The Past Is Prologue

THE FIFTY-YEAR ADDRESS

IT is with great pleasure that I address you today on the 50th reunion of the Class of 1913.

A short time ago I was reading an article by Catherine Drinker Bowen, a great biographer, on "Our Heritage of Boldness." She pointed out what a bold adventure it was when Columbus started out across the ocean. In reading this article I could not help thinking of the boldness of Dartmouth's founders when they went into the wilderness to establish a school for the Indians. And further of the great boldness it took to go back to England and request money from Lord Dartmouth. He gave in no small amount for those days and also lent his name to this great adventure.

Then come down a hundred years or so and think of the boldness that Dr. Tucker had to manifest when he took his stand along with Darwinism against the heritage of generations that religion was the basis of all things. Little today do we realize what a terrific stand that was and how his life was threatened and impeachment was threatened because of his stand that Darwin was right. Then think further of the boldness it took when President Hopkins announced that college was going to be an aristocracy of brains and that loafing through college would end. It has ended. Think of the boldness it took for President Dickey to announce the three-term system which has already proved a great success.

Little do people realize today that it wasn't until 1833 that the cooking stoves were coming into use. Prior to that all cooking had been done over a fire in the fireplace. That was just barely 130 years ago. Most of us have lived from 65 to 70 of those years in one of the greatest advancements that has been made in the history of mankind.

Let us consider for a moment the great things that have taken place during the generation of the Class of 1913. In our childhood we were familiar with the coal-oil lamp and the wood stove which were the only forms of light and heat. We have come from the coal-oil lamp and wood stove to gas heat and gas light and then to electricity. Then to the heat of the atom. Also we have seen the many marvels of electricity with the telephone, the radio, electronics, and the birth of not only movies but television and radio, and last but not least, the development of the atom bomb. What a generation to live in with all its great advances. Today almost 90 per cent of the inventors that have made this advance possible are still alive. In the last 50 years there has been more advance than in 1,000 or 2,000 years before and we have been a part of this, at least an observing part if not an active one.

Members of the Class have contributed in one way or another to this great advance. Think of the members of our Class who have contributed something either to the College or the country. First, we must think of Brigadier General Chippie Scmmes, I remember him well. He came to college as a slight boy wishing to make his letter in athletics, which he did, and then went on to be an excellent patent lawyer. In the First World War he was a captain and climbed out of his tank when it was impossible to cross a canal which had been dug to impede progress and was shot by snipers at the butt of the ear. He survived this and was decorated by three nations. In the Second World War he went in as a colonel under General Patton and came out a brigadier general, a fine lawyer, director of a bank, a pillar of his church, author of a book on General Patton, and a fine citizen from every angle.

Another international figure is Kippy Tuck, an actor in most of the plays while in college. Then he became a prominent international figure. To quote from the Alumni Award given him in 1957, "Few living men can match your life for sheer adventure, few have played for higher stakes at the table of diplomacy, and few indeed have had the acumen to understand that persuasiveness in international matters is written in the silken phrases as well as etched on the hilt of the sword."

Then there is genial Mark Wright, world's champion pole vaulter in 1912. Also other members have attained prominence in other fields. Sherm Ward, ever a loyal Dartmouth man, left the College the seventh largest bequest in the history of the College and made possible, along with the gift of Al Dessau, the fact that the Class of 1913 had given over a million dollars to the College - the largest amount given by any class up to the year 1957, just six years ago. And today 1913 is among the ten classes that have given over a million dollars to the College.

We had many characters in the Class who did themselves proud. John Joseph Scarry, a genial soul who went to Batavia and Java and wrote for The SaturdayEvening Post. Ben Ames Williams told Warde Wilkins when Scarry's stories started in The Post that he wished he could write as well.

There was Ted Davis, always dashing off poetry, and no one suspected that he was owner of the shoeshine stand operated by the old janitor Joe Truman. Ted later had many, stories in The Post, mostly related to antique furniture.

Then there was Hap Atwood, Chairman of the Alumni Fund, who served on the Alumni Council and was made President of the First National Bank of Minneapolis. The officers of the bank let it be known before they selected him that they were looking for the smartest man in Minneapolis to fill the job.

The Class is justly proud of Bart Shepard - the father of Alan, the first descendant of a Dartmouth man to travel in space.

No recitation of class and college achievement would be complete without mention of the most devoted member of the class in loyalty to the College and in giving himself for the class, for fifty years" our class secretary — Warde Wilkins.

Think of how fortunate we were to have such professors as Dean Craven Laycock teach us. Most of the other classes since our time did not have this opportunity because it was only shortly after our Class had this privilege that he became Dean. Now all classes rub the nose on his bronze bust for good luck before examinations. I shall never forget his method of teaching rhetoric. The class assembled, he came in, looked at them with almost a touch of scorn and pointing to some unsuspecting individual said, "Talk for five minutes on the Declaration of Independence." And when this poor student stood on his feet trying to talk on the Declaration of Independence, the Dean would motion him to his seat. He would then turn to the class and say, "Wasn't that awful?" Then he would explain just how to approach the subject. When we finished that course we could talk on anything! His parting remark was, "If anyone's fool enough to ask you to talk, you be fool enough to talk." Hence my presence here today! All we had to have was one word and we could talk endlessly - and what training that was for after-life.

The winter of 1912 was the year of the great thaw. There was about three feet of snow on the level when a Chinook wind arrived melting the top three inches of snow, and that night the temperature dropped below zero. The next morning we put on our skates at the domitory and skated blissfully over hill and dale. If you think skiing is hazardous you should try these steep hills on a pair of skates. Mary Hitchcock Hospital did a thriving business on fractured bones.

Now to you men in the Class of 1963. You have received the inheritance of courage, boldness, and affection from old Dartmouth. A great opportunity! You have been carefully selected and carefully trained by experienced teachers and are about to enter a world which probably has more opportunities to offer you than any previous class. To quote Dr. Teller, world-renowned nuclear physicist, "The current breakneck speed of progress is small compared with what is to come in the next 20 to 30 years. I think progress is unavoidable; progress whether dangerous or hopeful I want it."

The inheritance of courage, boldness, training, and love of Dartmouth is now yours and we the Class of 1913 with pride welcome you into the alumni fold.

The past is prologue for all of us.

T. Donald Cunningham '13