The Moral Supports or Education

In the William Jewett Tucker Foundation the Trustees Provide a Focus and a New Emphasis on Dartmouth's Highest Purpose

IN WRITING about Dartmouth College, shortly after he had transferred his Indian charity school to Hanover, Eleazar Wheelock referred to it as "this great Design." In his mind, and in the minds of all those associated with him in Dartmouth's founding, the College had a definite, pre-eminent purpose—to spread the Christian faith and way of life. This was epitomized in Wheelock's choice of the college motto, Vox clamantis in deserto, from Isaiah: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.' "

In another communication from Wheelock to the English Trust, written in this same period, Dartmouth's founder stated his belief that the College in its relations with its students had the dual responsibility both of instructing them and of developing their moral character and forming "their minds and manners to rules of religion and decency."

This was the spiritual origin of Dartmouth College, and this, from the very beginning, was Dartmouth's adherence to the liberal arts tenet that the intellectual and the moral are inseparable—that education has an ethical purpose higher than the mere acquisition of knowledge. A contemporary definition of this principle was stated by President Hopkins when he declared that "the primary concern of the College is not with what men shall do but with what men shall be." And this same conviction, operative throughout all of Dartmouth's 182 years, was the foundation of President Dickey's assertion just a few months ago that it is on the combination of "the freeranging mind in a man of good will that our hopes rest for the cooperative, creative, and peaceful performance of the seemingly endless task of correcting human error and evil."

Wheelock interpreted Dartmouth's higher purpose in terms of religion, but even in that day the College's concern for spiritual values had some of the breadth that characterizes it today. Narrow sectarianism was ruled out by the College charter, and in Wheelock's report to the English Trust there appears the germ of the concept of a moral responsibility that goes beyond religious forms and touches upon every aspect of the College's daily work. It was almost entirely in religious terms, however, that Dartmouth's purpose was first expressed, and a close connection between College and Church was early established when Wheelock "gathered" the College Church a few months after he and his students arrived in Hanover. Except for John Wheelock, every Dartmouth president until 1909 was an ordained minister. Compulsory church was a part of Dartmouth undergraduate life until 1903, and attendance at chapel was required until 1924.

In the succession of "preacher presidents" and in the required attendance at daily chapel and Sunday church the College had tangible reminders of its religious foundations and of its continuing concern that moral and spiritual growth should pervade the educational experience of Dartmouth undergraduates. Dartmouth's original impulse is often recalled today and its moral concern has never lessened, but the end of the tradition of preacher presidents, the dropping of compulsory chapel, and the modern transition in religious beliefs and observances, which has had its impact on Dartmouth as well as on society in general, have all served to create at Dartmouth, as at other colleges, conditions which no longer offer a focal point for affirming the spiritual ends of the College. A limited but vigorous religious activity exists on the Dartmouth campus today in the daily, voluntary chapel services, the periodic College Services on Sunday morning, the local church programs, guest preachers and lecturers, the curriculum offerings in religion and philosophy, and the program of the Dartmouth Christian Union, which has enjoyed a remarkable growth in the years since World War II. Recent publication of The Dartmouth Bible under the editorship of Dr. Roy B. Chamberlin, chapel director, and the late Prof. Herman Feldman has been a significant expression of the faith so deeply imbedded in the history and life of Dartmouth. But with all these activities of the present time, there still has been no central, tangible means for advancing the moral and spiritual purposes of the College.

To President Dickey and the Dartmouth Trustees this void in the daily life of present-day Dartmouth has been a matter of genuine concern. At the same time, they have been endeavoring in recent years to give form to their own desire and to the desire of many Dartmouth men for a suitable and purposeful memorial to President William Jewett Tucker, whose spiritual leadership of the College at the turn of the century made a deep and lasting impression upon the lives of the students of that time. The affinity between these two matters became more and more impelling as the Trustees considered them, in their own meetings and in discussions with Dartmouth men of the Tucker classes. The end result, demonstrating the singularly appropriate solution that careful, unhurried consideration usually brings, was the Trustee action of June 16 establishing the William Jewett Tucker Foundation, which is intended to be both a perpetual symbol and a focal, positive means for affirming the moral and spiritual values in Dartmouth's life and work.

The background thinking of the Trustees and their general aim in creating the Tucker Foundation are well summarized in the minutes of the special June meeting of the Board. These minutes, although they involve some repetition of the circumstances outlined above, are worth quoting in full:

The President called the attention of the Board of Trustees to the fact that this special meeting is being held for the particular purpose of considering means for advancing the moral and spiritual work of Dartmouth College.

He recalled to the Board that Dartmouth College was founded by Eleazar Wheelock whose creative religious faith and missionary zeal for the education of Indian youth expanded to embrace all young men. This moral and spiritual purpose has carried through the years of nearly two centuries; never has it been set aside, however much changing conditions have caused the means for its accomplishment to be modified.

This moral and spiritual purpose springs from a belief in the existence of good and evil, from faith in the ability of men to choose between them, and from a sense of duty to advance the good.

Eleazar Wheelock suggested the words VoxClamantis in Deserto for the motto of Dartmouth College. This motto continually reminds us of the founder's deep concern for the advancement of spiritual purposes.

The concept of spiritual values is broader than that of religious observances. William Jewett Tucker's administration bridged the generation for which the older and more rigid religious concepts still held their values and the generation which followed. Liberal in his own views, he was endowed with a positive nature which protected him from the weaknesses of liberalism. He gave meaning to religious and moral issues as few men have been able to do.

The name of William Jewett Tucker stands as a symbol of the spiritual life of Dartmouth College. Half a century ago, he expressed the ideals of the College, the ideals of its beginning, of its today and its tomorrow.

The President having concluded his statement, the Trustees of Dartmouth College, desiring to assure that these moral and spiritual traditions shall ever pervade the life and work of Dartmouth, and finding in the life and leadership of William Jewett Tucker, ninth president of Dartmouth College, the reality of the mission of the liberal college,

Therefore vote, to establish the William Jewett Tucker Foundation for the purpose of supporting and furthering the moral and spiritual work and influence of Dartmouth College.

Adopted unanimously.

The President thereupon set forth the administrative and educational structure in which the William Jewett Tucker Foundation might best realize its purpose;

whereupon it was voted that the resources of the Foundation shall consist of such funds or other properties as may presently or hereafter from time to time be available to the College for the use of the Foundation;

further that the assets and activities of the Foundation shall be administered a,s an integral part of the College under the supervision of the Trustees of the College;

further that upon the concurrence of the Dartmouth Alumni Council, funds now functioning as endowment in support of the Alumni Fund and known as "The William Jewett Tucker Foundation" shall, effective July 1, 1951, be transferred to the Foundation herein established and thereafter the Foundation as now established shall be the sole foundation bearing the name of President Tucker at Dartmouth College.

Adopted unanimously.

The. Treasurer was instructed to budget and tojucomit separately for the income and expetise of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation:

The endowment funds transferred to the Tucker Foundation by the Board of Trustees tees amount to approximately $120,000. This money had previously been contributed in the name of Dr. Tucker and its annual income had been applied toward the operating expenses of the Alumni Fund, which in 1907 was called the Tucker Alumni Fund. Dissolution of this earlier foundation honoring Dartmouth's ninth president and the transfer of its endowment to the present William Jewett Tucker Foundation were approved by the Dartmouth Alumni Council at its annual meeting in Hanover on June 21.

The endowment funds of the Tucker Foundation are expected to increase in the future, and as its resources grow it will be enabled steadily to extend its influence and activities to the end that the spiritual and the intellectual may become more completely fused in Dartmouth's work. The Foundation's opportunity is viewed in the broadest possible terms. While embracing the religious activities of the College, the Foundation will work also in the curricular and extra-curricular fields and will concern itself with the whole broad realm of human relationships. In this respect, its efforts will be in the tradition of Dr. Tucker's own life and work.

To propose ways in which the William Jewett Tucker Foundation may accomplish its general purposes, President Dickey has named a faculty advisory committee. This planning group is headed by Francis L. Childs '06, Winkley Professor of the Anglo-Saxon and English Language and Literature. Other members are Donald Bartlett '34, Professor of Biography; Roy B. Chamberlin, Fellow in Religion and Chapel Director; and Arthur B. Meservey '06, Professor of Physics. Professor Childs and Professor Meservey were Dartmouth undergraduates when Dr. Tucker was president. Since its appointment in June the faculty advisory committee has held several meetings and at the present time it is broadening its study by consulting with alumni, faculty members and others.

For the alumni of the Tucker classes who have been most keenly interested in creating a fitting memorial to Dartmouth's great president the Tucker Foundation represents the realization of a hope that has been alive for many years. The widespread effort to bring this about has been spurred by Dartmouth men such as Carl F. Woods '04, Philip S. Marden '94, Robert F. Leavens '01, Louis E. Leverone '04, Royal Parkinson '05, H. Richardson Lane '07 and others. The form that the Tucker memorial has finally taken has been praised and cordially welcomed not only by this active group but also by the large body of men who were in college during the period from 1893 to 1909. The new Foundation is much broader in concept than the Tucker memorials previously proposed and considered, and there is general feeling that it comes closest of all to meeting the desire that Dr. Tucker's memorial should match the spirit of his life and contribution to Dartmouth. The Tucker Foundation places emphasis on the values in college life that President Tucker himself held to be of the first importance; it has, moreover, the opportunity to advance the moral and spiritual strength that he sought to give to modern Dartmouth.

Something of the feeling of the Tucker classes regarding the Trustees' action is represented in the comments of Robert F. Leavens 'Ol, who has devoted many years to the study of Dr. Tucker's life and writings. "The William Jewett Tucker Foundation," he has written, "is most fittingly designed as a memorial to Dr. Tucker for serving a major and much neglected purpose in college education at Dartmouth. To any one who has followed the gradual process of conceiving an appropriate memorial to Dr. Tucker it is clear that President Dickey and the Trustees have achieved a result repaying their efforts and worthy of the purpose. President Dickey has given it his most earnest and thoughtful consideration over a long period. No action of the Trustees in recent years has been taken with greater strength of conviction or with greater enthusiasm. Members of the Alumni Council and of the large alumni gathering at Commencement gave it their hearty approval.

"The group of alumni to whom the statement in this issue of the ALUMNIMAGAZINE should commend itself more than to any other group is that of the men who were at Dartmouth while William Jewett Tucker was president."

One important aspect of the Tucker Foundation that can be little more than mentioned in the space of this article is the likelihood that it will bring to presentday Dartmouth a greater consciousness of the extent to which it is the beneficiary of President Tucker's wisdom and remarkable administrative skill. He set Dartmouth firmly on the road to its present greatness. Not only did he give the College a new vision of its future, but with uncanny ability to interpret the trends of education and national life, he set about to create the conditions that enabled the College to advance more rapidly perhaps than any other historic college in the country in the period of educational development immediately after World War I. Above all, he brought about a rededication of the College to its original, historic purpose and revitalized for modern Dartmouth the broad principles of liberal education.

Of his many remarkable qualities, it was his moral leadership, however, that most distinctly stamped him and that, to this day, is most vividly recalled by the Dartmouth men who heard his chapel talks or otherwise felt the impress of his noble personality. The central theme of Dr. Tucker's vesper talks was the moral duty of the student to build for himself a set of ethical values and to be guided by them in his human relationships and in using his education for the social good. This moral element Dr. Tucker believed to be an inherent characteristic of the liberal college such as Dartmouth.

Religion he considered to be the center of all human experience, but his interpretation of religion was such that it provided a bridge between the conservative, rigid views of earlier days and the more liberal views of the present time. In his inaugural address in 1893, Dr. Tucker said:

Religion, however, must not be set to do the menial tasks of the college, it must not be made an instrument of discipline, it must not become, through any kind of indifference, the repository of obsolete opinions or obsolete customs, it must not fall below the intellectual level of the college, it must not be used to maintain any artificial relation between the college and its constituency. Religion justifies the tradition which gives it a place in the college as it enforces the spirit of reverence and humility, as it furnishes the rational element to faith, as it informs duty with the sufficient motive and leads the sufficient inspiration to ideals of service, and as it subdues and consecrates personal ambition to the interests of the common humanity. The college performs an office which, I take it, no man will question as it translates the original and constant religious impulse into terms of current thought and action, making itself a center of spiritual light, of generous activities, and, above all, of a noble and intellectual religious charity.

In this and other statements by the man whose name it bears the William Jewett Tucker Foundation has the clearest definition of its long-range purposes. And in the moral leadership he exercised, to the enrichment of Dartmouth life and the ultimate betterment of society, the Foundation has the finest example of the spirit in which it will carry on its work now and into the long years to come.

PRESIDENT WILLIAM JEWETT TUCKER