y., was elected member-at-large of the Council and John E. Foster '23 of New York City was reelected to similar membership. William D Knight 'OB of Rockford, Ill, was named to another three-year term as alumni member of the Dartmouth College Athletic Council. Among the committee chairmen elected by the Council was Harvey P. Hood II '18 of Boston, who will head the important Alumni Fund Committee next year. Two special groups named for the coming year were the Committee on Relations with Non-Dartmouth Fathers and the Committee on Placing Dartmouth Men in Secondary Schools.

The Alumni Council adjourned in time for its annual joint luncheon with the Board of Trustees, this year held amidst the colorful "Eleazar Wheelock" murals in the Hovey Grill of Thayer Hall. At this informal gathering a unanimous vote of confidence was given to President Hopkins "for all that he has done in the past, all that he is doing, and all that he will do in the trying days to come." In a one-minute reply President Hopkins expressed his thanks for such confidence and stated that he hoped to use "this blank check" for the best welfare of the College.

Meanwhile, reuning alumni and guests of the graduating class had been pouring into Hanover—with consequent traffic congestion along Main Street and at the Inn corner—and alumni of the Medical School had gathered for their luncheon and succeeding scientific meeting. Shortly before 4 P.M. the seniors made their first appearance in caps and gowns, lining up at the Senior Fence for the start of the Class Day program. Headed by class marshals Buford M. Hayden Jr., Harold S. Wonson Jr., and John F. Willson, the class paraded across the campus to the lawn of Dartmouth Hall, where President C. Whitney Miller opened the speaking program which was to deal throughout the afternoon with such topics as "responsibility," "ideals," "shattered beliefs," and "loyalty to the College." After the brief address of welcome Eldon E. Fox, president of the 1940 Palaeopitus, delivered the Class Day Address, which included the statement, "When we accept our certificates of graduation, we acquire a responsibility to utilize the materials with which we have been equipped."

Judson S. Lyon then read the Class Poem, which ended thus: Yet dare to know that truth is change Despite the present's awful grip, And dare accept the future good When genius whirs the stinging whip. If Dartmouth has endowed us so, Then, consequential, forth we go.

Sydney G. Craig then mounted the steps of Dartmouth Hall to deliver the Address to the College, in which he charged that "college is the place where ideals are shattered, only to demand rebuilding after graduation in the world at large." He went on, "We must grow into a faith....a strong belief in something, whether it be in the legitimacy of our business, the worthiness of our profession, or even in the righteousness of our labor union's cause College education has given us a responsibility to seek an intelligent faith and to live life hard in the pursuit of that ideal."

Behind the Dartmouth Band the graduating class then marched in double file to the Old Pine, where the seniors settled down in Indian fashion to smoke their long, white pipes of peace. Scott A. Rogers Jr., in full Indian regalia rode up the hill on horseback to deliver the prophetic Sachem Oration, which drew laughter from his victims. In the final address of the afternoon, Thomas W. Braden Jr., secretary-chairman of the Class of 1940, pledged the loyalty of the class in the traditional Address to the Old Pine. "It will be no easy job," he said, "to turn all this, the best of our past, into the shaping of our future. In the measure that we succeed we shall continue to learn and to grow. It will be no easy job and some of us will fail. But these are the elements of Dartmouth which have made us what we are, and have shown us what we can be. If we pledge our loyalty to these we shall be loyal to ourselves—to the very best that is within ourselves. And if so, the College needs no other pledge from us. We shall be worthy of the title, Dartmouth Men."

The seniors smashed their clay pipes on the weather-beaten stump of the Old Pine and marched back to the campus to disband. Class Day exercises were over for another in the long line of Dartmouth graduating classes.

While the exercises at the Old Pine were drawing to a close Thayer School alumni gathered at the Horace S. Cummings Memorial and Tuck School alumni met just across the mall in Tuck Hall. For most of the engineers the alumni meeting provided the first occasion for inspecting the handsome new home of the Thayer School which, along with other recent buildings, was open to visitors on each of the three afternoons of Commencement.

The Class of '79 Trumpeters, sounding their brass harmonies from the Baker tower at 6, ushered in the first evening of the Commencement week-end. Fifteen minutes later in Commons the graduation exercises and annual alumni dinner of the Dartmouth Medical School began. Dr. John F. Gile '16, representing the President and Board of Trustees of the College, awarded two-year diplomas in medicine to 21 men presented by Dr. Howard N. Kingsford. Dr. Arthur R. Kimpton '05m welcomed the class into the Dartmouth Medical Alumni Association, and Prof. John M. Mecklin of the Sociology department delivered the main address of the evening.

PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL RECEPTION

The remainder of Friday night was given over to social events. In the twilight setting of their lovely garden President and Mrs. Hopkins held their annual Commencement reception for the graduating class, faculty members, alumni and guests. From this occasion many persons went to the first presentation by the Dartmouth Players of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Others were attracted to the concert by the Dartmouth Band on the lawn in front of Alumni Gymnasium, while still others drifted to the lawn of the Hanover Inn where four reels of Dartmouth movies were shown on a screen hung on the west wall of Bissell Hall. The movies, shown on all three nights, featured the first sound movie produced by Dartmouth College Films—a color reel entitled "Fun and Fundamentals of Skiing," for which Professor Pressey's motion picture class produced the script read by Gerald J. Schnitzer '40. Crowning event of a social evening, however, was the Commencement Ball which was held in Thayer Hall until the small hours of Saturday morning. The senior class this year went in for two bands —Bob Chester's Band and Joe Nevils' colored orchestra.

Reuning alumni had arrived in large numbers by Friday evening, and the summer formals of dancing seniors were well outnumbered by the orange-shirted cowboy outfits of 1925, the Indian suits of 1930, the beer jackets of 1935, the sports ensembles and pith helmets of 1915, the numeraled sweaters of 1920, and the more sedate insignia of the older classes. Sounds of reunion fun had begun early in the evening, with buffet suppers and songfests in many of the alumni tents, and as the darkness deepened cannon blanks and fireworks were set off to fill the night sky with noise and color.

All hands awoke to a dripping world on Saturday morning, and while the downpour was short-lived and of no hindrance at all to the Phi Beta Kappa meeting, it caused the cancellation of the Alumni Parade which Marshal Sidney C. Hazleton '09 was to have engineered from the campus to the gym. By divers routes some 2,000 alumni, faculty members, seniors and their fathers gathered on the upstairs floor of the gym for the annual meeting of the General Association of Dartmouth Alumni, which Ben Ames Williams '10 conducted with dispatch. George M. Morris '11 of Washington, D. C., was elected president of the Association for the coming year; Nathaniel Leverone '06 of Chicago and John P. English '16 of Boston were chosen vice presidents; and Sidney C. Hayward '26 of Hanover was reelected secretary-treasurer. John M. Comstock '77 of Chelsea, Vt., was reelected statistical secretary of the Association and an executive committee of seven was named as follows: George G. Clark '99 of Plymouth, N. H., chairman; Frank E. Rowe '91 of Boston; Louis S. Cox '96 of Boston; Everett M. Stevens '01 of Nashua, N. H.; Orton H. Hicks '21 of New York City; Albert E. M. Louer '26 of Chicago; and Craig Thorn Tr. '31 of Hudson, N. Y.

Mr. Hayward was called upon at this point to make various announcements, among them the winners of the reunion attendance cups. The Class of 1894 Cup for the highest percentage of members back was divided this year between 1885 and 1890, which had winning marks of 60 per cent, without the least fraction of difference between them. The Class of 1930 Cup for the greatest number of members back went to the class which established it five years ago. By registering 183 men up to 10 A.M. Saturday morning, 1930 bettered by 18 the previous all-time mark of 165 men which it set at its fifth reunion in 1935. Second highest total this year was 150 by the Class of 1935.

At the conclusion of the business meeting Mr. Williams inaugurated the speaking program with a brief talk which set the main subject for the remainder of the meeting: What should be the College's relation to present world problems? Mr. Williams described the all-importance of a "true departure" in the earlier days of sailing ships and urged such a departure upon the graduating class starting its life course. Above all the College exists for the national welfare, he said, and any unwillingness on the part of Dartmouth men to accept any sacrifice demanded by that welfare would indicate that the College had worse than failed. Mr. Williams then turned the meeting over to President Hopkins who introduced C. Whitney Miller, president of the graduating class.

Speaking to the administration and faculty of the College, Miller said, "As we look upon catastrophe in the world today we realize that we must be the ones to help lead others out of the darkness as you led us. That is our own task from now on and we must make our way alone, but for your unerring leadership through the treacherous caverns we shall always be profoundly indebted." To President Hopkins he said, "We assure you, sir, that be it within our power, Dartmouth will live on and never die."

Dr. Ozias D. Mathewson '90, president of the Fifty-Year Class, followed Miller, devoting largely to reminiscence the speech which is printed in full elsewhere in the MAGAZINE. The Rev. Boynton Merrill '15 then spoke for the Twenty-Five Year Class, taking issue with those holding that the College should be directly involved in national issues. "The College should stick to its last," Mr. Merrill stated, and should provide a refuge for the values and ideas which are being submerged in the outside world. "Hanover Plain is narrowly bounded in by the river and the hills," he said, "but there is unlimited reach above it."

President Hopkins was the final speaker, and although his remarks were primarily those of gratitude for the contributions of seniors, alumni, and faculty members, he also touched upon the College's relation to world problems when he stated that "it is often necessary for the preservation of values we cherish to put those very values aside for the time being."

The General Association meeting adjourned at 1 o'clock and everyone trooped down into the east wing of the gymnasium where the annual Commencement buffet luncheon was held. Originally scheduled to be held on the gym lawn, it was forced indoors by the morning rain. The sun reappeared in time to dry out the baseball diamond, and it was but a short journey from the luncheon to Memorial Field for the Dartmouth-Yale baseball game, which is reported fully in the "Big Green Teams" section. The reunion costumes bunched in the stands gave an inkling of what a colorful spectacle the Alumni Parade would have been. The Indianized members of 1930 got together a parade of their own after the ball game, and covered many times the distance of the originally planned event.

The remainder of Saturday afternoon was given over to alumni activities, fraternity reunions, and a reception by Germania upon the occasion of its tenth anniversary. Again at 6 the Class of '79 Trumpeters ushered in the evening program, which included a second performance of Our Town by the Players in Robinson Hall, a Glee Club concert in Webster, two more showings of the Dartmouth movies, and a concert on the campus by the Band. The flash of fireworks, the reverberating rumble of cannon blanks, and tinkling pianos and songs in the tents indicated that the alumni were also staging a repeat performance of the first night's show.

The program for the final day of Commencement opened at 9:45 Sunday morning with an alumni chapel service in memory of Dean Craven Laycock '96. President Hopkins and the Rev. Donald B. Aldrich '17, rector of the Church of the Ascension in New York City, delivered eulogies, and music was provided by the College Choir under the direction of Prof. Donald E. Cobleigh '23. The address by Dr. Aldrich is printed in full in another section of the MAGAZINE. The atmosphere of the days of required chapel, when Dean Laycock was in office, was recaptured by ringing the Rollins Chapel bells as in former days, the final series of sixteen single strokes ending exactly at 9:45 when the doors were closed and the service begun.

The Baker Library chimes heralded the close of the memorial service, and less than a half-hour later Rollins Chapel became the scene of another Sunday morning event, this time the Baccalaureate Service. The Chapel was packed to hear President Hopkins' main address of the Commencement week-end (printed in full in this issue of the MAGAZINE), and an overflow crowd was accommodated on the Chapel lawn and in Webster Hall, to both of which places the service was carried by amplifiers.

Sunday afternoon for most was a leisurely period for strolling, driving into the countryside, or attending the organ and piano recital presented by Prof. Maurice F. Longhurst and Roland J. Leich '35 of the Music department. With the reuning classes holding picnics at nearby lakes, Hanover belonged almost entirely to the seniors and their guests. The Class of '79 Trumpeters at 5:15 and a cascade of notes from the Baker Library chimes 15 minutes later warned seniors, faculty members, Trustees, and honored guests that it was time to don their academic robes for the always solemn and brilliant procession to the graduation exercises in the Bema.

Behind the Band and the fluttering flags of the United States and the College, the black-gowned seniors, tallest .men first, circled the campus and then split ranks along the walk leading into the Bema. Led by Dean Neidlinger, marshal of the Commencement procession, President Hopkins, the Board of Trustees, honorary degree recipients, and other officers began their stately march from Parkhurst Hall, passing in front of Sanborn House the brilliantly hooded faculty members who fell into line behind them. After the officers, guests, Alumni Council, and Fifty-Year Class had marched through, the seniors closed ranks and resumed their procession into the Bema, where spectators filled every available seat and lined the shady banks of the outdoor amphitheatre. For the second successive year the exercises were held with great success in the early evening of Sunday, rather than on Monday morning.

After the traditional singing of Milton's Paraphrase of Psalm CXXXVI—"Let us with a gladsome mind praise the Lord for He is kind"—Richard F. Babcock '40, Senior Fellow and Barrett Cup winner, delivered the valedictory of his class to the College. Dean Bill then presented the class as candidates for the Bachelor's degree, and President Hopkins "by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Trustees of Dartmouth College" conferred the degree upon the 470 members of the class. Among this number, Owen A. Root, Senior Fellow from Brooklyn, N. Y., graduated as valedictorian with a 4.0 average for the three years prior to his Fellowship—a perfect record, though qualified, which is believed to be unprecedented at Dartmouth. The honor of salutatorian went to John Thompson Maffett of Bayonne, N. J. John M. deSieyes, a native of France, recalled to fight against the invading Germans, was awarded his degree in absentia; and Somerby N. Chase, who died at his home in Andover, Mass., was awarded his degree post obitum.

At the conclusion of the conferring of Bachelor degrees President Hopkins delivered his Valedictory to the Class of 1940. This, as well as Babcock's valedictory, is printed in full in the MAGAZINE. After the singing of Men of Dartmouth and the conferring of Master's degrees upon five graduate students, the recipients of honorary degrees were presented individually by Dean Bill. Six of the ten men honored are graduates of the College: Roswell Magill '16, law professor at Columbia and former Under Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, who was awarded the Doctorate of Laws; Matt B. Jones '94, lawyer and author of the historical series Vermont in the Making, who received a Doctorate of Letters; the Rev. Wilbur I. Bull '09, religious leader in rural Maine, who was awarded the Doctorate of Divinity; Ozias D. Mathewson '90, principal of Lyndon Institute, who received the Doctorate of Pedagogy; Harold G. Rugg 'O6, assistant librarian of the College and antiquarian, who was made a Master of Arts; and Clarence G. McDavitt '00, retired vice president of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company and alumni leader of the College, who also received the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Other eminent men honored by the College were President Henry T. Moore of Skidmore College, whose son in the graduating class saw him receive the Doctorate of Laws; Archibald MacLeish, librarian of Congress, and Robert E. Sherwood, dramatist, both of whom received the Doctorate of Letters; and John H. Foster, State Forester of New Hampshire, upon whom the Master of Arts degree was conferred. Characterizations used by President Hopkins in bestowing the honorary degrees are printed elsewhere in the MAGAZINE.

With the singing of the Doxology and the pronouncing of the Benediction the Commencement exercises ended on the religious note with which they had begun. The men of 1940, now a part of the great Dartmouth alumni body, filed out of the Bema, diplomas in hand, and shortly after were deluged with the congratulations of classmates, beaming parents, and friends. Commencement for 1940 was really over, and many family groups hastened to supper with the thought of starting home that night. For the large number who spent another evening in Hanover there was a band concert on the campus and a showing of College movies in Dartmouth Hall. The alumni had nearly all departed, except for the group remaining over for Hanover Holiday, and by noon of the next day townspeople and faculty members were able to greet each other with "My, but it's quiet." C. E. W. '30.

EDWARD S. FRENCH '06 President of the Boston and Maine Railroad, who was reelected Alumni Trustee ofthe College at the Commencement meetingof the Board on June 13.

CLASS DAY SPEAKER Thomas W. Braden Jr., secretary-chairman of the Class of 1940, delivering the Address tothe Old Pine. Braden, who lives in Dubuque, lowa, will be the executive officer of hisclass for the next five years.

NEW ALUMNI COUNCIL MEMBER Francis Lane Childs '06, Newly Elected asFaculty Representative for a Term ofThree Years.

SHERMAN BALDWIN '23 Secretary of his class who begins service onthe Alumni Council this mo?ith as representative of the Secretaries Association.