Gerry Memorial Hall

DARTMOUTH'S new Psychology Building has been named in honor of an alumnus of the Class of 1869 who became a leading medical figure in the Boston area. The Board of Trustees have approved naming the five-story building Gerry Hall for the late Dr. Edwin Peabody Gerry.

Gerry Hall is the southern half of the mathematics and psychology complex recently completed behind Baker Library on Elm Street. It is joined to the Albert Bradley Center for Mathematics by several walkways and the large lecture hall recently named the Filene Auditorium in honor of Lincoln Filene. Gerry Hall contains numerous classrooms, faculty offices, and psychological research facilities. It has been in use since the beginning of the Winter Term when the Psychology Department moved there from their old quarters in McNutt Hall.

Dr. Gerry, who died in 1911, and his wife, Martha, who died in 1942, created trusts under their wills which provide for substantial vested remainder interests for the benefit of the College. Under the terms of these provisions, their bequests were to be used for a building bearing the Gerry name, with discretion granted to the Board of Trustees as to whether the building should be used for some academic department of the College or for a dormitory.

In addition, it was further specified that one section of the building be named for Dr. Charles Colby Pike of New London, N.H., who graduated from the Dartmouth Medical School the same year Dr. Gerry graduated from the College. The Trustees' approval of placing the Gerry name on the building also included approval of naming an appropriate section of the Psychology Building for Dr. Pike.

Dr. Gerry was born in Standish, Maine, and moved to Boston at the age of twelve. He entered Dartmouth at age sixteen after only three years at Boston Latin School. After graduation from the College, Dr. Gerry taught in a Massachusetts high school to earn money to attend Harvard Medical School from which he graduated in 1874. He then took up residence in Jamaica Plain, Mass., where he lived for the remainder of his life. He served in the outpatient department at Massachusetts General Hospital and for a period of time was house officer at Boston City Hospital. He was president of the Norfolk District Medical Society, vice president of the Boston City Hospital Club, and a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society.