THE DEDICATION
A CAPACITY crowd that filled the stage as welas the hall was present in Spaulding Auditorium for the dedication ceremony, Thursday afternoon, November 8, that launched the eleven-day Hopkins Center Inaugural Program.
The exercises, presided over by Trustee Dudley W. Orr '29, chairman of the Trustees Planning Committee, featured the dedicatory address by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller '30 of New York, chairman of the Hopkins Center Building Committee. This was buttressed by the "remarks" of President Dickey; Wallace K. Harrison, the Center's architect; Governor John A. Volpe of Massachusetts, chairman of the firm that built the Center; Warner Bentley, director of the Hopkins Center; and President Emeritus Ernest Martin Hopkins.
The occasion had warmth and spirit, and everyone there had a thoroughly good time. The emotional climax came at the end when Mr. Hopkins responded to the flood of tributes that had been paid to him. His personal magnetism undiminished in his 86th year, he stole the show with a short speech that was gracious, modest, and touched with humor.
The highlights of what was said at the dedication follow:
MR. ORR
"We are gathered here to dedicate one of the great landmarks in the history of Dartmouth. The beauty of the architect's design, the skill of the craftsmen who made the dream come true, and the life of the great humanist whose name it bears - all these deserve the commemoration of this ceremony. . . . This great facility wholly dedicated to the humane and esthetic aspects, of education will restore to the Dartmouth experience the unity and purposefulness that the expansion of knowledge has threatened to erode. The continuing success of Dartmouth in giving whole men to the world will greatly depend on the Hopkins Center."
MR. HARRISON
"This building is a tribute and a monument to one of the greatest men with whom I have had the privilege to work. Like all monuments, there is nothing you can say about it. You will soon learn about it. If you want to know what I have to say about the building, look around you. But I have much more to say in thanks to the men who made this thing possible, and that is true of any building ever built. Buildings are not built by one man; they are built by a society. You have to have workmen to put the building up. Men have risked their lives putting up this building. To them I pay a tribute. To Governor Volpe and his organization I pay a tribute. But above all I pay a tribute to Dr. Hopkins, President Dickey, and the Trustees, who put up with the ideas that we put forward in times when nobody wanted anything but Colonial architecture.
"A building is either clean and straightforward or it is a mess. This building will never have any conspicuous marks like pimples on the outside because it is a clean building."
GOVERNOR VOLPE
"As chairman of the board of the John Volpe Construction Company, I am extremely proud, although I take no credit for what we see around us. This has come from the wonderful imagination and design of Mr. Harrison and his associates. I don't want to sound like a mutual admiration society, but I just want to say that we have worked on many buildings in the course of the last 29 years, and none has given us the satisfaction that this building has given to the entire organization. ... We are indeed very proud to have the Volpe name associated with this beautiful yet very practical and useful building.
"I want to say that working with Mr. Harrison and his associates has been a great privilege. For we knew we were working with genius from the day we started the job. Working with the President of the College and all his associates has also been a wonderful experience, and for me it is a great pleasure to pret to you, President Dickey, the key to the building."
PRESIDENT DICKEY
"The time has come to say thank you, ancj when you are required to express your awareness of gratitude extending over at least thirty years, saying thank you is no small undertaking. It's not just the number of years involved in the realization of this project, it's also the number of people — to my mind an incredible number of people. ... In the circumstances, we thought one day of the customary New England kind of thanksgiving would not be adequate, so we set up a ten-day program of tribute to the arts and of thanks to all who make such a tribute fitting here
"I suggest to you that if we have been right, or even almost right, in our aspirations and in the realization of those aspirations which the architect, the builders, and those who gave have created, the thanks for an educational facility of this sort will go on not for ten days, not just for ten years. I'll wager that upwards of one hundred years from now men and scholars and students will be saying thank you.
"Manifestly, it is impossible to mention by name all those who have had a part in it. Indeed, if I were to do that I would want to include the critics, because you need critics to keep your nerve up, especially in an enterprise of this sort. And we had lots of opportunity to keep our nerve up. The sweetness of realization in an effort of this sort sometimes takes a long time in coming, and it comes in many unusual ways. One of the most direct, simplest, and most appreciated was a postcard that came to my desk a few weeks ago and is now under the glass top along with a few other choice items. This card, mailed here in Hanover, simply said: 'Dear Sir, I was wrong, you were right. It's great.' Well, he wasn't wrong and we're not necessarily right, but here we are with something we certainly didn't have when we began the last round of these past thirty years....
"I want to say a few words about a few individuals. [Here Mr. Dickey mentioned the contribution made by Mr. Hopkins, Wallace Harrison, the late Adelbert Ames, Ann Hopkins Potter, the Volpe organization, Dick Olmsted '32, Warner Bentley, the late John D. Rockefeller Jr., and Governor Rockefeller.] I just want to say to you, Governor, since this is my only chance to say it to you in front of those who are interested and care, that even though politics took you away from being an active chairman of the building committee long before this structure was in any advanced stage of realization, if it had not been for the encouragement and the informed conviction you brought to this enterprise, we would not, in my opinion, have it today.
"Let me close by saying that my sense of dedication here today is to that wholeness in a man and in a college which takes its significance from the strength of its parts when they are bound together with an over-arching sense of purpose. That is what this project, in its essence, is about. Here for a future which will learn its own way both the parts and the purpose are made manifest. Used well, these facilities will be what great facilities have always been to man - multipliers of his efforts and a witness of his aspirations. Here the spirit of liberal learning as it came to us from Greek society can be kept vital and meaningful as the essential friend rather than the uneasy conscience of a professionally strong society. Here the skill and the discipline of the professional can inform the enthusiasm, yea, I say unashamedly, the love of the amateur in that mission to man's humanity which at its best has always needed both the skill of the professional and the enthusiasm and love of the amateur."
MR. BENTLEY
"To say that this is a happy and thrilling moment would be an understatement. I never thought I would live long enough to be present on my own two feet on an occasion such as this. I have sometimes speculated that I might possibly be wheeled in, but I never dreamed of being wheeled into a building as magnificent as the one we are now in....
"The building now belongs to Dartmouth and the future begins today. The sense of responsibility that all of us feel could not be greater. On behalf of the Hopkins Center staff I pledge our untiring efforts to make the life of the Center live up to the magnificent physical facilities that you men have provided for our use. This is a great challenge, and we ask you all to accept this challenge - students, faculty, alumni, and our neighbors in the North Country. With your particiation and support, coupled with the help and advice of our advisory committees and the Dartmouth Council on the Creative Arts which begins today, the Hopkins Center will continually add new dimensions to liberal learning and bring, throughout the years to come, honor to the man who so richly deserves this honor, Ernest Martin Hopkins."
GOVERNOR ROCKEFELLER
"What an exciting and thrilling occasion this is for all those who love this great institution and this wonderful part of the country. This setting, the whole building, the whole concept, are to me one of the most exciting things to happen in this great country of ours in a generation. Progress in a free society depends on the creativity of individual free men and women, and I don't know of any undertaking that more effectively personifies this truism, because the creativity of the men and women associated with this undertaking is one of its outstanding features....
"Architecture is a form of creativity for which I have profound respect. And the fact that the man for whom I have perhaps the most respect and admiration, Wallace Harrison, is the architect of Hopkins Center gives this dedication a very special meaning for me. Like President Hopkins and John Dickey, Wallace Harrison is one of the truly great human beings of our time. ... At a time when there is so much tragedy, so much tension, so much conflict in the world, we are blessed indeed that there are men and women like Wallace Harrison, who has devoted himself to the creative side of life and to the values, the dignity, and the worth of the individual. I feel that the group of buildings here is one of the greatest triumphs in a long history of outstanding successes in his career. . . .
"That Dartmouth would invest $7,500,000 in a home for the visual and performing arts is not only a sign of the vision of President Dickey and the many individuals associated with him in the project; it is also a sign of the great public awakening in America to the arts and to the enrichment of human life through the artist.... I think the Great Issues Course that John Dickey started here and now the Hopkins Center are two of the most significant developments in education that have taken place in this country. And as citizens and as friends of Dartmouth College we are indebted to him for these new and broadening experiences that he is bringing into the lives of undergraduates.... The Hopkins Center is neither esoteric nor remote from American life. It is, rather, a symbol of Dartmouth's leadership in the mainstream of American life....
"There was something peculiarly significant in the description of the Hopkins Center's size that was distributed to the press. I refer to the part that said 'about four acres of floor space, more than two and a half football fields.' Perhaps the football field analogy was accidental. I prefer to think it symbolizes the Hopkins Center's future contribution to a further rounding out of the Dartmouth man's experience on this campus. As the Baker Library is the leading undergraduate college library in the nation, the center of the students' intellectual life, as the Outing Club and athletic plant contribute to their physical vigor, so the Hopkins Center will make its great contribution to the cultural life of the student body and to this entire region.
"Finally, I would like to speak of the man whose name is enshrined in this Center as it is in the hearts of all of us President Emeritus Ernest Martin Hopkins. As an undergraduate during his presidency and as one who knows well his outstanding work as a member of the Rockefeller Foundation board and as chairman of the General Education Board, I count it a rare privilege indeed to have been associated for so many years with this great educator, humanitarian, business man, and public servant. Few men have been so loved, so respected, so looked up to by undergraduates and by his fellow men in all walks of life. And I would like to say, President Hopkins, that the reason I came to Dartmouth was because I wanted to go to the college of which you were the president.
"We are indeed honored by his presence as we dedicate the Hopkins Center in his name to an even greater future for Dartmouth and the generation of young men who will enter the world through its portals."
Governor Rockefeller delivering theprincipal address at the dedicationceremony in Spaulding Auditorium.Mr. Hopkins can be seen at the left.
Wallace K. Harrison (l), whodesigned the Hopkins Center,shown with Governor Rockefellerand President Dickeyin front of his grand creation.
Governor Volpe of Massachusetts and Mrs. Volpe arriving for thededication ceremonies. Seen in the right rear is Richard F. Treadway'36, Republican National Committeeman from Massachusetts.
Warner Bentley, director ofthe Center, points out someof its features to reporterscovering the opening events.
The Center's Faculty Lounge
Mr. Hopkins' remarks at the dedicationceremony will be found on Page
