A BIG NIGHT AT THE WALDORF
Dartmouth Says "Happy Birthday" to President Emeritus Hopkins
WITH the festive air and joy of a family birthday party, especially one given in honor of the revered and beloved senior member of the family, Dartmouth took over the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on the night of February 5 to celebrate the Both birthday of President Emeritus Ernest Martin Hopkins - and to express to him, without relation to any date, the sort of king-sized, affectionate tribute that the College had not had a chance to express since he retired as President in 1945.
The grand ballroom of the hotel was packed to overflowing with 2200 persons, one of the largest crowds the Waldorf ever managed to handle at a dinner in that space. The gathering was resplendent, the profusion of green and white decorations created a warm and special Dartmouth atmosphere, and the arrangements were carefully planned and well executed.
All in all, the dinner party was one of the memorable Dartmouth alumni events of this era. The New York planning committee had confidently promised the greatest Dartmouth event ever held outside Hanover. President Dickey, in his address of the evening, referred to this advance billing and said, "Having a decent regard for certain remarkable Saturday afternoon gatherings that have been held outside Hanover, we might clinch tonight's claim to unique fame simply by adding the qualifying word indoors or, if we would be both more exact and more embracing, we can surely claim tonight to be the greatest Dartmouth black-tie gathering ever held anywhere."
Other speakers of the evening were Nelson A. Rockefeller '30, chairman of the dinner committee, who presided over the evening's program; Charles J. Zimmerman '23, Dartmouth Trustee and national chairman of the 200 th Anniversary Development Program; and Sherman Adams 20, Assistant to President Eisenhower, who gave the main speech of tribute to Mr. Hopkins and presented him with a full-sized replica of the silver Wheelock Bowl, engraved with the sentiments of the gathering.
But it was Mr. Hopkins, always the center of the evening's events, who climaxed the occasion and most delighted the audience when he stepped up to the speaker's rostrum to express his thanks, even though he had asked the dinner committee to promise that he would not have to make a speech.
"There are things felt by the heart that the lips can never express," he said. "Such is the measure of my humble thanks and my great appreciation to all of you."
A moment later the crowd was laughing with him as he recalled how at his inauguration as President o£ the College in 1916 the Governor of New Hampshire began his address with a slip of the tongue and orandly asserted, "Today Dartmouth College arrives at another millstone." Mr. Hopkins drew another roar when he told how on one occasion the late Professor L. B. Richardson had thrown up his hands and cried, "My God, the Governor was right."
But no one in the audience believed that their honored guest was anything but "the epitome of everything Dartmouth College stands for," as The NewYork Times had said editorially that morning. Once again, as so many times in the past, Mr. Hopkins was working his magic with a gathering of Dartmouth alumni, who extended him their great respect and warm affection, and took obvious pleasure in sharing an occasion with him.
IN conjunction with the Hopkins Dinner, many classes held cocktail parties prior to the start of the ballroom gathering at 7:30. Thirteen different clubs and suites in the Waldorf were taken over for these parties, and other class receptions were held at the Park Lane, the Barclay and the Rainbow Grill in Rockefeller Center. In several instances, two, three or four consecutive classes held joint parties.
The alumni turnout in honor of President Emeritus Hopkins was almost overwhelming. Until 4 a.m. on the morning of the dinner the committee labored to squeeze in extra tables and revise its seating plan. Both balconies were filled, in addition to the main floor, and the large East Foyer, just off the ballroom, was called into service. Considering the immensity of the committee's job, the huge crowd of alumni, wives and special guests was settled into place, on time, with amazingly few hitches. A last-minute shift in the 1927 tables did not get recorded on the long list of names and table assignments that went off to the printer, and confusion reigned in the first balcony until a courier arrived to explain what had happened. In another instance, a dozen persons arrived at their assigned table to learn that it seated only four, but here again the committee trouble-shooters were equal to the problem and spaces were found elsewhere.
The parade to the dais by the dinner principals, Trustees and other distinguished guests took place only a few minutes after its scheduled time, Mr. Hopkins received his first standing ova ion of the evening, and following the invocation by Dean Fred Berthold Jr. '45 the dinner was actually under way. Fruits of the seas Prexy, New England consommd, Long Island duckling Dartmouth, and salad Chief Occom were served by a small army of red-coated waiters. Just before the dessert, called Surprise Eleazar, the lights were dimmed and a huge birthday cake with lighted candles was carried in to the dais, and to each table was brought the green and white, cake-shaped dessert with a lighted candle. The Dartmouth Glee Club broke into "Happy Birthday" as the big cake was placed near Mr. Hopkins and the audience joined in.
The Glee Club, under Prof. Paul Zeller continued with several Dartmouth songs during the dessert course, and Chairman Rockefeller then rapped for quiet to announce that the student songsters would render a special version of Eleazar Wheelock entitled "Ernest Martin Hopkins" and written specially for the occasion. (The words are printed in this issue, Page 23.) Not only did the Glee Club contribute greatly to the dinner program, but the Barbary Coast Orchestra was also on hand to provide music.
Mr. Rockefeller opened the speaking program with brief words of tribute to Mr. Hopkins, spoken as one who was an undergraduate during his presidency and who also served with him as a Trustee of the College. He read a letter from his father and Mr. Hopkins' good friend, John D. Rockefeller Jr., who recalled his advice of some years ago to young men: "Find out what college Ernest Martin Hopkins is the president of, and go there."
President Dickey, delivering the first address of the evening, declared that the occasion took "its unique distinction from one whose service in Dartmouth's purpose makes him both the most honored and the most beloved among all the men of Dartmouth." He added that his portion of tribute to Mr. Hopkins would take the form of "a report from the front on how goes the fight for liberal learning" which President Hopkins, "as the eleventh in the Wheelock Succession, so gallantly led forward in a campaign of nigh thirty years' duration." The full text of President Dickey's address appears in this issue.
The second speaker was Mr. Zimmerman, who as national chairman of Dartmouth's 200th Anniversary Development Program summarized the aims of future greatness embodied in the program. "The legacy that has been ours in this generation puts upon us a burden that calls for the utmost boldness and determination if we are to pass on to succeeding generations a vital, growing institution such as the one we know today. Fortunately, Hoppy can be with us tonight to share in a vision of those plans and to hear us promise him what we, as alumni and friends of Dartmouth, have set out to do to maintain the greatness of Dartmouth he has helped to build."
Mr. Zimmerman announced that the Dartmouth Trustees have set a goal of $17,000,000 for the capital funds campaign, now in progress, and that to date some 240 friends and alumni have pledged $4,168,000. Among these gifts is one for one million dollars from an anonymous alumnus. Mr. Zimmerman also announced that the pledge of John D. Rockefeller Jr. for one million dollars toward the cost of the Hopkins Center had been matched by other contributors, as was the condition on which the pledge was made, and that Mr. Rockefeller had recently sent the College full payment of his generous gift. This gift, not being counted in the capital funds campaign, was not included in Mr. Zimmerman's progress report.
The Hopkins Center was hailed by Mr. Zimmerman as the alumni's birthday gift to Dartmouth's president emeritus. "The Center," he said, "is a fitting tribute to a man who has always been concerned with the education of the 'whole man.' It will be to the undergraduate life at Dartmouth what Baker Library has been for the past thirty years, but it will add to life at Dartmouth a new dimension that is unique and practical, and, at the same time, closely identified with the ideals of education in breadth and depth that have always been the great concern of Dr. Hopkins."
Sherman Adams, climaxing the speaking program, added still other encomiums to those heaped upon Mr. Hopkins, sitting modestly at his side. "Much of the essence of the Dartmouth purpose." he said, "emerges from the man who has so incisively thought through and so eloquently interpreted the responsibilities of the liberal arts college. In Hoppy it was often not so much the more newsworthy causes he espoused that were to become significant of that purpose, but rather the decisions he made that at the time seemed unportentous."
Mr. Adams also said, "Hoppy's greatest gift to his college is an indefinable legacy. It was he who made the Dartmouth fellowship the most contagious and flourishing phenomenon in this generation of college men. He it was who fused an alumni body, and warmed its affections, and bent it long since to the task of underwriting year by year the broadening influence of Dartmouth College upon its day and age."
One of the high points of the dinner was provided by Mr. Adams when he read a personal message from President Eisenhower, who, Mr. Adams interpolated, "wrote this personally with his own little pencil." The message said:
"Please give my greetings to the sons of Dartmouth assembled in honor of their distinguished and beloved President Emeritus, Dr. Ernest Martin Hopkins.
"All of us know that from the beginning of this century, the life and loyalty of Dr. Hopkins have centered in Dartmouth College. Under his leadership the College grew strong: the campus, the academic standards, and the spiritual foundations which underlie the best works of man. Because of him, the graduates of Dartmouth have increasingly gone out to careers of usefulness in this country and around the world. Continuing in the traditions which claim his allegiance, I know that Dartmouth will meet the expand- ing needs of the present day with vigor and high sense of purpose.
"It is a pleasure to send personal congratulations to Dr. Hopkins and my best wishes to all those gathered to pay him the respect which he has throughout a long and productive life so richly earned."
Mr. Adams concluded by presenting to Mr. Hopkins a replica of the silver Wheelock Bowl which, he declared, "is full to overflowing with the respect and affection of the Dartmouth fellowship." In addition to the inscription on the original bowl, given to Eleazar Wheelock by Governor John Wentworth in 1771, it bore this legend: "The President and Trustees of Dartmouth College and Alumni and Friends Assembled, February 5, 1958, in New York City, in Honor of his 80th Year, in Testimony of their Gratitude and Good Wishes Present this to ERNEST MARTIN HOPKINS, Litt.D., L.H.D., LL.D., Eleventh President in the Wheelock Succession, 1916-1945."
The audience resoundingly applauded this formal token of its good wishes and then was delighted to see Mr. Hopkins surrender to the emotional urge to speak briefly and express his thanks. After the dinner was all over, Mr. Hopkins said, "I had only the alternatives of laughing or crying. It was a great relief when it appeared the audience endorsed my choice." And so it was on a happy, light-hearted note that the dinner ended with the singing of "Men of Dartmouth."
THAT the Hopkins Dinner was such a resounding success was the result of many weeks of careful planning and hard work by the New York alumni committee and its Hanover counterpart, both of which joined forces in the final stages. Milburn McCarty '35 was vice chairman under Nelson Rockefeller. Sub-committee chairmen were Nicholas Bernard '23, arrangements; Victor Borella '30, program; Jerry A. Danzig '34, public relations; John D. Dodd '22, national invitations; Bruce Friedlich '41, class invitations; and Carl H. Funke '35, club invitations.
Perry Davis Jr. '54 led a committee sub-group representing the New York area alumni clubs. Working with him were William R. Carter '39, Oliver B. Conover '53, John U. Crandell '40, Roland R. Hummel Jr. '42, Stephen A. Flynn '44, and James McKeon.
J. Michael McGean '49, Assistant Secretary of the College, served as secretary of the dinner committee and was executive head of the office set up in New York and operated for a month prior to the dinner. Raymond J. Buck Jr. '52, associate in the Development Office, also transferred his activities to New York for a long period prior to the dinner and played an important part in the preparations.
Robert L. Allen '45, John R. Scotford Jr. '38 and George O'Connell of the College staff planned and executed many of the dinner details, and that "the show" went off so smoothly and professionally on the big night was due in no small part to the direction of Warner Bentley, George Schoenhut and William Warfel of the Dartmouth Players.
lor the benefit of press photographers a trial run of presenting a Wheelock Bowl to Mr Hopkins was staged before the dinner. Shown (l to r) are President Dickey, Sherman Adams 20, who made the presentation, Mr. Hopkins, and Nelson Rockefeller '30, dinner chairman
Charles J. Zimmerman '23, Dartmouth Trustee and chairman of the capital gifts campaign, speaking at the dinner.
Mr. Hopkins' huge birthday cake arrives ... he starts to blow out the candles ... and then welcomes some help
Mr. Hopkins' huge birthday cake arrives ... he starts to blow out the candles ... and then welcomes some help
Mr. Hopkins' huge birthday cake arrives ... he starts to blow out the candles ... and then welcomes some help
ON THE DAIS: Front row (l to r), Orvil E. Dryfoos '34, Thomas B. Curtis '32, Governor Lane Dwinell '28, Lloyd D. Brace '25, Beardsley Ruml '15, Fred C. Scribner '30, J. Frank Drake '02, Sigurd S. Larmon '14, John R. McLane '07, Sherman Adams '20, Mr. Hopkins, Nelson A. Rockefeller '30, President Dickey, Charles J. Zimmerman '23, Dean Fred Berthold '45, Edward S. French '06, Senator Ralph Flanders, Arthur J. Cohen '03, George H. Howard '07, Albert Bradley '15, John L. Sullivan '21, Dudley W. Orr '29', Ralph W. Hunter '31. Back row: Charles L. Hardy '27, Sumner B. Emerson '17, Carleton Blunt '26, Guy P. Wallick '21, Carl Funke '35, Deane Davis, Basil O'Connor '12, Milburn McCarty '35, Wallace K. Harrison, Meade Alcorn '30, Justin A. Stanley '33, C.K. Woodbridge '04, John H. Watson '04, Laurence F. Whittemore, Waltman Walters. '17 and Wilbur W. Bullen '22.
The Dartmouth Glee Club providing an interlude of song between dinner and the speeches
Candlelight and green and white decorations added to the festive air of the ballroom
Applauding Mr. Hopkins (picture above) are: front row, Sigurd S. Larmon '14, John R. McLane '07, Sherman Adams '20, Nelson A. Rockefeller '30, President Dickey; back row: Carl H. Funke '35, Deane Davis, Basil O'Connor '12, Milburn McCarty 35, Wallace K. Harrison, Justin A Stanley '33.
