Top Club President

You, Willis S. Fitch '17, former Colonel Fitch, are one of those rare birds who effectively runs a large operation in Wash- ington, D. C., on a low budget and a realistic platform. When you became President of the Dartmouth Club of Washington two years ago, you found this a bigger job than those who urged you to serve had indicated. Already the record shows that your club is really rolling on the enrollment front as well as on others, including your newest project, a club scholarship fund. You have been getting big jobs done ever since you left Dartmouth some thirty-nine years ago to become a pioneer bomber pilot in World War I, serving in Italy under the command of Fiorello H. LaGuardia.

In World War II as Chief of the Army Air Forces Aviation Cadet Branch, you rounded up 1,200,000 volunteers for air crewmen, and 700,000 of them qualified for this essential duty.

You have been a successful businessman, author, famed aviator, and now leader of one of Dartmouth's finest alumni associations.

We know that leading is one of your great fortes, thus you hold the Legion of Merit, and we know that the honor we pay you this evening comes on top of many others. But even though you are used to this sort of thing, our hope is that perhaps a salute from this Dartmouth fellowship can serve in its unique way to thank you again for great service to your country and now, more than ever, service to your college.

You, sir, are the first alumni club officer to receive the award Club President of the Year.

Willis S. Fitch '17 (left), president of the Dartmouth Club of Washington, D. C., is shown receiving from Michael McGean '49 the first annual award to the Club President of the Year. The presentation was a feature of the meeting of Dartmouth club officers at the College on September 27-29 and was accompanied by the following citation: