1936's $523,966 Launches New 25th Year Gift Plan

THE Class of 1936 at its 25th reunion last June achieved two unique distinctions. Its reunion attendance figure of 690 was the highest ever recorded by any class, but a more meaningful record and one which took 25 years to compile was that announced at 1936's class banquet by Monroe S. Fitzherbert, class chairman, when he reported to President Dickey and reuning classmates that 1936 had become the first class to have given Dartmouth a half-million dollars by the time of its 25th reunion.

The $523,966 total he reported represented gifts made to Dartmouth by or on behalf of 1936 in its first 25 years of alumni life, including $199,153 contributed to the annual Alumni Fund, $273,633 raised by 1936 through its Memorial Fund and Capital Gifts Campaigns, and some $51,180 given for other purposes by '36 men, parents, and friends.

Putting 1936 over the half-million figure was the $24,378 raised in the 1961 Alumni Fund campaign under the direction of Head Agent C. Kirk Liggett. The class captured the Group IV Green Derby laurels for the second time in a six-year period under Liggett's guidance. Also instrumental was the 1936 Memorial Fund program which, prior to the merger with the Capital Campaign, had been led by Dean R. Gidney.

The 1936 announcement signalled the beginning of a new policy in total 25-year giving established by the Class Gifts Committee and approved last June by the Dartmouth Alumni Council. The new program replaces the former Memorial Fund Program which was suspended on a temporary basis during the period of Dartmouth's Capital, Gifts Campaign.

Following the Capital Campaign the Class Gifts Committee was asked by the Alumni Council to study the Memorial Fund program and to recommend whether it should be resumed or permanently curtailed in favor of some other form of 25-year giving. After many meetings and consultation with the Class Memorial Fund chairmen and class officers of pre25th year classes, the Committee began to develop a program based on the total 25-year giving concept.

This concept was given further impetus by the Class of 1935 when, in the year prior to its 25th reunion, the class requested Committee approval to conduct a special 25th-year program seeking between $50,000 and $100,000 to bring its combined Capital Campaign and 25th-Year Fund total over $300,000. The Committee and the Alumni Council approved the 1935 program and the class raised some $75,000 by reunion to exceed $300,000 in combined fund totals and, at the same time, brought its cumulative 25-year giving total to $496,000.

With 1935's accomplishments a matter of record and the Class of 1936 about to become the first to go over the halfmillion figure, the Class Gifts Committee recommended to the Dartmouth Alumni Council last June, and the Council unanimously approved, the following program:

1. The formal cancellation of the Memorial Fund Program for 25th reunion classes.

2. The adoption of a program of total 25-year giving for all 25th reunion classes — the total to include all gifts by or on behalf of class members made from the year when the class was graduated from Dartmouth through the date of its 25th reunion.

3. The Class Gifts Committee will assist any class approaching its 25th year reunion in the formulation and execution of a special 25th year Gift Fund designed to increase total class giving. Approval by the Committee will be required for any special 25th year gift program.

The Committee is now working with the Class of 1937, which currently has a total of $424,842 on the books, in seeking class gifts to boost 1937 over the half-million mark and possibly beyond 1936's record. Class Chairman Wayne K. Ballantyne and Class Gifts Chairman Francis T. Fenn Jr. have consulted with the 1937 executive committee and are currently working on details of a program to get under way later this fall.

Meanwhile, Class Gifts Committee Chairman Donald F. D'Arcy '33 is scheduling meetings later this fall with Class Chairmen and Class Gifts Chairmen of 1938 through 1942 to assist them on any special class fund programs they may wish to undertake.