Oldest Living Graduate

IT TAKES THE VITALITY of an oak to live a century. It takes a rare kind of genius to live to be more than that. On May 13, 1943 Dr. Zeeb Gilman '63, oldest living graduate of any American college, of Redlands, California, will be one hundred and two. Dr. Gilman was born during the presidency of John Tyler and was graduated from Dartmouth in the year of Gettysburg. Dartmouth salutes her oldest living son with real pride.

In the spring of 1863 Zeeb Gilman, then a senior, volunteered for service. He was once assigned as a guard outside President Lincoln's office, and his daughter, with whom he lives in Redlands, is often approached by parents who want their children to shake the hand which shook the hand of Lincoln. He was granted leave to return for his commencement, and after the College refused to grant him his degree with others who had left to volunteer they finally relented after a certain Captain Burr fought for their cause, and so Dr. Gilman became a graduate.

He was a Tri Kap and obviously is its oldest living member. He got his medical degree from Columbia Physicians and Surgeons and is their oldest living graduate.

When he entered Dartmouth from Kimball Union Academy there were five fraternities at Dartmouth: Tri Kap, Zeta Psi, Delta Kappa, Alpha Delt, and Psi Upsilon. Around the campus were grouped Dartmouth, Reed, Thornton and Webster Halls; also the Gates house where Mr. Gilman lived. He was able to live quite comfortably on $1.25 a week! The. curriculum consisted- principally of Greek, Latin, Moral Philosophy, Mathematics and Physics. Very little stress was laid on the modern languages, not excluding English, in the conviction that facility in them would come readily to any student who had been well grounded in Latin and Greek. Mr. Gilman hopes that we shall never desert the classics.

After he received his medical degree he settled in Ackley, lowa, practicing medicine and working in a drag store. His proficiency with obsterical cases resulted in too intimate an acquaintance with lowa winter travelling conditions, so he moved to Remsen and entered the coal and lumber business. In 1890 he sold out his interests and settled in California. Redlands is a quiet city in the citrus-growing valley which stretches inland from Los Angeles. He lives there with his daughter, and his sister, Mrs. M. W. Hill, lives nearby.

It would be ironic, I think, to enumerate the number of wars Dr. Gilman has lived through, but it is the universal hope of all that he survives this one. The State of California should use him as an example of the benefit derived from California's sunkist climate.

Congratulations, Dr. Gilman, from the Alumni body of Dartmouth College.

DR. ZEEB GILMAN '63 Dr. Gilman '63, oldest living alumnus ofany American college, reaches his I02ndbirthday on May 13,1943.