Elder Statesmen
His mihi rebus, Scipio, levis est senectus, nec solum non molesta, sed etiam iucunda."—Cicero, De Senectute.
For reasons varying somewhat perhaps from those advanced by the great citizen of Rome, Dartmouth's elder statesmen—the Emeriti—still find themselves agreeing that age does sit lightly upon them and brings its deep and happy rewards.
There are at the present moment twenty-five of the genus emeritus—a larger number than ever before in Dartmouth's history—and they divide fairly evenly between those who make Hanover their year-round residence and those who for all or part of the year live elsewhere. They vary in age from a fine old 82" to a mere 71 and range in fields of interest and service from physics to Far Eastern civilization, from history to education and medicine. About one-third of them, showing influence of a pre-auto-mobile youth, have never adopted the internal combustion motor as a common mode of conveyance, though strangely enough only a couple of the number give any public evidence of skill on the bicycle. Few of them seem to need the solace of Sir Walter Raleigh's weed and in the use of alcohol they vary from total abstinence (with more than half in this category) to a friendly allegiance to St. Paul's convenient prescription, calculated to ease the body in face of increasing infirmities. Hobbies vary from wood-working to writing, and include fishing, bird-banding, bridge, some golf and even a little tennis. Eleven of the twenty-five are Dartmouth graduates and three are members of the Class of 1900.
Primus inter pares—tor Dartmouth's ancient charter places first responsibility for teaching upon the President, along with "Tutors and Professors to assist the President in the Education and government of the Students"—stands the President-Emeritus, Ernest Martin Hopkins. "Hop" he may be to bold alumni but always Mr. Hopkins to the faculty. With that combination of vigor and sense of responsibility which characterizes Mr. Hopkins, he made a suepessful leap out of the fire of the Dartmouth presidency into the double-boiler post of head-man for Montpelier's National Life Insurance Company. By-laws requiring Vermont residence, E.M.H. maintains lodging in the Green Mountain capital city but is often seen on week-ends in Hanover, particularly before Hanover has really begun to stir on a Sabbath morning, picking up his paper and scouting the post-office.
Some seven or eight of the brethren have quit the Hanover scene for good. Continuing his studies in the Far East, for example, David Lattimore has returned to his native Washington, D. C., a spot which he finds to be an excellent listening post for developments in world affairs in which he maintains such a keen interest. The versatile Benezet '99, educator extraordinary, has returned to the scenes of early labors in the Middle West. This year he is teaching at Peoria and next year he plans to settle on the banks of the Ohio at Evansville where he can sing and paint and question the Bard of Avon to his young heart's content. Everett Goodhue '00 is appropriately sailing in Benny's wake, continuing his teaching in the field of Economics at Principia College at Elsah, Illinois, and enjoying it tremendously. William Hamilton Wood, with interests as diverse as the Bible and the Wall Street Journal, is resting from his labors, with an apartment in Hartford, Connecticut, and usually a long winter visit in Florida.
Public Speaking's J. A. Winans has retreated to the land of his birth—central New York—and entered happy retirement at Ithaca, where long teaching years at Cornell have given him a wealth of association. Professor Norman Gilbert seems to have achieved one of happiest combinations of climates and clienteles. Distinguished teacher and author in the field of physics, he is still keeping his hand in with a winter-time assignment at Winter Park's congenial Rollins College and moving for the summer to Vermont, where at the Lake Mansfield Club he acts as guide, counsellor and friend. Nearer by is Wm. F. Geiger '92 who has retired to an attractive home a few miles up the Connecticut from Hanover. After many years of association with the class room, both as school administrator and teacher, Bill has put formal education aside and finds his lessons in the garden and his books in the running brooks, with an occasional excursion to Hanover for shopping or bridge.
HISTORICAL DETECTIVE
Frank Maloy Anderson is one who has divided his time between Hanover and points south, usually Washington. The publication of The Mystery of "A PublicMan" is indicative of Professor Anderson's continuing interest and labor in the historical field. Happily he still follows football with as great a zest as he tracks down the elusive documents which solve his historical problems.
Familiar figures on the Hanover scene, though absent for extended periods, are C. A. Holden '95, who still keeps his home in Hanover but who has become almost a fixture in the state government at Concord; Dr. Fred Lord '98, distinguished representative of one of Hanover's oldest families, still an expert in anatomy though more of birds and flowers than humans and moving south with feathered friends when snow flies; and Ambrose White Vernon who maintains comfortable establishments in Hanover and Winter Park, suitable settings for the good talk he always encourages and the bridge games he loves so much.
Bill Cunningham recently reported the activities of two of our elder statesmen in sun-drenched Clearwater—Charles A. Protor '00 and Doctor "Bush" Kingsford '98m. gill discovered Proctor high up in a tree banding young eagles with "Bush" on the ground, which is perhaps as it should be. Also assisting from the ground—in the Gallic sense at least—was Hap Hinman '10 of Canaan, New Hampshire. The picture serves to emphasize Charles Proctor's continuing interest in birds and photography but one has to return to Hanover to appreciate Doc Kingsford's remarkably green thumb in dealing with plants and flowers.
Among the elder statesmen who have remained in Hanover some are able happily to continue academic interests and labors. Professor Leon Burr Richardson '00, for example, known affectionately to hundreds of alumni as "Cheerless," is hard at work revising his college text in chemistry and when he isn't doing that he's usually driving to Leb or laying further foundation stones in that historical field in which he has operated with such fruitfulness and distinction. In the allied field of physics Gordon Ferrie Hull hopes shortly to bring out a new and fully revised edition of his Modern Physics, though not all his hours in Wilder are devoted to that end for as often as not he is in the shop finishing some new gadget or a toy to delight the hearts of his grandchildren.
PROF. MECKLIN BUSY WRITING
Still making almost daily use of Baker Library in continuance of his productive labors is the Reverend Professor John Moffat Mecklin, one of Dartmouth's greatest teachers. Since his retirement from active teaching some nine year ago the Professor has published his intellectual autobiography, In Quest of Freedom, has an unpublished manuscript on fishing which ought to be published, and is now engaged on another great work on TheNature of Peace. And when he tires of writing, for eyes tire more easily as one approaches eighty, he still can turn to lakes and streams to test the flies he has fashioned with great ingenuity and imagination during the long winter.
Seen frequently on the street in Hanover are Leland Griggs '02 and Prescott Orde Skinner, the youngest and the oldest of [he elder statemen. Griggs hasn't really changed a bit in appearance or habits. He's UP at the crack of dawn and off to his comfortable office in Silsby Hall—an office that is really more of a sitting room. Here surounded by his books and and plants he reads and writes and does crossword puzzles and sometimes, I figure, just Sits- Although he has suffered some physical difficulties Professor Skinner is still able to walk down town for the family shopping, still enjoys a good meal with a bottle of beer to boot, and is as delightful a conversationalist as ever.
Dr. Percy Bartlett 'oom is one of the most venerable of the elder statesmen. One of the founders of the Hitchcock Clinic and for many years Professor of Surgery at the Medical School, the good doctor still finds zest in life in garden and orchard. He makes regular trips to Main Street on shopping errands and still splits the wood for the fire that burns regularly on the cheery hearth. Professor Charles E. Bolser '97 is of a younger vintage and spry enough to hie away to Florida sun when winter comes. Bolser taught organic and physiological chemistry in college and medical school respectively and seemed to keep young in doing it. Daily swims, whether in the Spaulding Pool or the Gulf of Mexico, have done the rest.
Erville B. Woods, long-time Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth, suffered a long illness about the time of his retirement from active teaching and has been using the past year to recuperate, enjoying leisurely reading and reflection. Professor J. W. Tanch has used his new lease on time to become a regular attendant at the lectures in the Great Issues course. Though far removed from the specific subject matter of Joe's beloved physics, he reports the experience to be broadening and very rewarding. Fortunately all the great issues of the year will be pretty well resolved by the time Joe hears the call of the good earth.
STILL ACTIVE AS GENETICIST
Professor John Hiram Gerould '90 is another one of the elder statemen who has been able to carry on academic interests and labors—in his case in the field of genetics. He manages to put in about half of every working day in Silsby Hall, walking back and forth, and what with reading, gardening, and wood-chopping he fills the rest of the waking hours with sixty minutes worth of distance run. Long a familiar figure on the roads radiating from Hanover, usually deep in philosophic thought as befits a past president of the American Philosophical Association, Professor William Kelley Wright still walks and talks and ponders with a philosophical detachment which few of us ever achieve.
These then are the Elder Statesmen whom those of us still in the harness would salute! Grateful as we are to them for having carried the burden in the heat of the day we are even more grateful that now in retirement they exemplify in as great a measure as they do what Cicero described as "the tranquil and serene old age of a life spent quietly amid pure and refining pursuits." We youngsters can say with Gorgias of Leontini, "I have no reason to reproach old age." No reason indeed, though we should probably be on our knees to pray that atomic fission may leave us at least a bit of the good earth which they still enjoy!
