The 1957 Commencement
COMMENCEMENT DAY 1957 was such a day as crowds the memory o£ the old and the not-so-old grad.
The day dawned cloudless and sunny, but with an invigorating crispness reminiscent of a New England Indian summer day. It was, in short, ideal.
To many a reuning alumnus of some years, this was the Dartmouth he liked to remember with all its colors sharp and the air electric with the vital energies of young men.
And to many a graduating senior, nervously sheepish in his cap and gown, this day marked his first really full realization of why Dartmouth exerts such a hold on the minds and loyalties of its sons.
Part of this phenomenon was explained by Dr. Douglas Horton, dean of the Harvard Divinity School and speaker at the combined baccalaureate and commencement exercises. He said:
"The memory of college life is a mosaic of details of fresh discoveries of oneself and one's fellows, all and any of which may be renewed and relived by repairing to the old haunts. This is good. The place itself, revisited, seems to furnish strength."
He defined a college's ultimate task as the awakening of its students "to the rich wisdoms of the past."
"To give a man knowledge of how to go back to sources is to give him a key to life," he said.
Dr. Horton then recalled the parable of the prodigal son who returned home after a riotous life.
"Do you remember what he came to? Not a place. Not a philosophy. He came to himself.
"And every college worthy of the name should introduce a man to himself. This is the profoundest source of all."
Dr. Horton's address (printed in full in this issue) followed the traditional commencement rites. The seniors, faculty, honorary-degree recipients, and the Band gathered at Alumni Gymnasium and formed the cap-and-gown procession that moved up East Wheelock Street, across the College Green to the Baker Library lawn.
Professor Fred Berthold '45 pronounced the invocation and led the recitation of the Lord's Prayer. Then came the crowd of about 5,000 joined in singing Milton's Paraphrase of Psalm 136.
The senior valedictory by Lloyd Weinreb '57 of Lawrence, N. Y., bespoke the same hopes aiad fears that had troubled countless graduating classes since the time of Eleazar Wheelock. But somehow these valedictory thoughts of a class embarking into a world of fission and fallout seemed all the more valid because they echoed the current anxieties of all.
Then the seniors' moment came. They trooped across the Baker Library lawn - a somber line of black gowns contrasting with the colorful hoods of the faculty rows — to receive those precious sheepskins and carefully switch the tassels of their caps.
This juncture was the cue for parents and friends armed with still and motionpicture cameras to crowd their way forward in the hope of capturing on film that moment when their "son of Dartmouth" received his degree.
President Dickey's valedictory to the seniors, the conferring of advanced degrees and awarding of diplomas in medicine followed.
Conferring of honorary degrees on nine men whose achievements are detailed elsewhere in these pages drew both laughter and applause as the citations were read by President Dickey.
The singing of "Men o£ Dartmouth" and the benediction by Professor Berthold wound up the climactic weekend.
It had started Friday, Class Day, as the Baker chimes serenaded and the Band marched up Main Street. The graduating class gathered by the Senior Fence for the procession to the Bema for the student orations and the reading of the class poem.
Gordon Bjork '57, Seattle, delivered the Class Day Oration and stressed the need for more of the "religious" at Dartmouth. Donald H. Cowlbeck '57 recited the class poem, and Robert E. Smith gave the Address to the College, concluding with these words: "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Afterward, the class climbed to the Old Pine for the Sachem Oration and listened to a talk on the importance of tradition. Then, in response, they lit their pipes, took some hearty puffs and left them, broken on the old stump.
Saturday's highlights were commissioning ceremonies for 125 ROTC officer candidates and the commencement luncheon.
General J. Lawton Collins, former Army chief of staff and featured speaker at the commissioning ceremonies, stressed the need for a strong military force to back up American political and ideological efforts.
At the commencement luncheon, the crowd spilled out of Alumni Gymnasium onto the grass, giving the event the air of a picnic. Seniors, their parents, alumni and faculty moved into the gym for the speaking program after the luncheon. There they heard talks by Sidney C. Hayward '26, Secretary of the College; Monte Pascoe '57, representing the graduating class; James M. O'Neill '07, class president, who gave the traditional Fifty Year Address; and President Dickey. Mr. O'Neill's address is printed in this issue.
While the seniors were being inducted into the alumni ranks, their predecessors on the Hanover Plain were renewing their love affair with the Dartmouth campus.
The 50-year class, 1907, was joined by the classes of '87, '92, '97, and '02 for reunion activities during the weekend.
On hand, too, were parents, friends, and dates.
Their presence lent validity to President Dickey's usual parting words to the seniors:
"And now, men of Dartmouth, the word is 'so long' for in the Dartmouth fellowship there is no parting."
"BY VIRTUE OF THE AUTHORITY ..President Dickey conferring the Bachelor's degreeupon the Class of 1957 while faculty marshals wait with the diplomas to be handed out.
Charles J. Zimmerman '23 of Hartford, Conn., was elected a Trustee of the College for a second five-year term at the June meeting of the Board. President of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co., he is chairman of the Trustee Committee on Development and heads the forthcoming capital gifts campaign.
