Halsey Charles Edgerton '06

College's Treasurer Emeritus Dies at the Age of 83

HALSEY CHARLES EDGERTON '06, Treasurer Emeritus of the College, died July 11 at his Hanover home at the age of 83. Ill health in recent years had confined him to his home and kept him from being active in College affairs and in the life of the Hanover community in which he had been an outstanding figure for half a century.

When he retired in 1949, at the age of 65, Mr. Edgerton ended a 33-year period as Dartmouth's treasurer and an overall period of 43 years in the financial offices of the College. He began those long years of service as soon as he was graduated from Dartmouth in 1906, by becoming an assistant in the treasurer's office while taking his master's degree at Tuck School. He then became an auditing clerk in 1907, auditor in 1909, assistant treasurer in 1915, and treasurer in 1916, the year that Ernest Martin Hopkins '01 became President. He added the title of Business Director in 1921, not long after he had also added C.P.A. after his name.

Today the business and financial matters Mr. Edgerton directed almost singlehandedly are divided among a whole corps of college officers. He had the distinction of keeping Dartmouth in the black every year, and this took some special doing through two World Wars and the great depression. A native Vermonter, more taciturn than talkative, he "just tried to keep the lid on things," as he himself characterized his financial management to an interviewer a few years ago. But this obviously was not the philosophy guiding his handling of Dartmouth's investments, for which he had a knack approaching genius.

"Halsey had a keen sense of judgment, an almost intuitive feeling for sound investments," stated one colleague who worked with him. "President Hopkins and the Trustees had great faith in his advice."

During his tenure as treasurer the total assets of the College grew from $6 million to $35 million, and the annual operating budget increased eight-fold to more than $3 million. Much of the growth of Dartmouth's physical plant during President Hopkins' administration also came under his general supervision.

With all his official duties, Mr. Edgerton spent his spare time over several years preparing a book, Dartmouth CollegeGifts and Endowments, published in 1940, which contained data and essential quotations from instruments of gift for endowment and plant funds since the College's foundation.

He also served as president of the Dartmouth National Bank for 16 years and president of the Northfield (Vt.) National Bank for eight years. The latter position was held by his father and both of his grandfathers before him and now by his brother, Alson B. Edgerton '17.

Mr. Edgerton was born June 29, 1884, in Northfield, the son of Charles A. and Flora Brown Edgerton. He was descended from 17 th century New Englanders on both sides, the Edgertons having arrived in Saybrook, Conn., in 1632. After attending high school in Northfield, he enrolled at Norwich University but at the beginning of junior year transferred to Dartmouth, where his father had graduated in 1879. At Dartmouth he was a Rufus Choate Scholar, and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Theta Chi fraternity.

The Dartmouth administrative career he began upon graduation in 1906 and the unusual skill he demonstrated in financial affairs gradually brought many calls for his judgment and help in community and other enterprises. He was a trustee and treasurer of the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover for many years, and also served as town auditor and chairman of the town finance committee. He was president of the Hanover Rotary Club, and a director of the Hanover Improvement Society and the Hanover Water Works.

He was one of the first to foresee the possibilities of air travel between Hanover and metropolitan centers. With Garfield H. Miller of White River Junction he made the first flight from White River to Boston and return in April 1930. They purchased a single-engined Stinson for the journey and brought back the Boston evening papers for that day. Soon thereafter Mr. Edgerton and a group of airminded men started the Twin State Airport in White River Junction, which existed until 1956 and was the forerunner of the larger West Lebanon Regional Airport in service today.

Mr. Edgerton was also interested in various New England enterprises and was a director of the Granite State Electric Company, New England Electric System, Split Ballbearing Coporation, Connecticut River Power Company, and New England Power Company. He was president of the Association of College and University Business Officers for the Eastern States in 1927, and Grand Master of the New Hampshire Masons in 1935-36. An ardent fisherman and golfer, he had a summer home in Annisquam, Mass.

All in all, his life was a full and varied and productive one, and his Dartmouth associates always wondered how one man could do so many things and have so many interests. Those who called upon him in his Parkhurst Hall office were impressed, even startled, by the legendary state of his treasurer's desk, heaped high with orderly stacks of papers and reports. No matter what the topic of business at hand, Mr. Edgerton would go unerringly to the right pile, judge the approximate depth, and soon come up with the paper he was after. One would never know from his serious outward manner, but it is likely that secretly he took pleasure in being able to pull off this virtuoso performance.

When Mr. Edgerton retired in 1949, something of the admiration of the College for him was expressed in President Dickey's citation accompanying the conferring of the honorary LL.D. degree.

"Since 1906 when you graduated from Dartmouth you, in the most literal sense, have worked for this College, and for the past 33 years you have served as its 13th Treasurer in a succession which, along with the Presidency, began with Eleazar Wheelock. No human institution is for long stronger than its financial management and integrity. During the period of its greatest material growth you have managed the material affairs of this College with a fidelity which is beyond the knowledge, let alone the descriptive powers, of any of us. I speak for my predecessor, your former longtime co-worker in Dartmouth's service, for the Trustees whom you have served, for myself, and in truth for all Dartmouth in saying that Dartmouth's highest honor, her degree of Doctor of Laws, was never awarded to any son of the College with a greater measure of gratitude."

In his retirement years, one of Mr. Edgerton's greatest interests, combining his concern for both Dartmouth and the Hanover community, was the creation of the Episcopal Student Center which he and his wife gave to St. Thomas Episcopal Church and which bears the name Edgerton House. The center, built in 1960-61, contains a small chapel, a lounge, kitchen, library-study for undergraduates, game room, and apartment for the assistant rector. It serves as the focus for a varied student program sponsored by St. Thomas Church.

Mr. Edgerton in 1934 married the former A. Lorraine Sniffen of Bridgeport, Conn. He is survived by his wife, residing at 6 Occom Ridge, Hanover; two sons, William H. '57 of New York City and Robert A. '59 of Portage, Ind.; a brother, Alson B. '17 of Northfield, Vt.; a sister, Mrs. Arthur P. Timmerman of St. Louis, and two granddaughters.

Funeral services were held July 14 in Rollins Chapel, with the Rev. Fred Berthold '45 of Hanover and the Rev. Peter Oesterlin of White River Junction officiating. Pallbearers were Donald L. Barr '18, Dr. John P. Bowler '15, Prof. Allen R. Foley '20, Dr. John Milne '37, Richard W. Olmsted '32, and George Ward. Honorary bearers were President Dickey, Sherman Adams '20, Warner Bentley '37h, Prof. Nathaniel G. Burleigh '11, Prof. Francis L. Childs '06, Robert O. Conant '13, Edward S. French '06, Prof. Russell R. Larmon '19, J. Fredrick Larson '28h, Robert S. Monahan '29, Dudley W. Orr '29, and LeRoy G. Porter '15.

A memorial bearing Mr. Edgerton's name is being planned for the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover. Contributions are being sent to Dr. John P. Bowler, Hovey Lane, Hanover, N. H.

Mr. Edgerton at his Parkhurst Hall desk shortly before retirement in 1949.