TRUSTEE RESOLUTION
Board's Tribute to Mr. Hopkins upon Retirement
Following is the text of the resolution adopted by the Dartmouth Board of Trustees at their meeting October 31, 1945, upon the occasion of President Hopkins' retirement.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE has been singularly fortunate in having had for its president for the last twenty-nine years Ernest Martin Hopkins, who to our intense regret has felt that he must retire.
We do not propose here to chronicle his accomplishments in many fields or enumerate the high offices he has held or the great tasks worthily performed. What we wish to record is our admiration for him as a great leader; our appreciation of what he has done for Dartmouth College; and our affection for him as a man—because we have known him well.
"Every man," said old Sir Thomas Browne, "is not a proper champion for truth, nor fit to take up the gauntlet in the cause of verity. Many from ignorance and an inconsiderate zeal have too rashly charged the troops of error and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth." Into this sin of irresponsibility our President has never fallen. He has not only been a tireless seeker after truth, but its "proper champion."
He came to us at a period of growth and change. He plotted the growth and guided the change, so that today wherever the phrase "liberal college" is used, there goes with it the name of Dartmouth.
Long before this present war he was continuously insistent on the need of schooling men to live together in amity, with tolerance and understanding, as the keystone of a liberal education, as an art of living, and as the key to the future in the nation and in the world. And history has all too faithfully confirmed the soundness of his teaching, because on this one thing more than anything else does the existence of so-called civilization now depend.
Throughout his course as President of Dartmouth he has practiced the art of anticipating change, and the measure in which he has been successful is the mark of a great administrator and a great educator.
The good, we know, is often an enemy of the best. America is and always has been over generous to those whose entire equipment so often consists of intentions, roseate in hue, infirm in quality and ephemeral in substance. The result has too often been that where America has gained materially it has lost morally. Its mechanical advance has perverted its sense of proportion and relative values.
Dr. Hopkins has always known that young men must know the best to detect the mediocre, must understand the truth to perceive the distortion. He has realized that it was as easy to learn the good as the bad though harder to teach. He has set up here in Hanover a measure of excellence, a standard of true moral and spiritual values which are available to every student who is willing to see and learn and which has indirectly affected even those not so disposed.
We can always truthfully say of President Hopkins out of our frequent and intimate contact with him that he has abhorred the second-rate; that he has always insisted on quality; and has at all times recognized the moral obligation to be intelligent. He has "never darkened counsel by words without knowledge." In this cause he has never sought conflict but has never avoided it when it has involved principles vital either to his country or his college.
Twice during his administration have mighty and dreadful wars come upon this country, and the world "has been slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men."
Twice have men from Dartmouth gone out in unprecedented numbers as compared to total strength to vindicate the faith that is in them, and twice in the lives of all of us here have the dim shapes of many of our boys gone to form part of our undying tradition.
No man has ever known better than our much loved President that tradition means to remember. The Dartmouth Tradition Dartmouth Remembering.
And of that tradition and that back- ground of the chill north, the frozen roads the winding ski trails, contests in sport in' tellectual and moral struggles and victories battles and death, effort and growth he has already become a part, and no small part.
And to us and to numerous other men of Dartmouth? A wise and understanding leader, a human and tolerant man, a much loved friend through bad times and good He has run a good race, he has fought a good fight, and he has kept the faith.
If, as St. Paul says, there is virtue in truth and honesty and justice and in things that are pure and lovely and of good report, then let us think of these things as our President retires.
Let us now assure him that we have never loved him more than at this time when he steps out with that same certitude of conviction and decision that he has manifested for so many years in the service of this great college.
What he is and what he has done we shall not forget.
To him and to his charming wife whose gracious manner and cordial hospitality have lighted our periodic visits to Hanover we extend our best wishes for long and happy years in surroundings they love.
BE IT RESOLVED, therefore, that our sentiments as above expressed be embodied in the records of this Board, and that a copy of this Resolution be given to Dr. Hopkins.
NINE-TWELFTHS OF DARTMOUTH'S PRESENT BOARD OF TRUSTEES snapped on the campus at the time of the annual fall meeting of the Board. Left to right, Harvey P. Hood '18, Edward S. French '06, Dr. John F. Gile '16, William J. Minsch '07, John R. McLane '07, President Dickey, Nelson A. Rockefeller '30, Victor M. Cutter '03, and Lt. Dudley W. Orr '29, USNR.
