'23 Scholarship Fund Sets Mark

LAST month the Class of 1923 Scholarship Fund reached its goal of $30,000, culminating a three-and-a-half-year effort. Some 127 members of 1923, nearly one-quarter of the class, participated in the Fund with gifts ranging from $5 to over $2,000. The 1923 Scholarship Fund is now established as a permanent endowment fund under the Daniel Webster National Scholarship program with annual income going to a deserving Dartmouth student.

In reaching the $30,000 goal, the Class of 1923 became the first Dartmouth class to establish such a sizable fund under the national scholarship program.

But setting records is nothing new to 1923. Back in 1948, as the first of the large classes, 1923 made history by presenting the first $100,000-plus 25th reunion gift to Dartmouth. Prior to this, 25th year gifts to the College had been in the $20,000 to $30,000 range and 1923's accomplishment raised the sights for all future classes and helped make possible the Memorial Fund records set by the classes of 1925, 1926, 1927, 1929 and 1930, all of whom presented gifts of over $100,000 at their 25th reunions.

Although the entire Class of 1923 is proud of this latest achievement, they are even prouder of the young man now attending Dartmouth as "The Class of 1923 Scholar." He is Arthur L. Quirk Jr. '59 of Narragansett, R. I. A highly personable young man, Quirk was president of his class, president of the student council and editor of the school yearbook at Kingston High. Last year, while a freshman at Dartmouth, he captained the freshman soccer team and played on the baseball team, served on the Winter Carnival committee, and was a top freshman student.

The idea for a Class of 1923 Scholarship Fund originated in the summer of 1953 when a group of '23 men got together at an informal picnic. Spurred on by their success at the 25th reunion, these men decided to present a scholarship fund to Dartmouth at their delayed 30th reunion, in June 1954. Included in the original group were the Fund chairman, Leon L. Freeman of Racine, Wis., and Truman T. Metzel, now chairman of the Class of 1923 Bequest Committee, who was then the class chairman of 1923.

During the first year just over $10,000 was contributed to the Fund by members of 1923 and at the 30th reunion this sum was formally presented to President Dickey to establish the Class of 1923 Scholarship Fund. A year later Art Quirk came to Dartmouth, his entrance made possible by the 1923 gift-

In the remaining two and one-half years the class continued to add to the Fund, seeking the $30,000 necessary to endow this scholarship fully. The class executive committee, under the leadership of Charles J. Zimmerman, swung in behind the effort, and great credit for the final success must also go to class secretary Chesley T. Bixby and regional vice presidents Clarence E. Goss in New York and James A. Broe in Boston, who did so much of the personal solicitation necessary to achieve the goal.