1950 Bequests Total $119,000
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE has received over $119,000 in bequests since the first of the year, Sidney C. Hayward, Director of the Dartmouth Development Council, announced recently.
The largest single amount was $54,336 received through the bequest of Lillie W. Otis of Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Otis directed that one-half of her estate should be used to establish a "permanent memorial" at Dartmouth to her late husband, Waldemer Otis, Class of 1866. In 1947 the College and the Executors agreed that the Waldemer Otis Memorial Scholarship Fund would be a suitable permanent memorial. The fund, established in October of 1947, now amounts to $228,690. The income from this generous bequest is used as scholarship aid for men residing in Cleveland or its vicinity "who in the judgment of the College show promise of outstanding excellence."
CROMWELL BEQUEST NOW $125,000
A grant of $25,000 in unrestricted funds was received through the bequest of William Nelson Cromwell. This bequest raises to $125,000 the total received by the College from the Cromwell estate since April 1949.
The Cromwell will was unique. After those more immediately associated with Mr. Cromwell had been remembered, it was directed that the remainder of the estate should be divided into one hundred parts and distributed among specified beneficiaries, many of them charitable organizations and educational institutions. Dartmouth was designated to receive one part.
Mr. Cromwell had no direct connection with the College although he respected it and had a great admiration for two of its alumni, Judge Charles Merrill Hough, 1879, of New York City and Daniel Webster, 1801.
William N. Cromwell was born in 1854 at Brooklyn, N. Y. While Cromwell was still a young man his father died and he was forced to take a job in a railroad office. His story from that time on is one of steady rise. The quickness of his mind, obvious to all who worked with him, soon led Cromwell out of the railroad office to other more challenging jobs and eventually into college and a degree in law. His reputation as a lawyer of international rank was firmly established when he shaped the legal phase of a shift in ownership of the Panama Canal site from France to the United States. Cromwell became a senior partner in the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, and was known as an attorney who could solve complicated legal and financial tangles. In 1891 he assumed control of a company owing more than $10,000,000; in three months he completely reorganized the company and paid off all debts. He was one of the noted corporation lawyers of his time and was active in forming such huge organizations as the National Tube Company, American Cotton Oil Company and United States Steel Corporation.
Always generous with his great wealth, he was most noted for his long-time friendship with the blind, serving as a Trustee of the American Foundation for the Blind. Mr. Cromwell died July 19, 1948, at the age of 94, after a full life of service and accomplishment.
VARICK MEMORIAL ENLARGED
A final payment from the Melusina H. Varick Trust amounted to $26,745. Mrs. Varick, of Manchester, New Hampshire and Santa Barbara, California, established a scholarship at Dartmouth as a memorial to her son, Remsen, a member of the Class of 1906. The Remsen Varick Memorial Scholarship Fund, which benefits students from New Hampshire, now totals $151,560. Another scholarship fund to aid New Hampshire students has been made available to Dartmouth through the bequest of Miss Emma Frances Johnson of Newtonville, Mass., $5,000 of which has been received. In accordance with Miss Johnson's directions, this fund will bear the name of her uncle, Charles W. Hoitt, Class of 1871.
In January and February, two alumni left bequests totaling $9,000. A sum of $4,000 was added to a previous payment of $5,000 from the estate of Russell Whitney, Class of 1919, and the College received notice that John Foster Bartlett, Class of 1911 and grandson of Samuel Colcord Bartlett, eighth President of Dartmouth, had bequeathed $5,000 to the College.
