Colleagues Salute Mr. Hopkins

Heads of Sister Colleges and Universities Express Both Affection and Respect

Nor only among Dartmouth men, but also among his colleagues in the educational world, President Hopkins is held in affection and respect. The following statements have been contributed to the MAGAZINE by the heads of some of America's leading colleges and universities, and the editors take delight in presenting them as an impressive tribute to Mr. Hopkins upon the occasion of his retirement.

THE country owes a profound debt to the Dartmouth Trustees of thirty years ago who selected Ernest M. Hopkins as President. The choice was providential. For Dr. Hopkins has become the outstanding leader in American college education and administration. His warm humanity, his sympathetic understanding of young men, his profound grasp of the essential problems which have faced the country and its institutions of learning have made the Dartmouth of today and have exercised a far reaching influence on other colleges and universities. For thirty years he has been my close friend, and Amherst College is proud to call him her foster son

STANLEY KING

President, Amherst College

I HAVE known President Hopkins well during the twentynine years that he has been at the head of Dartmouth. I remember vividly his kindness in asking me to come to the college to receive an honorary degree very shortly after I had been elected President of Bowdoin in 1918. During all these years he has been to me a wise counsellor on all kinds of college questions. His wisdom has been of the greatest possible aid to his fellow executives in New England and outside, and he has trained many college presidents. Last year when he gave the principal address at our sesquicentennial exercises, in conferring the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws upon him it was stated that his "words carry weight from Maine to California," and as a matter of fact there are probably only two or three other presidents in the whole land who have wider audiences. The citation ended, "beloved by his colleagues, youthful in his outlook and energy, living in the hearts of Dartmouth men, honored and respected by the sons of other academic mothers." He is a great college president and a great soul.

KENNETH C. M. SILLS

President, Bowdoin College

THE retirement of President Hopkins is a loss not only to Dartmouth but to all-American education.

His administration has epitomized courage, resourcefulness, independence of mind, and originality in the solution of educational problems. His work has therefore had a profound influence everywhere and we shall all continue to look to him as one of the elder statesmen.

HENRY M. WRISTON

President, Brown University

IT would be both presumptuous and impossible for the head of another college to attempt to describe in a few words President Hopkins' contribution to the growth and development of Dartmouth College. All of us who have watched the growth of Dartmouth as a national institution under his skillful guidance can only stand and salute a master builder at the time of his retirement.

Pursuing an independent and always courageous course, President Hopkins has often found unorthodox answers to age-old problems which face a four-year liberal arts college. But his influence on education and our national life has not rested alone on these accomplishments, nor can it be measured by these and the addition of all that the graduates of his college have accomplished in different parts of the United States. The stand he has taken on many public is sues and his discussion of many matters of vital concern to the nation through the past three decades have been of significance to enormous numbers of people who have had little concern with formal educational matters.

His wealth of experience and hardheaded common sense point of view, coupled with an extraordinary appreciation of human values, has, I am sure, made him on countless occasions an invaluable member of small discussion groups, conferences and committee meetings. I cannot help thinking primarily, of course, of meetings of college presidents, and I know how much his presence has been valued on such occasion. But it is after all perhaps on the man-to-man highly personal side that all of us who have been privileged to know him feel that Mr. Hopkins has made the most unique contribution. The debt of gratitude which he must have accumulated in these many years from students, alumni, fellow workers in education and a variety of friends in all walks of life certainly defies all calculations. This contribution, I feel sure, will continue for many years to come. His release from official educational responsibilities will not absolve him from the importunities of his many friends and acquaintances. Therefore, we can congratulate him on the completion of his great service to Dartmouth College and look forward to many years of continued activity on behalf of the welfare of the nation.

JAMES B. CONANT

President, Harvard University

YEARS of association with President Hopkins have given me both a deep affection for him and a profound respect for his eminent position in the world of higher education. His realistic flair for seeing through to the roots of a problem and the kindly but forceful manner in which he presents his views have endeared him to scores of college presidents. He is a great spirit and the news of his retirement has brought a sense of personal loss to many outside the Dartmouth family. He made Dartmouth a distinctive American college and his influence will carry on.

HAROLD W. DODDS

President, Princeton University

EVERYONE interested in American education and especially his colleagues, presidents of other colleges, will deeply regret the retirement of Ernest Hopkins from the presidency of Dartmouth. He has won a position of high leadership in the entire nation by his untiring devotion to the essential principles that underlie the liberal college. He understood that such a college is strong, not only through the quality of its faculty and students, but by reason of the personal associations and cultural avocations of the campus, its recreational life, and its competitive sport. President Hopkins never came into a meeting of college presidents without raising the spirits, improving the temper, and increasing the average of common sense of the gathering. These same qualities, focussed by a power of organization, he put at the disposal of the many public services which he undertook. He will be sorely missed as a college president. We may hope that he will continue his career as a great citizen.

CHARLES SEYMOUR

President, Yale University

IN COMPANY OF OTHER COLLEGE HEADS, President Hopkins is shown (left) with President Sills of Bowdoin at the Bowdoin sesquicentennial last year, and (right) with Presidents Conant of Harvard and E. E. Day 'O5 of Cornell at the latter's inauguration in 1937.