VISTA Corpsman at 73
Fletcher Low '15, Dartmouth Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, former Hanover selectman, school board member, Republican representative to the New Hampshire legislature, and professional baseball player for the Boston Braves, has begun a new career at 73 as a VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) corpsman.
Professor Low will spend a year serving at the Tremont Job Corps Center in Tennessee. This summer he completed an intensive six-week training program at Springfield College. He spent half his time on the Massachusetts campus, half in field visits and work in communities and at Job Corps Centers in New England. His VISTA classmates selected him to make the class speech at graduation.
In addition to working at Job Corps Centers, VISTA volunteers work with urban or rural poor, migrant workers, those in mental institutions, or at a variety of other assignments.
Professor Low, a widower, is the first Hanover resident to join the Domestic Peace Corps. He became interested a year ago when he read a VISTA flier appealing for volunteers. It had been enclosed with his teacher's retirement annuity check.
"I always liked civic affairs," he says simply.
In addition to the activities already mentioned, Professor Low served as president of the New Hampshire Municipal Association and of the State Tax Assessors Association. He developed a civil defense program for Dartmouth students in 1961, coordinating the College's plans with local, state, and federal civil defense officials.
For eighteen years he was a member of the faculty committee on athletics and of the Dartmouth College Athletic Council.
His own athletic career was highlighted when he played in the last game of the 1915 World Series. Although he played third base most of his short career, it was while pitching on a cold, rainy day in 1918 that he sustained an arm injury from which he never fully recovered. That same year he helped coach the College baseball team while teaching.
Fletcher Low is now giving on a national scale the kind of service he gave for almost 50 years in Hanover.
Prof. Fletcher Low '15
