A Scholarship That Worked

THE national character of Dartmouth's student body, extending back to the years when such geographical representation was uncommon in American colleges, has been fostered to an important degree by regional scholarships. Among the very earliest of these awards were the two William Pierce Johnson Scholarships for boys from California, established in 1928 by a gift of $100,000 from Mrs. Johnson in memory of her husband, a member of the Class of 1880 and a successful paper manufacturer of San Francisco, who died while touring Europe in 1926.

The first two of these scholarships were awarded in 1930. The 25-year story of more than forty men benefiting from them shows that the scholarships have measured up to the generosity of the donor and have borne out the ideas expressed to Mr. Johnson by President Hopkins when he was in California on an alumni speaking trip. The California regional scholarships represent, in an excellent way, the value of all such awards now helping Dartmouth to maintain its national character.

When Mrs. Johnson made her gift of $100,000 to Dartmouth in 1928, she presented with it an unsigned draft of a letter found among Mr. Johnson's effects. Addressed to President Hopkins, it said:

"Herewith find New York Draft. This is my donation to Dartmouth College, to be used as its President, Ernest M. Hopkins, dictates. It is given during my life instead of by testament so that its use may begin now - it is further given because of my interest in you and your unusually competent administration as President of one of the oldest and in my judgment soundest colleges in America and also because I wholly endorse your ideas in regard to properly educating the boys of Dartmouth."

On April 1,1929, the Dartmouth Trustees used the gift to endow two William Pierce Johnson Scholarships to be awarded each year, and the first California recipients were chosen in 1930. Including the awards for the fall of 1955, a total of 44 men have received these scholarships. Thirty-six are now graduates of the College. Thirteen or 36 per cent were elected to Phi Beta Kappa, as compared with nine per cent in the college as a whole. Twenty-two went on to do graduate work (two receiving the Ph.D. degree), producing seven doctors, eight lawyers, three business executives, one foreign service officer, one public service officer,, and five teachers. Twenty-three of the group in business or a profession are working in California. Only six of 36 recipients left Dartmouth without degrees. Three finished college in California, and one else-where.

One of the early men to receive the scholarship was the son of a welder. Without it he would have been unable to attend college. He made a good record, taking his fourth year at Thayer School of Engineering. After graduation he spent a year as engineer in the New Hampshire State Highway Department, the following year as engineer in the United States Bureau of Public Roads, followed by seven years as Civil Engineer and Supervisor on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Since 1945 he has been with a western division of United States Steel Corporation and in 1955 was made Vice President in charge of Engineering for this division.

A few years later the scholarship was awarded to the son of a lumberman. He earned the remainder of his college expenses as member and then leader of the Barbary Coast Orchestra. He graduated from Dartmouth Phi Beta Kappa, after spending his senior year in Washington on the Class of 1926 Fellowship.

He received his LL.B. at the University of California in 1941 and was awarded the James K. Colby Memorial Fellowship by Dartmouth for graduate study at Columbia where he later received the LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees. From 1943"46 he served as lieutenant, USNR and has been a member of the University of California Law School faculty since 1946, as Professor of Law since 1950. In 1953-54 he was visiting Professor of Administrative Law at Harvard.

At present he serves on the Council of the American Bar Association Section of Administrative Law, and as a director of the Social Science Research Council. He has been active as a consultant in governmental affairs, and is the co-editor of a 1955 text on the Legislative Process in Congress and in the States.

Another holder of a William Pierce Johnson Scholarship nearly ten years later was the son of an elementary school principal. After graduation he served 38 months in military service and came back to Dartmouth on a Gulf Fellowship in Business Administration at Tuck School.

After receiving his degree from Tuck School, he served five years with the Mene Grande Oil Company (Gulf Oil), Caracas, Venezuela, as a member of the management research staff. He left this concern to become vice president for administration of Three States Natural Gas Company, Dallas, Texas, at the age of thirty.

A recipient in the Class of 1955 was the son of a taxicab driver. He was active in student affairs and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. In his fourth year he was transferred to an Aldebaxan Scholarship which provides the entire cost of education, leaving the student free to devote full time to intellectual pursuits. He was also a Senior Fellow. This year he is enrolled at the Princeton Theological School.

In reminiscing, Mr. Hopkins had this to say about the establishment of these scholarships:

"William Pierce Johnson was one of the most attractive men 1 ever met. Our paths had never crossed until we met on one of my trips to the West Coast to meet with our alumni. In my talk before the alumni I bore down par- ticularly on the theme that some portion of an education, particularly in undergraduate college years, was dependent for its value on the quality and the variety of experience offered in contacts between fellow students and that for that reason I felt that a wider geographical distribution in the undergraduate body was essential for a college stressing its responsibilities to society.

"The next day, Mr. Johnson asked me how I would utilize a considerable sum of money if it were available for the purpose of widening our geographical distribution. I replied that my feeling was that a series of regional scholarships would be the most direct approach, but that everything that made for a better college and increased its prestige - a strengthened faculty, an improved plant, a further capitalization of Dartmouth's location would be a factor in attracting a more widely distributed student body.

"When after many years this generous gift became available, I conferred with the representatives of our San Francisco alumni and said that I personally felt some commitment to utilize this for regional scholarships but would like their frank opinion whether it could be made of maximum value to the College in that way. They thought it could. Consequently after careful consideration by the Board of Trustees, the William Pierce Johnson Scholarships were established."

At the time the William Pierce Johnson Scholarships were created, there was only one fund designated for scholarship purposes that was as large. This was the Charles F. Brooker Fund of $133,520 which came to the College in 1927. Income from this fund was to be used for scholarships for students from Connecticut.

Since that time nine scholarship funds of $100,000 or more have been added:

1938—Bequest of $95,200 now grown to $129,223 from Frank E. Gove 1888 for Colorado Regional Scholarships

1940-48—Bequest of $100,616 from Verson Woodman Gooch 1901

1946-50—Bequest of $151,560 from Melusina H. Varick for the Remson Varick 1906 Memorial Scholarships

1946—Gifts of $205,617 from an anonymous alumnus to establish the Aldebaran Scholarships for especially outstanding Students. This is a growing fund

1947-54—Bequest of $166,216 from Mrs. Emma P. Greenough for the Walter H. Pomeroy 1856 Memorial Scholarships

1947—Bequest of $228,690 from Lillie W. Otis for the Waldemar Otis 1866 Memorial for Ohio Regional Scholarships

1950—Gift of $258,687 from John D. Rockefeller Jr. for the Ernest Martin Hopkins Scholarships

1952-54—Bequest of $193,622 from Guy Richards 1896

1953 Pledge of $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for the Daniel Webster National Scholarships— $304,750 of this amount has been received