Council Honors Three Alumni

AT the dinner of the Alumni Council in Thayer Hall, June 19, the Council bestowed its highest honor, the Dartmouth Alumni Award, on two prominent graduates of the College: John Hurd 21 of Hanover, Professor of English Emeritus and a longtime class officer, and Charles L. Hardy '27 of Chicago, president of the Joseph T. Ryerson & Son steel company. Four days earlier, at the 55th Reunion banquet of the Class of 1913, the same Council tribute was paid to T. Willard Towler '13 of Summit, N. J., retired publisher of Town and Country magazine.

Delwyn J. Worthington '26, president of the Alumni Council, presented the awards at the Council dinner. J. Michael McGean '49, Secretary of the College and secretary of the Council, made the presentation to Mr. Towler. The award citations, saluting the three men for distinguished service to their professions, communities, and to the College, were as follows:

THOMAS WILLARD TOWLER '13

Longtime publisher of the quality magazine under the Hearst banner, promoter for twenty years in various publication fields, politician in the common council of Summit, New Jersey, trustee of your Beta chapter for 35 years, and a most loyal and devoted Dartmouth man for 55 years! Added together this would total almost 150 years of dedicated service to the betterment of the College specifically and society generally, not counting a tour in World War I, sometime as an assistant in the production of gas masks for horses.

You have traveled a long road since leaving Hanover in 1913, but you have returned to the Plain frequently. Noteworthy times were your Tremendous 25th, when a life-sized photo of you in a bathing suit identified the class bus, and your later and more dignified chairmanship of the Fiftieth when you carried off both reunion trophies.

Your early acquired ability with the pick as a mandolin-guitar virtuoso in the Mandolin Club and as a folk singer of note certainly should qualify you as a member of the modern-day Harpers Bazaar, but instead we find you unable to accept full retirement, and very busy with Men's Bazaar — U.S., British, German, and Italian editions.

With all these foreign entanglements you continue to serve the College and your Class as Bequest Chairman. You were a co- founder of the Dartmouth Club of New York and three times its president. Forty years ago you were a most successful Head Agent and put your Class over its quota. Recently your work as an Assistant Class Agent has been equally impressive.

With abiding appreciation for faithfully serving the College and your Class for more than a half century, we are honored to present to you the Dartmouth Alumni Award.

JOHN HURD '21

Laborer — Fore River Shipyard, 1918.

Jack, you have traveled not only a long way but also about 108 degrees off the course set by that job fifty years ago. Contemplate, if you dare, the personal consequences of forcing those shipyard colleagues to submit to the ordeal-by-lecture on a favorite bit of 18 th Century English literature — your "New Lights on Boswell" lecture, for example. Albeit painful for you, the greater loss would have been Dartmouth's.

Before graduation you began serving the College in your field of great interest, writing. Editor-in-chief of The Bema, founder and editor of The Scrip, member of the Round Robin and the news staff of TheDartmouth, these were your undergraduate contributions to the literary life of the College. After receiving advanced degrees from Oxford, with Honours, and from Harvard, and following intermittent tours as reporter and desk editor on the Boston Globe, you returned to Hanover in 1927 to occupy positions as instructor, assistant professor, and professor of English.

You were also contributing and later literary editor of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, an appointment you still hold. In addition to classroom duties you served as Faculty Representative on the Board of The Dartmouth, as Chairman of the Faculty Committees on Freshman English and on Fellowships and Prizes, and member of the Committee on Administration.

You never completely severed your early connections with ships and the sea, although your World War II and subsequent Navy activities were chiefly in the air arm. After active duty at several stations you and a Dartmouth colleague wrote and edited a book on Naval Orientation which was used by colleges throughout the countiy. You helped organize the Reserve Unit in Hanover and continued to be active in that organization until your retirement as a Commander in 1962.

For ten years you have been Secretary of your Class and every year you write a personal letter to each classmate — over three hundred of them — at the time of his birthday. As evidences of your outstanding job you were named Class Secretary of the Year in 1961 and elected President of the Class Secretaries Association the following Year.

With abiding appreciation and in grateful recognition of outstanding service to Dartmouth, it is our honor to present to you the Dartmouth Alumni Award.

CHARLES LAURENCE HARDY '27

Any teenager who can play an Oliver Twist role so convincingly that he keeps the character's name through life, especially when personally he has nothing in common with Dickens' very mean "Sykes," but particularly anyone who can sell the Patent Office, the Navy and General Electric his invention of a Steam Strainer Basket - explain, please, how steam is strained into or through a basket — must be considered for the highest alumni award his college can give.

Sykes, with keen foresight Dartmouth awarded you the Gallagher Scholarship for excellence in leadership, scholastic attainments and athletics, and you have spent the last forty years confirming the wisdom of that choice. Three days after graduation you started bending steel in Ryerson's reinforcing-bar yard and in 24 years you became president of the nation's largest steel ware-housing concern. As a director of a bank, a hospital, of industries, charities, associations of commerce and industry, cultural and social organizations and as an active worker on community projects, you continue to contribute to the business and social wel- fare of the country.

Although busy in these diverse activities, you have been a valued servant of the College as president of the General Association of Alumni, member of the Athletic Council, the Alumni Council, and the Trustees Planning Subcommittee on Athletics, Regional Class Agent for the Alumni Fund, and recently as president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Chicago.

For this devotion to Dartmouth and in grateful recognition of your continuing loyalty, vigorous leadership and wise counsel, we present to you the Dartmouth Alumni Award.

T. Willard Towler '13 (r) receivingAlumni Award from Secretary MichaelMcGean '49.

Council president Worthington making anaward (top) to Prof. John Hurd '21 (l)and (below) to Charles L. Hardy '27 (r).

Council president Worthington making anaward (top) to Prof. John Hurd '21 (l)and (below) to Charles L. Hardy '27 (r).