The 1954 Commencement

As the sun broke through the clouds and played fitfully on the leaves of the trees in the Baker Library court, the line of seniors filing up to the platform gradually became shorter. Dartmouth College was closing her 185th year. The pile of white diplomas in the box behind Dean Joseph L. McDonald diminished from 557 to a scant half-dozen and tension mounted to , a peak.

For the parents of the last seniors to step up to the platform, and for the seniors themselves, a long-awaited milestone was to be passed, and as commencement speakers across the nation had said again and again, the young graduates were about to step forth into the world.

For Dean McDonald the year also was rising to a peak with the moment when he handed out that final diploma; his blood pressure at this time, he has confided, also rises gradually. The reason is that he can't tell until the pile of diplomas is down to five or six whether they will come out even. This year they did come out "on the nose," and the Dean's blood pressure dropped back to normal. More unusual in the history of commencements, every one of the 557 graduating members of the class actually gathered in Rollins Chapel prior to the exercises.

Commencement morning began with a series of fervent Hanover prayers to whatever agency controls the deluges of rain which characterized the spring of 1954. After a night downpour a gradual graying to a morning of lowering clouds and drizzle couldn't have been less auspicious.

With more than 5,000 persons due to attend the exercises, there was every reason for holding them as scheduled on the lawn in front of the library rather than in the limited confines of the Alumni Gymnasium, where so many friends and members of families could not be admitted.

The first official order of the day was a "rain and drizzle conference" in the office of Sidney C. Hayward, College Secretary and chairman of the Commencement Committee. After a series of telephone calls to the Weather Bureau and to the CAA forecasting office at the airport, it was learned that no rain was falling to the west of Hanover, and there was every likelihood of better weather. But there was always the possibility, in fact the probability, of a "clearing shower."

While plans were carefully checked again for alternate arrangements in case of a downpour, and as the weather became more and more damp and humid, the decision was made by President Dickey to proceed with the exercises on the Baker lawn. The seniors, after being counted and checked, and then re-checked again, filed solemnly through the now unlocked door of Rollins Chapel, the band struck up, and at 10:30 a.m. the procession began to make its way behind the library.

Led by their head marshal, Donald A, Swanson Jr. of Valley Stream, N. Y., the seniors filed past the waiting faculty, the go-year Class, and the Trustees and ten persons upon whom honorary degrees were to be conferred.

Then Dean McDonald as chief marshal led the honorary degree recipients in the traditional procession. Those honored were Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, husband and wife acting team, who received the first joint citation in the history of the College; Roy E. Larsen, president of Time Inc.; Albert Bradley '15, executive vice president of General Motors Corporation; Frank R. Kenison '39, chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court; Clarence B. Randall, chairman of the board of the Inland Steel Company; George W. Wheland '28, professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago; Richard G. Eberhart '26, poet; Adelbert Ames Jr. of Hanover, discoverer of the eye disease known as aniseikonia; and the Rev. Frederick W. Alden '19, Minister of the New Hampshire Congregational-Christian Conference.

As the events of Commencement morning moved to a happy climax, the weather steadily improved. It had been so threatening that Dean McDonald announced the exercises would at least begin on the Baker lawn and the hope was that any precipitation would be light and of short duration. The comment was made later by more than one of those present that "someone at Dartmouth certainly must live right."

Class Day

Class Day this year continued a new pattern in the contemporary history of the college. With the release of the Bema last year as the setting for the Commencement exercises, it has now become the special province of the seniors. After gathering at the Senior Fence, the class fell into line behind Head Marshal Swanson and Marshals Jonathan Moore and William H. Walls, and accompanied by the band, marched off to the Bema.

Peter F. Geithner, chairman of the class, welcomed the parents and friends, and for the members of the class said, "It is with a deep sense of gratitude that we offer our humble thanks to you who have made it possible for us to stand where we do today."

Then followed the various speeches in the ritual by which the members of the class strike off their bonds and obligations as undergraduates and assume the voluntary and weightier responsibilities as alumni and members of the fraternity of educated men.

The Address to the College was given by David T. McLaughlin of Grand Rapids, Mich., winner of the Barrett Cup as the outstanding all-around member of the senior class. He said the tradition has been to thank the College for what it has contributed to the graduating class, and pointed out that the class will be taking "memories of good times spent on the Hanover Plain, in the dormitories, in the fraternity houses, and in the general happy-go-lucky air prevailing on campus.

"The "College means far more to us than this," he added, "and I think it is for this deeper purpose and meaning that we sincerely owe our gratitude to Dartmouth. President Dickey has stated that the ultimate objective of a liberal arts institution is to human society. Society today, more than ever before, needs men who can think - think rationally and logically to sound conclusions. What comes out of any future intellectual effort on our part can be no finer than the knowledge our mental processes can absorb from the variety of sources to which we are exposed. I feel it is here that Dartmouth has contributed most to our make-up."

Richard M. Rogin read the class poem, The Attended Moment, the graduation which had been awaited so long and at which so many were in attendance. In more contemporary vein he referred to some of Dartmouth's time-honored treasures, when he wrote:

"After four years it is proper:

There is a time for name calling; Not the chalky scrawl on secret walls, but Nightfires, simple wonders of the mind, The big green days of May.

For what else is poetry or leave-taking But to name-trap who and where before you go, The moon a moment in the branches."

The exercises in the Bema closed with the Class Day Oration by John W. Cunningham, who pursued a theme touched upon in one form or another by just about every one of the speech-makers who took the podium over the weekend. Members of 1954 should ask themselves, Cunningham said, "Have we liberated ourselves?" and not "Have we been liberated by the liberal arts?"

He said, "Perhaps the main conclusion we made after that first hour exam, an intellectual wrestling match where, in many cases, we were outweighed, was that if our business here was learning it very definitely was up to us alone, whether or not we felt the faculty was with us all the way. This is a conviction which has only deepened as we have progressed even down to this little time we have left together as students. Along with self-responsibility and self-respect, self-education is very surely a component part of any 'liberated' man."

And then Cunningham concluded with the following advice for his classmates, advice which many of their elders might well take to themselves:

"Whether vicariously through books and study or more directly by means of the daily newspaper and that source of senior grumbling, the Great Issues Course, we have been made aware that this present age of conflict cannot be made orderly nor the future be somehow controlled by retreat into intellectual schemata or submergence in the mass mind.

"If the liberal arts experience is to remain liberating in character we must always remain responsible to the preservation of our own individual integrity by remembering that our life will be as our education has been - very much up to us alone."

Then the seniors, as they have ever done, or so it seems, marched soberly up the hill past the Observatory to the Old Pine. Here hilarity was mixed with solemnity as John C. Heston Jr. gave the Address to the Old Pine, a pipe of peace was smoked, and Philip H. DeTurk, in Indian regalia, delivered the Sachem Oration. He arrived on a balky donkey, which had to be pushed and hauled to the center of the open space there.

After linking Dartmouth with Sing Sing, Alcatraz, Leavenworth, "traditional, cultural institutions, great solid bedrock, unbreakable institutions," DeTurk declared that the Old Pine is actually a rock made to look like a stump which "covers the entrance way to a long underground passageway that leads directly to the basement of Rahar's in Northampton." He then remounted his donkey and departed.

The seniors broke their pipes upon the Old Pine, and another Class Day was over. DeTurk was seen several hours later in the outskirts of Norwich, slowly dragging the still stubborn donkey back to the owner from whom he had borrowed it. For the other members of the class, plus parents, faculty alumni and guests, there was the traditional reception at their home by President and Mrs. Dickey. The door count for the event was 1787, a record number.

Also on the agenda for the evening were the Class of ’79 Trumpeters, class reunion banquets, a concert on the campus by the Band, a Glee Club concert in Webster Hall and the annual Commencement Dance in Dartmouth House.

While less illustrious minds were still clearing away the cobwebs of sleep, members of Phi Beta Kappa were up and doing early Saturday and held their annual spring meeting at 9:15 in Carpenter Hall. Also on the morning program for more than a fourth of the class was the commissioning ceremony in the Bema for ROTC graduates. Chief Justice Frank R. Kenison '29 of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, gave the commissioning address, at the conclusion of which 42 seniors were commissioned Second Lieutenants in the Army, 67 Ensigns in the Navy or Second Lieutenants in the Marines, and 52 Second Lieutenants in the Air Force.

A record number of 3300 were served at the Commencement Luncheon which preceded the tooth anniversary meeting of the Alumni Association. This actually was the first half of a two-session "100th meeting," made necessary by the fact that the alumni activities are spread over two weekends.

Joseph S. Matthews '84 of Concord, N. H., a retired Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and the oldest alumnus to attend the weekend affair, was introduced to the gathering. Also introduced was Henry H. Austin '85 of Warner, N. H.

High point of the session was the presentation to President Emeritus Ernest Martin Hopkins '01 of the first Alumni Award for outstanding service to the College. Mrs. Ann Hopkins Potter, Mr. Hopkins' daughter, accepted the citation and a replica of the Wheelock Monteith for her father. Mr. Hopkins' wife, Mrs. Grace Stone Tibbetts Hopkins, had died the day before, and it was not possible for him to be present. The full text of the Alumni Award citation appears on another page of this issue.

President Dickey '29, John S. Fletcher '04, Harold M. Sherman Jr. '29, Sidney C. Hayward '26, and Peter F. Geithner '54, the chairman of the graduating class, shared the speaker's stand. Mr. Fletcher's address on behalf of the 50-Year Class also appears elsewhere in this issue.

It was at this session of the Alumni Meeting that Mr. Hayward announced how near the Class of '29 was to reaching its Combined Fund goal of $150,000. Whether the reason was this report, the fact that President Dickey is a member of the class, or the non-stop combined efforts of Jack D. Gunther '29 and George B. Redding '29 - it is impossible to say exactly - the class came up with a record-breaking $150,100 at its annual dinner in Thayer Hall that night.

The evening's events wound up with Dartmouth movies, another band concert, and a showing of Harvey by the Dartmouth Players. The town was crowded and in number of alumni on the scene it proved to be a record Commencement weekend. Each year the prediction is made that "Hanover just won't hold any more people," but each year both College and town seem able to take care of just a few more. But it is apparent that a limit is fast being reached.

Commencement Day

Despite many nervous jitters engendered by the lowering morning, the ritual of the Commencement Exercises went off without a hitch, and as the weather gradually improved, the tension eased visibly. Fewer and fewer persons cast anxious glances toward the heavens, and spectators and participants in the exercises could be seen to relax.

But just before the procession started Dean McDonald and Mr. Hayward held a last-minute conference on the lawn in front of Parkhurst, deciding just what the procedure would be if the outdoor exercises had to be halted

As at the Commencement last year, the senior class formed a double column in the center aisle running through the seating section, and the academic procession filed through to the platform. Next year a change is being contemplated, and the seniors will halt where the seats begin. The academic procession will then parade through the class, but as it goes up the aisle it will be plainly visible to all the spectators.

Professor Roy B. Chamberlin gave the invocation, followed by the singing of Milton's Paraphrase of Psalm 136. In announcing the hymn, Dean McDonald said that it had been sung at the First Commencement and every year since. Several days later he was informed by Edward C. Lathem of the Baker Library that the tradition of the Milton hymn goes back only about 65 years. A dean has to be careful what he says, even at Commencement.

Milton S. Kramer '54 of New York City was the first speaker of the day. Like his classmates of Friday, he also pursued the theme that if members of the graduating class had on their own pursued the liberating arts, had "drunk deep enough," then they would not be found wanting in the imperfect world which awaited them. The full text of his valedictory and of President Dickey's will be found in this issue.

President Dickey conferred the Bachelor of Arts degree upon the 557 candidates who were presented by Dean Morrison. First member of the class to receive his diploma was Nathaniel R. Hopkins II of Upper Montclair, N. J. Hopkins, who was unable to mount the platform to receive his diploma, successfully achieved a college education in a wheelchair. Dean McDonald stepped down, shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder, and presented the document to him in front of the stand.

The Master of Arts degree was conferred upon four men, and 20 received the two-year Diploma in Medicine. In the graduating class, 16 received the degree summa cum laude, 25 magna cum laude, and 64 cum laude. Edward S. Horton of Hanover, son of Prof. Clark W. Horton, was graduated with valedictory rank, and Allen B. Edmundson Jr. of Springfield, Ill., was class salutatorian.

As the seniors filed up the platform, another milestone, unrecognized by most of the audience, also was being passed. Maurice F. Longhurst, Professor of Music, Emeritus, was playing officially for his 32nd and last Dartmouth Commencement. It was also the 30th time he had played for Dartmouth seniors the same ceremonial march, Mendelssohn's "War March of the Priests," from the oratorio Athaliah. Professor Longhurst, who retired last year, will go this summer to Miami to become music director of a church there.

After the honorary degrees were conferred, Mr. Larsen told the seniors about the fast-growing educational crisis facing the nation's elementary and secondary schools, and pointed out that it will reach a peak at just about the time the first children of '54 will be entering kindergarten and first grade. The full text of his address appears in this issue.

The sun broke through, and soon the sky was blue as only it can be in June, the benediction was given by Professor Chamberlin, and the men of 1954, no longer seniors, marched out to take up whatever tasks lay before them.

Class Day exercises Were again held in the sylvan setting of the Bema

A balky mule added unscheduled humor to the Sachem Oration at the Old Pine

The first joint honorary degree awarded in Dartmouth's history was that conferred byPresident Dickey on the acting team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, who receivedDoctorates of Humane Letters.

Dartmouth men who received honorary degrees pose with President Dickey on Commencement morning. Left to right: George W. Wheland '28, Sc.D.; Frank R. Kenison'29, LL.D.; Rev. Frederick W. Alden '19, D.D.; President Dickey; Albert Bradley '15,LL.D.; Richard Eberhart '26, Litt.D.