PR Progress
PRESIDENT DICKEY last month announced the appointment of Frank A. Pemberton, education editor of The Providence journal, as Director of the Dartmouth College News Service. Mr. Pemberton, who assumes his duties on February 1, will direct the operations of the Crosby Hall office that is responsible for the College's academic and general publicity as distinct from the athletic publicity that is handled separately by the DCAC.
He succeeds Charles E. Widmayer '30, who has been director of the press office since 1933, the past ten years on a parttime basis while serving also as editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Mr. Widmayer will now be able to devote full time to ALUMNI MAGAZINE duties, which during the past year and a half have included the business management as well as the editing of the self-supporting alumni monthly.
Under the new organization of the News Service office, Clifford L. Jordan '45 will continue as Assistant Director while serving also as Director of Athletic Publicity. Since responsibility for Winter Carnival and ski team publicity was shifted from the Dartmouth Outing Club to the News Service a few years ago, Mr. Jordan has also been in direct charge of these phases of the College's press service.
The restoration of the News Service director's job to full-time status marks another progressive step in the public relations developments that have taken place during President Dickey's administration. One of the earliest developments was the establishment of a Public Relations Council and the naming of Sidney C. Hayward '26, Secretary of the College, as coordinating head of all the College's multiple public relations activities. More recently the College and the Alumni Council jointly have created a Committee on Public Relations, under the chairmanship of Francis Brown '25, editor of The New York TimesBook Review, to help determine public relations policies and to evaluate the effectiveness of College operations in this field. The Committee devoted its first year to the definition of long-range public relations objectives and since last fall has concerned itself ftiainly with studies of the organization and operations of some of the offices and departments of the College that are most directly involved in public relations.
President Dickey's appointment of a full-time director for the News Service carries out one of the recommendations of this Committee on Public Relations. Coupled with this move, Robert L. Allen '45, Assistant to the Secretary of the College, has been freed of some duties in that office so that he can devote more time to broader phases of public relations such as college films and relationships with alumni, parents, schools, applicants and other groups. He is also serving as secretary of the College's recently named Television Committee.
Mr. Pemberton, the new head of the News Service office, attended Deerfield Academy and was graduated from Harvard in 1942. During World War II he served as lieutenant with the Field Artillery in Europe. After his discharge in February 1946 he was one of a group of young men who tried to keep The Boston Transcript alive as a magazine of general circulation. Eight months later, when the group admitted financial defeat, he became a reporter for The Providence Journal. After three years of general news reporting, he assumed the job of education editor and feature writer for the Journal's magazine section, the position held at the time of his Dartmouth appointment. Mr. Pemberton was married in 1947 to Eudora Denison Handy of Longmeadow, Mass. With them they are bringing to Hanover three youngsters, Peter 4, Leonora 2 and Constance 1.
The position of Director of the News Service was created in 1921 and was first held by Thomas Groves '18 from 1921 to 1924 and again from 1925 to 1928. Since that time it has been filled by Sidney C. Hayward '26, 1928-30; Albert I. Dickerson '30, 1930-33; and Charles E. Widmayer '30 Mr. Pemberton will be the first director to have this assignment without other college duties.
