HE DUG DEEP TOO
Dartmouth's 1956 Alumni Fund Reached a New Dollar Peak and Set a National Record of 70.9% Participation
IT has become almost an annual custom for the Dartmouth Alumni Fund to set new records, but this year even Fund Chairman William G. Morton '28 ran out of superlatives in describing the record-breaking accomplishments of the 1956 Fund. He ended his report to some 2,000 alumni workers with a simple, exclamatory "Wow!"
Final Fund figures show a total of $864,230 contributed by 20,106 alumni, parents and friends. This was $89,000 over the 1956 objective of $775,000, which was the amount raised in 1955. The contributor total was almost 1,000 over the previous high, also established in 1955. The 1956 Fund set an alumni participation mark of 70.9%, a record for any college or university in the nation, exceeding the Princeton participation mark of 70.7% established last February.
The 1956 Fund contributions were divided as follows:
No. Amount Alumni 17.831 1746,762 Parents 1.299 55.820 Memorial and other gifts 976 61,648 20,106 $864,330
In what Fund officials hailed as "Dartmouth's greatest year," the 1956 Fund achieved a record dollar total for the sixth consecutive year, exceeded its dollar objective for the 18th straight year, established a contributor record for the tenth consecutive year and an alumni participation mark for the fourth year in a row.
Two-thirds of the sixty-odd classes participating in the Fund set new records of their own. Thirty-nine classes exceeded their assigned dollar objectives, 23 classes achieved new participation records, and 34 classes secured among them a total of 602 more contributors than in 1955. This year also marked the first time in Fund history that any class has exceeded $30,000. Three classes shared this honor, with 1925, under Head Class Agent Ford H. Whelden, reaching $33,850, followed by 1926, led by Andrew J. O'Connor, with $30,785, and 1924, under the first-year leadership of Phillips M. Van Huyck, with $30,225.
Four classes — 1946, 1950, 1952 and 1953 obtained more than 500 contributions each, with 1946 under John B. Whitman setting a new Fund mark of 566 gifts. The Class of 1953 led by John W. Corcoran produced 104 more gifts than last year to lead all classes in this respect, while 1955, led by Roy B. Hill, in its first alumni year contributed exactly 400 gifts.
This past spring Dartmouth classes were divided into seven groups for the traditional Green Derby competitions. The Green Derby winners were: Group I (1906-1912) 1906, Edward B. Redman; Group II (191S_1919)_ 1914' James D. Gregg; Group III (1920-1926) — 1921, Donald F. Sawyer; Group IV (1927-1934) — 1927, Howard J. Mullin; Group V (1935-1941) 1940, Hugh W. Schwarz; Group VI (1942-1948) 1942, Richard W. Lippman; Group VII (1949-1955) — 1950, Theodore E. Bamberger. The Class of 1887 led all classes in participation, while the Class of 1900 exceeded its dollar objective by the greatest percentage.
Dartmouth parents continued to lend strong support to the Fund. Under the general chairmanship of Michael L. Adley of New Haven, Conn., and with important assistance from a special New York City parents committee led by Moe Naitove, a total of 1,299 parents contributed $55,820 to the 1956 Fund. Both the dollar and contributor totals were new parent records for the sixth year, and the contributor total was believed to be a record among all colleges.
In late July the executive committee of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees voted to utilize the net proceeds of the 1956 Alumni Fund as follows:
(1) 660,000 for 1955-56 operating expenses of the College. This continues the Fund's traditional and all-important job of preventing an annual deficit. It is estimated that the amount appropriated will cover 13% of last year's operating expenses.
(2) 35,000 to be expended during the fiscal year 1956-57 for faculty salaries, to supplement the income from the Ford Foundation grant. This has enabled the College to raise faculty salaries on the basis of the full amount of the Ford grant even though only one-half of the grant is functioning as endowment this year.
(3) $25,000 to establish an Alumni Fund Loan Fund to be administered as a revolving fund in accordance with the standard loan fund principles previously approved by the Trustees. This continues the Alumni Fund's recent assistance in the financial aid area.
(4) The balance of $79,813 to establish a reserve to be used to meet urgent plant needs as determined by the Board of Trustees. This extremely helpful surplus will enable the Trustees to proceed immediately with plant improvements previously authorized but held up by lack of funds.
In a congratulatory message sent to all Fund workers in early August, President Dickey wrote: "The margin between a good job and the unparalleled feat of 1956 was in the individual letters you wrote and the personal calls you made yourself make. In large measure, the margin that gave the 1956 Fund its greatness was the estimate another Dartmouth man, parent or friend formed of you and your conviction that Dartmouth is one of those things that is worth the best that any of us can do or give."
The 1956 Alumni Fund was directed by William G. Morton '28 of Syracuse, N. Y., chairman of the Alumni Fund Committee of the Alumni Council. Fund headquarters in Hanover were manned by Nichol M. Sandoe Jr. '45, executive secretary, and Clifford L. Jordan Jr. '45, associate, who had responsibility for the dayby-day conduct of the 1956 campaign in cooperation with the class agents.
