A Record-Breaking Reunion Week
IT was a shattering Reunion Week! Attendance records began to be broken early in the week, and went right on being broken as one of the biggest reunion-times ever in numbers and possibly in noise came to a close with the roar of outbound vehicles and Hanover settled back for a brief respite before the opening of the first Summer Term.
From the 30 members of the Class of 1898 family on hand to celebrate their on-time 65th to the 127 men and women back for the Class of 1959's early fifth reunion it was an occasion for renewal of Dartmouth fellowship and spirit. There was also ample reason for walking and riding around campus as Dartmouth's newest facilities figured as topics for so many conversations in the crowded reunion tents. A steady stream of alumni and families moved through the Hopkins Center. Others gazed upward at the handsome ceiling design of the Leverone Field House. Many hardy souls even hiked down past Tuck School to see the new Wigwam dorms and out past the hospital to where the Gilman Bio-Medical Center is rapidly taking shape.
The Classes "of 1898, 1903, 1908, and 1913 began the 1963 reunion period before the Grand Old Seniors of 1963 had a chance to grasp diplomas and join the alumni ranks. The Class of 1913, the 50-year reunion class, won both the Class of 1894 Cup for the highest percentage of graduates back and the 1930 Cup for the largest number of class members. The golden year class had 78 alumni back in the full reunion total of 143, some 62 percent of the living graduates in the class. This accomplishment not only won them the 1894 Cup for the first weekend, but for the whole Reunion Week as well. The Class of 1903 had a total attendance of 23, twelve of whom were alumni, and 1908 had a total number of 69, 34 of whom were men of the class.
Registration for the mid-week reunioning classes of 1923, 1932, 1933, and 1934 was set for noon on Monday following the Sunday Commencement ceremony. Many who arrived in town at that time were on hand for the first of the 1963 Hanover Holiday programs, a lecture on "Theater-Going in Japan" by Prof. Henry B. Williams, held appropriately enough in the Hopkins Center's Studio Theater. The Center also figured in the first event for members of the Class of 1923 as a tour was specially planned for them. The other three classes opened reunions with a combined cocktail party as the first of many social events they enjoyed together. The alumni reception and dinner in the Nathaniel Leverone Field House for all visiting alumni and guests was followed by an evening of such variety that the big problem was deciding what to do, or to do first. There was informal visiting in President Dickey's garden, and '32, '33, '34 class movies, a Hanover Holiday program with Center Director of Music Mario di Bonaventura discussing "The Symphony Orchestra Today and Yesterday," and in the Center's main theater the Dartmouth Players were presenting Archibald MacLeish's J.B. And from 9 o'clock on Tuck Mall was jumping to the music of two orchestras as the combined classes of the '30s swung on in a dancing party.
The next morning was class breakfast time followed by a stimulating discussion of "Education for the Public Service" with Judge Howard W. Alcorn '23 of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, moderating. On the panel were Michael H. Cardozo '32, executive director of the Association of American Law Schools; Henry P. Smith '33, Judge of the Niagara (N. Y.) County Court and a former mayor; and former U.S. Congressman (N. H.) Perkins Bass '34. The remainder of the morning was spent in class meetings and memorial services. The Hanover Holiday feature of the afternoon was Prof. Hugh S. Morrison '26 speaking on "Modern Architecture: New Directions," but the lure of the golf course and the New Hampshire countryside on a near-perfect day was too strong for many and they happily succumbed to it. The Class of 1923 had a special program on "Dartmouth 40 Years Later," a brief but extensive review by College officials of Dartmouth progress, programs, and planning.
The three combined classes journeyed en masse to Quechee, Vt., for a cocktail party and dinner in Bill ('33) Dewey's field, while 1923 had cocktails and dinner at the Center. Vice President Orton H. Hicks '21 was the featured speaker for 1923. J.B. was available again on Tuesday night, and there was more dancing on Tuck Mall when the men, women, and children of the '30's came back across the state line. A second round of class breakfasts opened the day Wednesday to be followed by another Hanover Holiday feature, Prof. Robert J. Poor speaking on "The Beginnings of Art."
Honors for mid-week attendance went to the Class of 1923 which won both attendance cups for the three-day period and set a new College attendance record for the 40th reunion with 128 alumni back and a total group of 263. The Classes of 1932, 1933, and 1934 had total attendance figures of 195, 270, and 163 respectively, and since they were usually celebrating together Tuck Mall was always impressively crowded.
There were still a few stragglers from the mid-week classes on the golf courses and tennis courts when the Class of 1938 opened its 25th reunion festivities on Thursday at a reception and dinner given by the College in honor of the class. Some 42 percent of the living graduates were on hand, a total of 214 alumni, and they brought along 181 wives, and 307 children for a record-smashing (for total class attendance) crowd of 702. Tuck Mall was just as noisy, just as busy as two days earlier when the three from the thirties had held forth. J.B. was on the boards for '38 at the Center and there was dancing on the boards at the class tent, once again two orchestras and both swinging.
The Hanover Holiday program on Friday morning was a "'38 special." David J. Bradley '38 was moderator of a panel discussion on "World Peace Through World Law" and the panel was made up of his classmates Robert H. Reno, Chairman of the Committee on World Peace Through Law of the New Hampshire Bar Association; Frank C. Newman, Dean of the University of California Law School, and Harold J. Berman, Professor of Law at Harvard. At noon the alumni of Thayer, Tuck, and the Medical Schools met for their annual luncheons, and by mid-afternoon the younger reuning classes of 1953, 1957, 1958, and 1959 were pouring into town. Class cocktail parties preceded the alumni reception and dinner, held once again in the Leverone Field House. The evening activities offered visiting in the President's garden, J.B., the Annual Dance in the Center's Alumni Hall, and dancing and fellowship at the class tents from Woodward, Ripley, and Smith to Wigwam Row.
The final Hanover Holiday program of the week, and the final program under the aegis of Prof. Herbert Hill, director of the program since its beginning in 1937, had Director of Admissions Edward T. Chamberlain Jr. '36 and Summer Dean Waldo Chamberlin discussing "The New Dartmouth Student." For the "old" Dartmouth students Saturday morning also included class meetings and, despite the cold, grey Hanover day, luncheon picnics at Lake Morey ('38), Storrs Pond (combined '57, '58, and '59), and the Ledyard Canoe Club ('53). Cocktail parties and class banquets were the order for the early evening. Dean-Emeritus Joseph L. McDonald spoke at '38's, Dean Thaddeus Seymour at '57's, Dean Chamberlin at '59's, and Prof. Allen R. Foley '20 at '58's. On Saturday night alumni and wives had a choice of J.B. or a concert by the Dartmouth Community Symphony Orchestra, both at the Center, and later in the evening there was dance band music blasting forth from all corners of the campus.
Sunday morning was one for breakfasts and brunches and special class memorial services. The Class of 1953 won the 1930 Cup for both weekend and week with a total attendance of 439, a new record for a 10th-year reunion class. Some 238 '53 classmates were formally recorded as being back. Figures for the three youngest classes were: 1957, 119 alumni out of a total of 215 at reunion; 1958, 129 alumni out of 222; 1959, 77 alumni out of 127.
The grand total of attendance of all classes, men, women, and children listed in the official count, was 2,861.
President Dickey (at rostrum), Trustee Charles J. Zimmerman '23, and Dean Thaddeus Seymour spoke to the Class of 1923 at a gathering in the Hopkins Center.
