PRES. HOPKINS TO RETIRE
Trustees Name John Sloan Dickey '29 to Succeed Him
NEWS OF tremendous importance to Dartmouth men was released by the Board of Trustees on August 29 when it was announced that President Hopkins had submitted his resignation, to take effect November 1, and that his successor as President of Dartmouth College would be John Sloan Dickey '29 of Washington, D. C., Director of the Office of Public Affairs in the U. S. Department of State.
Informed four years ago of Mr. Hopkins' desire to retire from the presidency, the Board had persuaded him to remain in office for the duration of the war emergency, but meanwhile had undertaken quietly and exhaustively the task of selecting the man best fitted to lead the College in the new and challenging.postwar era about to open. The alumni in general had also known of the impending end of President Hopkins' administration, but even so, the news, when it broke, was stunning to most of them. The thought of modern Dartmouth without "Hoppy" at the helm was one which the alumni needed a little time to absorb.
Mr. Hopkins will reach his 68th birthday shortly after his deferred retirement on November 1. Before the war he had often stated to close friends that he would resign at the voluntary retirement age of 65 and would not make it necessary for the Board of Trustees to "oust" him at the compulsory retirement age of 70. He bowed, however, to the judgment of the Board that no one could better guide the College during the war period than he; and it Was as soon as the end of the war was in sight that he again called the matter of his resignation to the attention of the Board, declaring that the best interests of Dartmouth called for the transfer of administrative leadership at this time, when the College is about to embark upon its postwar program. He stated this belief informally at the Hanover meeting of the Trustees on June 8, and in a letter to John R. McLane '07, Clerk of the Board, he formally submitted his resignation on June 30. This resignation was accepted at a full meeting of the Board in Boston on August 24, at which time the recommendations of the Executive Committee regarding the election of the 12th President of Dartmouth College were also acted upon.
In submitting his formal resignation to the Board, President Hopkins wrote:
At the recent meeting of the Trustees on June Bth I stated informally my conviction that now as the war draws to a close the time has come for me to turn over the responsibilities of the presidency to whomsoever may be chosen as my successor. I now repeat this statement formally. Among other reasons for my conclusion is my conviction that Dartmouth should have the benefit as early as possible of what is to be its post-war organization.
In the great cooperative responsibility for setting the pattern for Dartmouth's future in an era of new conditions, the administrative leadership to operate within this pattern should be established early enough, I think, to enable that leadership to participate in formulating the shape of the College that is to be.
I deeply appreciated the confidence of the Trustees four years ago in their expressions of belief that I could better than one less experienced render the service essential to the College in view of the imminence of war. I therefore forewent my intention of resigning at that time. Now, however, with the end of the period in sight when college ways must all be adjusted to military necessities, Dartmouth can begin to think in terms of its normal life. It is the logical time, I think, for the deferred transfer of administrative leadership to be effected.
Therefore, I respectfully ask the Trustees to accept my resignation as President and as a Trustee of Dartmouth College respectively, to take effect at the close of the present term, November first.
Its early knowledge of Mr. Hopkins' retirement plan enabled the Board of Trustees to make a careful, unhurried study of the men under consideration for the presidency of the College, and to achieve a rare, if not unprecedented, feat in the filling of a major academic post that of announcing simultaneously the resignation of President Hopkins and the election of Mr. Dickey as his successor. Preliminary study was entrusted by the Board to its Executive Committee, headed by Mr. McLane and including President Hopkins, Edward S. French 'O6 and Dr. John F. Gile '16. On the basis of reports from this committee, the subject of a successor to President Hopkins was explored exhaustively by the full Board, culminating in the unanimous first choice of Mr. Dickey as Dartmouth's new leader. In addition to the members of the executive committee already mentioned, the Trustees participating in the deliberations and election were William W. Grant '03, Victor M. Cutter '03, Dr. Arthur H. Ruggles '02, William J. Minsch '07, Harvey P. Hood '18, Dudley W. Orr '29, and Nelson A. Rockefeller '30.
President-elect Dickey, twelfth in the line of Dartmouth presidents started by Eleazar Wheelock 175 years ago, will reach his 38th birthday just three days after he assumes the presidency of the College on November 1. He will be only a few months younger than was President Hopkins when he took office in the fall of 1916. A brilliant student at Dartmouth, Mr. Dickey took his law degree at Harvard and then became associated with one of Boston's leading law firms, in which he was elected a partner in 1.940. Starting in 1934 he spent various periods in Washington as legal consultant for the State Department and in 194° he resigned his law partnership and moved his family to the national capital to begin the present five-year period of government service. Since January 1944 he has headed the State Department's Office of Public Affairs and has been responsible for public and cultural relations at the top level. He has also been serving on the faculty of the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington as Lecturer in American Foreign Relations. Mr. Dickey's career has been notable for one so young and is presented in greater biographical detail else where in this issue.
Because of the abnormal conditions which still prevail, especially with regard to the housing and feeding of a large throng, the College has decided to forego the formal inaugural ceremonies which usually attend the start of a new college administration. Dartmouth Night on November 9 therefore greatly increases in significance, for it probably will provide the occasion for President Dickey's first meeting with the entire College. On the evening of October 12, President and Mrs. Hopkins will hold a reception to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Dickey to the College community.
In a special announcement sent to officers and friends of the College informing them of President Hopkins' resignation and Mr. Dickey's election, Sidney C. Hayward '26, Secretary of the College, stated:
"A new and unexpected emphasis will be given to the traditional significance of Dartmouth Night on November 9 when Dartmouth men and their friends and families gather in Hanover and throughout the world to pledge again their devotion to the College. Their great leader, as beloved as he is respected, hands to another strong son of the College the safeguarding and strengthening of the institution to which he has given his life. During that life Dartmouth has become immeasurably greater than it was twenty-nine years ago when he, in early manhood, threw himself into the multifold and heavy tasks of the presidency. Now again Dartmouth turns to a young man whose administration will begin in difficult times. He will have the support of Dartmouth's far-flung body of alumni and friends, who share in common with him a deep desire and an unfaltering determination that their highest hopes and dreams for the College will be realized."
PRESIDENT HOPKINS AS HE APPEARED, left, at the time of his inauguration in 1916; center, midway through his 29-year administration (portrait by Hopkin- »n); and right, recently at the inauguration of the University of New Hampshire's new president.
CONTRASTING VIEWS OF THE CAMPUS AT THE START OF THE HOPKINS ADMINISTRATION IN 1916 (ABOVE) AND AS IT IS TODAY
