1957 Alumni Fund Reaches New High of $928,592

LAST year Alumni Fund officials proclaimed the 1956 Fund as "Dartmouth's greatest," but the tremendous response of alumni, parents and friends this spring has made it necessary to go one step further and hail the 1957 Fund as "even greater than the greatest." This could go on indefinitely, and hopefully will, as Dartmouth men continue to break records in their annual support of the College.

Final figures for the 1957 campaign, which ended June 30, show 1928,592 contributed by 20,714 alumni, parents and friends. This was $63,592 over the 1957 goal of $865,000 and $64,362 more than the record total realized last year. The contributor figure was 608 greater than in 1956. The 1957 alumni participation record of 71.3%, surpassing Princeton's 71.1% set last February, is a new national alumni participation record for major colleges and universities.

1957 Fund gifts were divided as follows:

Number Amount Alumni 18,306 $803,314 Parents 1,386 57,040 Memorial and oilier gilts 1,02a 68,238 20,714 $928,592

Major achievements of the 1957 Fund include a new dollar total for the seventh consecutive year, exceeding the dollar objective for the 19th straight year, a new contributor record for the nth consecutive year, and an alumni participation mark for the fifth year in a row.

New class records were set by two-thirds of the 60-odd classes participating in the Fund. Thirty-nine classes exceeded their assigned dollar objectives, 39 also set new class dollar records, 33 achieved better than 100% in participation, 31 established new class participation marks, 16 classes reached new totals in number of contributors, and six set new records in percent of objective. Four classes surpassed the $30,000 mark: 1925, led by Class Agent Ford H. Whelden, was at the top with $37,577, followed by 1924, under Phillips M. Van Huyck, with $31,235; 1926, under Andrew J. O'Connor, with &30,439; and 1929, under John W. Moxon, with 530,251. Eight other classes topped $20,000.

Five classes - 1946, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954 — had more than goo contributors each, with 1952, under Bernard J. Lewis, leading all classes with 543 gifts. The Class of 1954, led by Kevin I. Sullivan, produced 70 more gifts than last year to top all classes in this category; while 1956, under Glendon E. French Jr., in its first alumni year produced 431 gifts.

Winners of the traditional Green Derby competitions were: Group I (1907-1913) - 1907, Philip H. Chase; Group II (1914-920) — 1914, James D. Gregg; Group III (1921-1927) - 1921, Donald F. Sawyer; Group IV (1928-1935) - 1929, John W. Moxon; Group V (1936-1942) - 1942, Russell Hartranft Jr.; Group VI (1943-1949) - 1947, Robert H. Snedaker Jr.; Group VII (1950-1956) -1953, John W. Corcoran. The Class of 1887 once again led all classes in participation (1500%) and the Class of 1900 also repeated in exceeding its dollar objective by the greatest percentage (174%).

Dartmouth parents set new dollar and contributor records for the seventh consecutive year, with 1,386 parents contributing $57,040, The Parents Committee was led this year by Stuart V. Smith of Philadelphia, with Herman Swarzman heading a special regional committee in New York City.

The executive committee of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees met in late July and voted to utilize the net proceeds of the 1957 Alumni Fund as follows:

(1) $720,000 for 1956-57 operating expenses of the College. This continues the Fund's traditional and all-important job of preventing an annual deficit.

(2) $80,000 to establish a reserve to be expended during 1957-58 for faculty salaries, thus matching the income to be produced this year by the Ford Foundation Funds.

(3) 161,307 to establish a reserve to be used to maintain a strong faculty salaryprogram into the future.

The 1957 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 and Raymond J. Buck Jr. '52, associates, who had the responsibility for day-to-day conduct of the 1957 campaign in cooperation with the class agents.

William G. Morton '28 (r), Fund chairman, and Ford H. Whelden '25 with the John H. Davis Jr. '25 Memorial Trophy which Mr. Whelden won for the highest dollar total.