Good Will Ambassador

HANOVER during the summer, is not as sleepy a New England village as Dartmouth students seem to think. It is a bit quieter, to be sure, but the streets do bustle daily with tourists and vacationers. Dartmouth and the town, recognizing their responsibilities to these interested folk, maintain an information booth for their use on the southeast corner of the Green. Between last June and September, while working at this information spot, Dartmouth's good will was in the hands of Bruce McInnes '59, "ambassador par excellence."

Bruce's responsibilities entailed two daily campus tours as well as numerous bus and automobile tours of the College community as needed. This required good feet and a headful of knowledge about Dartmouth past, present, and future. Well over a thousand visitors accompanied Bruce on his rounds and asked him questions ranging from athletics to zoology. People were curious about college rules, expenses, scholastic regulations, the Hopkins Center, fraternities, Eleazar Wheelock, automobiles, and social life. And then there were the "fine-point" questions: "How many feet above sea level is the campus?" "Who was the architect of Dartmouth Row?" "Did Daniel Webster really have two wives?" "How high is Baker Tower?" Bruce usually had a retort if not an answer.

Our "ambassador" did an admirable job with the Guide Service, and this fall the College inaugurated a formal program of guiding throughout the school year. Bruce is head guide and the service will be available every day of the year (vacations included) to Dartmouth's visitors. For his College Guide Service he is establishing a "heeling" program similar to that used for other student managerial positions at Dartmouth. Daily tours, operating from the Admissions Office, start at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and are available for all comers.

With the coming of the Convocation ceremonies this fall, Bruce turned to another of his many responsibilities that of "unofficial College Organist." He is unofficial only in the sense that he would like to march at his own commencement next June and not be under obligation for providing the music as well. Bruce's musical talents have reached into many areas. He plays for Chapel four times a week as well as for Union Services and special events. He is sometimes composer and arranger for the Dartmouth College Band. His composition The Classof '59 Fanfare, based on Men of Dartmouth, has been recorded by the Band on their new RCA release.

Hanover is not the only town in the upper Connecticut Valley that has heard of Bruce McInnes. Four churches in the area have had his .services as organist and choir director. Presently he holds this post at the Congregational Church in Meriden, N. H. Three nights a week he commutes south to serve ably as Director of Music at Kimball Union Academy.

Woonsocket, R. I., is Bruce's home town. He prepared for Dartmouth at Moses Brown in Providence, and it was Dartmouth all the way. His uncle, Milton G. McInnes '30, saw to that.

Bruce McInnes is now applying for a Fulbright Scholarship and, if he gets it, plans to study organ in France. Other than this, his future is not definitely planned. In any case, the College and the Upper Valley stand to lose. A new head guide, new student organist, and student replacement with Bruce's bustle and talent will be hard to find. And the summers in Hanover may be just a bit quieter. Between campus tours there will be no more organ fugues pouring out of Rollins Chapel.

Bruce McInnes '59