Alumni Fund Opens Campaign
THE 40th Anniversary Campaign of the Dartmouth Alumni Fund opens on April 1 with $660,000 as its goal. Late last month, as the 1954 campaign approached its formal start, early gifts already were in excess of $100,000, the strongest pre-campaign showing that the Fund has ever made, and a bright augury that the Alumni Council will realize its hopes for new records this year in dollar totals and contributors.
Last year, with an objective of $600,000, the Alumni Fund raised $671,000 from 17,376 alumni, parents and friends of the College - both new records - and reached a new alumni participation mark of 66.6%. The sum raised represented the approximate income on $17,000,000 and paid 13% of the operating expense of the College, in addition to providing $70,000 of direct aid to the scholarship program.
This year the Alumni Fund Committee, headed by Roger C. Wilde '21 of Chicago, seeks a minimum total of $660,000, repeating the 1953 dollar objective plus $60,000 with which to endow two more Alumni Fund Scholarships. In each of the past two years $30,000 of Alumni Fund income was used to endow a scholarship, and last year an additional $40,000 was assigned to the Alumni Fund Scholarship Reserve.
As part of the 1954 campaign, the Fund Committee seeks to raise 150,000 among Dartmouth parents. This effort will be directed by a special parents committee, headed by David F. Sibley of Brookline, Mass., father of David Neal Sibley '54 and a partner in the Boston law firm of Dunbar, Sibley and Dunbar. This will be the fourth year in which Dartmouth parents have been invited to participate in the annual Fund campaign. Last year 771 such gifts added $46,279 to the record-breaking total of the Fund.
A detailed statement about the Alumni Fund goals for 1954 was mailed to all Dartmouth alumni late in March. To mark this 40th anniversary year, the opening mailing piece reviewed Fund achievements since 1915 and discussed long-range hopes as well as more immediate goals. A feature of the Fund Committee's brochure is a full-color reproduction of a Paul Sample painting, "Old Ledyard Bridge," which was started during his demonstration at Hanover Holiday in Chicago, January 30, and later finished in his Hanover studio.
The opening statement was addressed to all Dartmouth men by the Alumni Fund Committee of the Alumni Council. In addition to Mr. Wilde as chairman, the Committee includes Nichol M. Sandoe Jr. '45, executive secretary and director of Fund operations in Hanover; Carleton G. Broer '37 of Perrysburg, Ohio; Sumner D. Kilmarx '22 of New York; Robert S. Oelman '31 of Dayton, Ohio; and Addison L. Winship '42 of Melrose, Mass.
In their review of the past 39 years, the Committee announced that the Dartmouth Alumni Fund has raised a grand total of $7,100,000, one-third of which has been realized in the last four years.
Other preparatory activity last month included four successful "kick-off" dinners for class agents at Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Mr. Wilde and Mr. Sandoe spoke at all four dinners, while President Dickey was guest speaker at the New York gathering and Justin A. Stanley '33, Vice President of the College, spoke at Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. More than 300 agents and assistant agents attended the dinners. As was true last year, well over a thousand Dartmouth alumni will be active in carrying forward the 1954 campaign.
The kick-off dinners provided the occasions for awarding trophies to three class agents who did outstanding jobs in 1953. The James B. Reynolds Trophy for the best class agent more than 25 years out of college went to Ellsworth B. Buck '14 of Staten Island, N. Y.; the Harvey p. Hood Trophy for the best class agent eleven to 25 years out of college went to Dr. Edward P. Offutt Jr. '35 of Bethesda, Md.; and the John R. Mason Trophy for the best class agent ten or less years out of college went to Glenn L. Fitkin Jr. '50 of Toledo, Ohio, who formerly was Alumni Fund Associate in Hanover.
1954 FUND LEADERS: Roger C. Wilde '21 (left), chairman of the Alumni Fund Committee of the Alumni Council, and Nichol M. Sandoe Jr. '45, executive secretary, at a recent meeting in Chicago.
