Faculty Tribute to Bob Strong '24

The following resolution, read by Prof. Francis L. Childs '06, was adopted by the full faculty at its fall meeting on November 4:

THE SUDDEN DEATH on June 8, 1946, of Dean Robert C. Strong deprived Dartmouth College of one of her most loyal and efficient officers, and the Faculty of the College, collectively and individually, of a faithful friend. A year after his graduation in 1924, he returned to the College as Executive Assistant to President Hopkins, advancing in 1933 to the office of Dean of Freshmen and Director of Admissions. For twenty years he gave his vitality, his intellect, and his affection unstintedly to the College.

Robert Strong was preeminently a man of character. He was absolutely honest, morally and intellectually, both with himself and with others. He would never consider the possibility of accomplishing an end, however worthy, by any other than direct and open means, and he refused to make promises that he could not keep. Students, faculty, alumni, school principals, and candidates for admission all came to know that his decisions were based on the fairest judgments he could make, and that his word was always dependable.

His sense of responsibility to and for the College in his often difficult position was unswerving. To him duty was the "stern daughter of the voice of God," and he never tried to deafen his ears when the voice spoke. He could write to an alumnus who had been bringing heavy pressures to bear in behalf of an entrance candidate with powerful and prominent Dartmouth antecedents but without, unfortunately, full qualifications: "I do not want to be a party to the admission of any student who is not going to be able to get along succesfully in the work of the College I fully appreciate that everybody would be happier, myself included, if I could forget about my responsibility and could agree today that young John X would be admitted next fall. I have no right to do this and, therefore, am not willing to make any commitments that I cannot guarantee. All I can say is that his application will be considered very carefully and that every possible move will be made to assure his admission if he qualifies." Such a response as that is not made easily, nor without courage; but again and again Dean Strong wrote in terms like these, thereby winning for himself and for his office dignity and respect.

To this profound sense of responsibility was joined an unflagging and efficient industry. It mattered not how long and hard the day had been; if work still remained to be done, he took it home with him, and in the rush season of inquiries relative to admission, he dictated into his little Soundscriber in the hours before bedtime at night and before breakfast in the morning often a total of eighty or a hundred letters. These wearisome labors would have turned most men into mere machines, but Robert Strong never lost the personal touch. His naturally good memory he cultivated to such an extent that he knew the schools he corresponded with, the freshmen over whom he presided, and the Marines, who were his special care during the war period, so accurately that he could deal with the particular problem of each individual without reference to his files. His work was of such a nature, that, although it involved many numerous and complex problems, it drew little recognition or praise, but that was of no consequence to him. He saw his job and did it, modestly, humbly, with patience, without ostentation.

Perhaps the ultimate secret to his success in his deanship is to be found in the human kindness that flowed so genuinely from him, the real affection that he felt for students and other associates, the recognition that came to him so naturally of the good to be found in all men. His commonsense and good-natured humor, however, preserved him from allowing this innate friendliness to degenerate into sentimentality. When necessary, he could be stern.

Robert Strong loved life in all its varied activity. Social intercourse was a real delight to him; he enjoyed talking and he found that in conversation almost everyone had something to contribute to him, and he to them. There were no barriers to his social relationships; he could chat on their own level and in their own idiom with laboring men on the street or farmers in the country as readily as with his colleagues on the Faculty or celebrities from abroad.

He expressed himself in many avocations of work and play, but above all he liked to use his hands. He was a real gardener and farmer, and he developed great skill in woodworking. He had a very genuine understanding of the craftsman, and an almost unbelievable appreciation of fine craft work. At the time of his death he had been for five years president of the New Hampshire League of Arts and Crafts and was adviser to the student workshop. He took an honest and unassuming pride in being "a good workman."

Dean Strong's contribution to the strength of the College today cannot be measured by any of the ordinary means of computation, for it is largely made up of intangibles. When he took over the office of Dean of Freshmen and Director of Admissions, the framework of our selective system had been established and the broad policies of its administration outlined. It was his task to lay down the principles for following out these policies, to develop the means by which they should be justly administered. That he did with sagacity, with tolerance, with tact. Mainly through his character and his personality, he humanized the office, gave it stability, and made it respected. His clear understanding of both human weaknessess and human potentialities as bodied forth in adolescent youth, his wisdom gained from observation and experience, enabled him to build up through his office a vast accumulation of good will toward Dartmouth among schools, parents, and alumni. His insistence on the maintenance of high standards of admission, especially during the recent war, when many institutions were weakly lowering their bars, places all Dartmouth men strongly in his debt.

Dean Strong's work is finished, but no man can say when its influence will end. Others will continue to build on the foundations which he so soundly laid, and Dartmouth will always be a stronger and better institution because he lived. The Faculty of the College record with solemn pride their appreciation of Robert Strong, the man, the administrator, the friend.