Full-Fledged Commencement Returns

Dartmouth's 177 th Graduation Has Pre-War Color

SUCCESSFULLY OUTGUESSING occasional Saturday showers, Dartmouth's 177 th Commencement Exercises, which officially ended on Sunday, June 30, ushered in the postwar era of the College's modern history with the first full-fledged graduation program since May, 1942. With class designations ranging from 1940 to 1948, 241 seniors received the bachelor's degree from President Dickey in the traditional outdoor amphitheatre of the Bema in College Park on Saturday afternoon.

Concurrent with the Commencement, the first in a series of five reunion weekends was held, bringing back members of ten classes representing the 60-, 55-, 50-,25- and delayed 25-Year Classes.

Officially opening with the annual June meeting of the Board of Trustees on Thursday evening, June 27, the highlight of the weekend was the Commencement Exercises which were neatly delayed approximately one-half hour while President Dickey, the Board of Trustees and the honorary degree recipients went into a meteorological huddle on the front steps of Parkhurst and came up with the accurate prognostication that the rain would stop and that the exercises could be held in the Bema rather than in Webster Hall.

This hurdle passed with creditable aplomb, the academic procession, headed by President Dickey and Governor Charles M. Dale of New Hampshire, formed and proceeded to the Bema. Eight distinguished American citizens were recipients of honorary degrees. Receiving honorary Doctorates ates of Laws were Warren Robinson Austin, United States Senator from Vermont and U. S. Delegate-Designate to the United Nations Security Council; Leslie L. BifHe, Secretary of the United States Senate; Paul Gray Hoffman, Industrialist and Chairman of the Committee for Economic Development; Basil O'Connor '12, National Chairman of the American Red Cross and President of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis; and Harold Edward Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota.

Honorary Doctorates of Letters were presented to Thomas Winthrop Streeter '04, lawyer and bibliographer and Leonard Dupee White '14, Professor of Public Administration at the University of Chicago. Lester Black well Granger '18, Executive Secretary of the National Urban League, was the recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Departing from precedent, Mr. Stassen addressed the graduates, wishing them well but warning them that his generation coveted from each of them "a sense of duty and responsibility to take an active and alert interest in the broad problems of your communities, your nation and mankind."

Continuing, he said, "I urge your immediate and sustained interest in the problems and tasks of the society in which you live as one of the essential means of repaying that society for the privileges and advantages which you have enjoyed." Specifically the foreign policy of the United States demands the attention of all citizens, Mr. Stassen told the graduates.

Emphasizing the importance of facts, rather than prejudice and emotion, as a basis for the formulation of our foreign policy, Mr. Stassen pointed out that "the outmoded concepts of diplomatic secrecy undoubtedly contribute to this weakness," and advocated a regular monthly report by the State Department to the United States Senate outlining the current facts of the international situation as a basis for discussion by that body of the various aspects of foreign policy.

He further advocated regular conferences with representatives of national organizations and the State Department, special continuing bi-partisan study and advisory committees on major foreign policy questions, and increased openness of accurate information to the press and radio as proposed aids to strengthen and shape the direction of our foreign policy.

In conclusion he stated that he was optimistic about the future and "one of the reasons for that optimism is the caliber and attitude that I find in the members of this graduating class and in the tens of thousands of their contemporaries throughout the land."

Preceding Mr. Stassen's speech, Richard Morse '44, son of Prof, and Mrs. Stearns Morse of Hanover, delivered the valedictory in behalf of the graduating class and President Dickey responded for the College. Then, as the culmination of periods of working and waiting for as long as ten years for some and well over five for others, the seniors filed to the speaker's marquee to receive their degrees from President Dickey. For 216 it was the Bachelor of Arts degree, for 11 the newly created Bachelor of Naval Science, and for 14, the Bachelor of Science degree.

Another returnee to the College scene was the traditional Friday Class Day Exercises which added color and interest to a warm, clear summer afternoon. Forming in cap and gown with the tassels of their caps hanging to the left side, designating that they had not as yet received the bachelor's degree, the seniors marched from the Senior Fence to the lawn in front of Dartmouth Hall. Directing the procession were the four senior class marshals, Meryll M. Frost '44, Charles E. Holt '45, Charles E. Cooper '47N and Joseph F. Conley '46.

From a rostrum on the front steps of Dartmouth Hall, John K. Snobble '44 delivered the Address of Welcome on behalf of the graduating class and was followed by Frederick C. Witzell '44 who gave the Class Oration. The third and final speaker from this setting was Luther R. Nelson '47N who delivered the Class Day Speech.

Again under the direction of the marshals, the seniors filed in double ranks from Dartmouth Hall up the hill to the Old Pine, receiving the traditional longstemmed clay pipes en route. Here in a circle around the stump of the Old Pine with Bartlett Tqwer in the background the graduating class heard war-painted Philip E. Penberthy '44 intone the Sachem Oration in full Indian tribal costume. Modernizing the usual tradition of riding into the speakers' circle on a pony, Penberthy arrived in a jeep. The final address of the exercises was made by Whitcomb Wells '44, who gave the Address to the Old Pine. The concluding ceremony was the timehonored smashing of the clay pipes by each member of the graduating class as he filed past the stump of the Old Pine.

With alumni renewing acquaintanceship with the College at the various reunion activities and seniors strengthening their memories before departure, the flavor of pre-war Commencements was evidenced in such familiar, but war-absent, institutions as the band concerts on the campus in the cool of the early evening both Friday and Saturday nights, the Class of '79 Trumpeters from Baker Tower Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, and the reception given by President and Mrs. Dickey in the garden of their home to members of the graduating class, parents, faculty, alumni and guests Friday night.

A senior-alumni dance in the Alumni Gymnasium Friday night and the spinetingling meller-drama, "Love Rides the Rails," presented by the Dartmouth Players Saturday night in Webster Hall, were other bright facets of the shiny, new postwar festivities.

In conjunction with the Commencement activities the General Association of Alumni held the first of five consecutive weekend meetings this summer in Webster Hall Saturday morning. In addition to an address by President Dickey, the seniors their fathers, alumni and faculty heard speeches by Robert Frost '96, J. William Embree '21, representing the 35-year class, Guy C. Richards '96, with the traditional' 50-year Address, and Meryll Frost '44, representing the graduating class.

Closing the weekend in fitting fashion, there were two memorial services held on Sunday in addition to the regular services of the various Hanover churches. A 25th Reunion Memorial Service was held jointly by the classes of 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1921 in Rollins Chapel Sunday morning, and another by the Class of 1893 was held Sunday afternoon in the Church of Christ.

"LEST OLD TRADITIONS": Commencement Exercises resume their pre-war color for the first time since 1942. Left, seniors on Dartmouth Hall lawn listen to one of the Class Day speakers, and right, the graduating class and their guests in the Bema wait for the presentation of degrees the following day.

PHILIP PENBERTHY '44 of Detroit, Michigan, intones the Sachem Oration from the stump of the Old Pine during the colorful Class Day Exercises.

PRESIDENT JOHN SLOAN DICKEY delivers the Valedictory to the graduating class on behalf of the College at the Commencement Exercises in the Berna, while Harold E. Stassen (far right), honorary degree recipient, listens intently.