Alumni Awards

THREE of the Dartmouth class officers attending the May 2-3 meetings were specially honored by the Dartmouth Alumni Council, which conferred on them the Dartmouth Alumni Award, symbolic of long and distinguished service to the College, their professions, and their home communities. In making the awards to Bequest Chairman Truman T. Metzel '23, Class Treasurer Edward W. Roessler '25, and Class Agent Wesley H. Beattie '33, the Council's awards chairman, Wilbur W. Bullen '22, presented silver miniatures of the Wheelock Bowl and read the following citations:

TRUMAN THWING METZEL '23

Business executive, military officer and consultant, cartoonist, artist, sculptor, aircraft pilot, world traveler, sponsor of programs for retarded children and social agencies generally, loyal and dedicated alumnus of the College - all testify that your leisure life did not begin at forty when you retired from active business, but that you continued on at an even more vigorous pace in the service of society and your country.

Soon after graduation it became clear that a class or College activity would not mean a thing if it didn't have that Truman Thwing Metzel touch. First, you set up an informal but active Dartmouth headquarters in your shoe store at the Palmer House in the heart of Chicago's Loop, a meeting place for Dartmouth men and women which became as well known as the Biltmore clock in New York. A few years later you began the first of two five-year terms as Class Secretary and in 1928 you became a Class Agent, a job you have done well and faithfully for over forty years. As a "charter" Bequest Chairman you have for eighteen years diligently promoted this program in your class and as a member of the Alumni Council and Chairman of its Bequest Committee for three years, as well as President of the Association of Bequest Chairmen, you have been the source of thoughtful ideas for improving all aspects of the program. In 1968 you were named Bequest Chairman of the Year. Your Dartmouth affiliations became even stronger with the graduation of your son, Truman T. Metzel Jr., a member of the Class of 1948.

Your military service was no less outstanding than your work in the community and for the College. You were awarded the Legion of Merit for developing a system of centralized control of procurement and distribution of the vitally needed, but critically short, technical supplies so necessary for the successful application of air power in Italy and North Africa. The only shortcoming of record was your inability to learn the name of the propagandist who painted WAH HOO WAH on the cab of the Algiers officers' mess garbage truck.

In recognition of your lifetime of devotion to Dartmouth, and in lasting appreciation of your achievements for the College and society, we are honored to give to you the Dartmouth Alumni Award.

EDWARD WILLIAM ROESSLER '25

Eddie, not often enough are we privileged to recognize a brilliant performance of the dun task of Class Treasurer. Rather than talk duns and disbursements you emphasized the satisfaction of providing to the College in the name ,of the Class, those things for which funds otherwise might not be available. This accounts immeasurably for your continuing near-top records in dues collections and Alumni Magazine circulation.

Even more impressive was your foresight in creating with the College in 1961 a reserve fund large enough to assure a memorial book in the name of every member of your class. In addition, you were one of the leaders in setting up the Class of 1925 Professorship which now is endowed with a class fund of over $386,000.

During the past fifteen years while you were Class Treasurer, Class Treasurer of the Year in 1962, and one-term President of the Class Treasurers Association, you took an active part in community affairs as a member and later Chairman of the Township Committee, as engineer and Chief of the Mendham Volunteer Fire Company, Vice-President of the Ralston Historical Association and Co-editor and Publisher for neither profit nor tenure — of TheMendhams. You and Susan have been very active in The Experiment in International Living and have visited in the Mexican, Austrian, German, and French homes of the students who lived with you.

With a dangling Phi Beta Kappa Key you went to M.I.T. for a degree in Electrical Engineering which you took to General Electric as qualification for a job in Mechanical Engineering - the development of air-conditioning equipment. You are the proud and profitable holder of nine patents, which speaks well for the breadth of M.I.T.'s engineering training or your mind, which is the more likely even though, in depressed moments, you admittedly thought of yourself as just another plumber.

After retirement from GE you busied your- self with local affairs and personal business which, in accordance with Parkinson's Law, expanded to fit the time available. But always there was time for Dartmouth and your class, and in recognition of these achievements and your loyalty to the College, we give you the Dartmouth Alumni Award.

WESLEY HALL BEATTIE '33

Wes, this is another of your several appearances before gatherings of Dartmouth men who have chosen to recognize your outstanding service to the College and your Class.

After a long time as a dedicated interviewing committeeman and thirty-five years as a most successful Class Agent, you have just become Head Agent in addition to the responsibilities of membership on your area Executive Committee of the Third Century Fund. Your class had clear evidence that you were fully qualified to take the top Alumni Fund job for '33. They had elected you Secretary and within four years you were honored as Secretary of the Year and chosen President of the Class Secretaries Association. They then elected you President of the Class and within five years you were named Class President of the Year in 1968.

For some collateral evidence, if needed, they saw that you had become active in the Melrose Club after an exceptional private-to- colonel career in the military service and within five years you were elected Club President. The Boston Alumni Association graciously waited one year before choosing you as its President in 1956.

Your daughter Susan is an adopted Princess of the Algonquins, but it does not follow that there should be any conflict between the Algonquin Indian daughter and her Dartmouth Indian father. However, Dartmouth must be aware that the Algonquins might try to adopt you as Chief or perhaps as President of all the Algonquin Clubs and Hotels around the country and should advise them now that Big D Chief Wes will not be available.

While serving the College so well and faithfully you also have been active in the Melrose Parent-Teacher Association, Red Cross, Community Chest, and as Chairman of the Campaign for Funds for a new wing on the Melrose Hospital. You were Treasurer of the Boy Scouts, Chairman of Religious Education and the Membership Canvass of your church and served on its Executive and Finance Committees.

In lasting appreciation of these achievements, and in grateful recognition of your continuing devotion to the College, we give you the Dartmouth Alumni Award.

The month before, on April 17, a Dartmouth Alumni Award was conferred in San Francisco, at the annual dinner of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Northern California and Nevada. President Dickey, who was present as guest speaker, made the award to David P. Smith '35, who has served as class officer, Alumni Council member, club president, and Third Century Fund leader, and has been prominent in education and investment counseling. His citation follows:

DAVID PARKHURST SMITH '35

For a man who, in his Twenty-Five Year Report, claimed no accomplishments which had not been duplicated by his peers, you have spent a very successful nine years since then, surpassing most of your contemporaries in business, in community service as well as in whatever areas of fun and games they might choose to contend, particularly fishing, singing,, auto harp and piano playing.

Whether searching for trout in the High Sierras or in the streams of the College Grant, you are both deft and frugal with the fly rod. After catching a hundred trout with a grasshopper fly given to you at the Grant, you returned three years later, tied on the same fly, and picked up where you left off. That fly, stripped down almost to the bare hook, now is memorialized and proudly displayed in a lucite cube to discourage those who might give thought to a contest.

You are almost alone in the art of auto harp. However, many people sing and sing well, but very few have your endurance. After all, who else wants to sing until four in the morning?

Dave, while successfully directing the investment counseling firm of which you are both a partner and an officer, you have found time to serve as Trustee of Mills College, of your church, and of the Pacific School of Religion. You were a member of the Berkeley Board of Education and the Municipal Revenue Committee and were elected the first President of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Alumni Association.

Although busy in these diverse activities you have been a valued servant of your Class as an Assistant Agent and member of the Executive Committee and of the College as President of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Northern California & Nevada, President of the General Association of Alumni, member of the Alumni Council, and of the National Executive Committee of the Third Century Fund, as well as Area Chairman in San Francisco.

For years you have exerted a strong influence on enrollment and admissions in the West where your quiet leadership put together a very solid and continuing organization. As a member of a committee to study enrollment organization and responsibility of the Alumni Council, you travelled all over the United States, contributing great wisdom of experience and executive judgment to this all important area.

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.

Alumni Award Winners: L to r, Edward W. Roessler '25, Truman T. Metzel '23, andWesley H. Beattie '33, who were honored during the Class Officers Weekend in May.

David P. Smith '35 (r) receiving a Dartmouth Alumni Award from Pres. Dickey.