"Cheer and Warmth"
FROM now on the good cheer radiated on cold winter days by the fireplace in the office of President Dickey will be provided through the bequest of a 19-year-old young man who wanted to come to Dartmouth but whose death denied him the opportunity — he died during World War II while serving as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service in India.
John Wilder Parkhurst, member of an illustrious Dartmouth family, wanted more than anything else to study at Dartmouth, where his father and grandfather were graduated. Not being physically qualified for the Armed Forces, upon his graduation from Vermont Academy in 943' John volunteered for duty as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service in the wild mountain and jungle country of the India-Burma border.
After repeated attacks of malaria and a siege of typhoid fever, he finally had to be evacuated to a hospital in Calcutta, where he died of pneumonia in 1945. His bequest to Dartmouth was not discovered until some time after his death, when his father, Richard Parkhurst '16 of Winchester, Mass., in going over some of his son's letters to him, came upon the following instructions, written in the wilds of the Burma jungle: "In case anything should happen to me, I should like Dartmouth to have 1,000 to be used for something in Parkhurst Hall." John wished in some way to add his own bit to the gift of his grandfather, Lewis Parkhurst '78, who gave the funds for the building of Parkhurst Hall in memory of John's uncle, Wilder Parkhurst '07.
President Dickey, in announcing the bequest made from John's personal savings, said that the arrangements for endowing the President's Office fireplace with wood were worked out with the young man's father and mother.
It was felt that over the years the cheerful warmth of a fire and its contributions to the many meetings with parents and students, some of them of a serious, even painful, nature, could have more direct influence on the life and spirit of the College than any other way that the money could be used.
Describing the bequest at the annual meeting of alumni bequest chairmen here, President Dickey said, "This is one of the purest and most moving acts of generosity in the life of any college."
There is now attached to the plain white woodwork of the fireplace in the President's Office, beneath Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Daniel Webster, a small brass plaque bearing the following inscription:
"The cheer of this fire is provided from a fund given Dartmouth by John Wilder Parkhurst, son of Richard Parkhurst, 1916, grandson of Lewis Parkhurst, 1878, whose coming to Dartmouth was denied by his death in World War II."
An editorial printed in The BostonTraveler on September 30 revealed the warmth of the response felt by those outside the College who read of John Parkhurst's gift:
"Just the other day, newspapers carried the story of John Parkhurst of Winchester, who had dreamed of going to Dartmouth but died in World. War II instead.
"As a result of his 'will,' written in the Burma jungle, a fireplace in Parkhurst Hall at Dartmouth will be supplied with logs through years to come.
"Cheer and warmth will spread from the fire on the hearth through long days and nights yet uncounted, reflecting the dreams of loyalty and -warmhearted friendship among men.
"What a wonderful way to be remembered!"
