1918

My last word in the March issue written of course toward the end of January, ere the February number had come off the press! — my final word concerned John Kemeny, and it expressed my confidence in him. For this month's column I drafted an opening early, and my being unprecedentedly previous in so doing reflected, I now realize, the eagerness of my anticipation of Mr. Kemeny's inauguration, the degree to which it preoccupied my thoughts No, Rollo, most emphatically I do not regard myself unique in having felt thus. All of us did, didn't we? ... Here's what I set down: "Today, 16 February, I hereby record receiving in the morning's mail my copy of an invitation doubtless being extended to all members of the faculty, active and emeriti. It reads, 'The Board of Trustees / cordially invites you to attend / The Inauguration of / John G. Kemeny / as / Thirteenth President of Dartmouth College / Sunday, March first, nineteen hundred seventy / at two-thirty in the afternoon / Alumni Gymnasium / Hanover, New Hampshire.'" I went on, chattering about details and making sundry conjectures that now I'm cutting out, as, on this afternoon of 7 March (during a solar eclipse!), I draft a revision. Even it I must also revise and abbreviate lest I find my entire space taken up with last week's inaugural convocation. This issue of the MAGAZINE will, I surmise, carry almost nothing else but.... So-o-o let's concern ourselves with a few Eighteeners.

First, one whom in undergraduate years it chanced I barely knew, but when in 1964 he chair'd our Birthday Reunion, he tapped me, an easily available local resident, for his committee, and I became well acquainted with and fond of him indeed. Gentlemen, I give you Bill Montgomery, of Meredith, N.H., who writes: "Dear Professor: Your 'shared assignment' in collateral reading completed - the Charter of Dartmouth College, and the articles about it and about Eleazar Wheelock by Jere Daniell '55 and John Hurd '21 that Mr. Childs directed you to peruse. I feel a little cheated not to have been given this exposure to the grass roots of Dartmouth's origins 52 years ago. Perhaps 'cheated' isn't fair, as it must have been due to my own negligence, for we heard enough and sung enough about the virtues of Eleazar to have been inspired to check on the realities of his pioneering zeal. Sincerely, Bill."

Congratulations, Bill, on your making the Eleazar Club. Your achievement rates you a Wah-Hoo-Wah — or, better, the Indian Yell, our classmate Chief Walkingstick's unique contribution to Dartmouth's repertoire of approving cheers. I may say that in the 1920's when I was teaching English 1, all freshmen read Wilder D. Quint's "The Story of Dartmouth." And in recent years — the last dozen or so — Francis Lane Childs '06 has each fall delivered before the entire entering class a lecture-narrative of Dartmouth's history that wins for him annually his audience's standing ovation.

I turn now to "The Roar," a rival periodical I admire and enjoy but rarely am able to scoop. Shall I with my next item? Probably not. But here goes: Does anyone know the present whereabouts of Harveyand Barbara Hood? When last seen, they were off for the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia. This report from Boband Mildred Fish, at whose home, following a gay mini-reunion that included Bill andKitty Mudgett, the Hoods spent their last night ashore. Next day, 16 February, on the "SS Monterey," they sailed from San Francisco toward the sunset.... There! Is that a scoop? Or not a scoop? If it's not, how about this: "It turns out," adds Bob, "that Harvey is something of a cousin, several times removed, of Mrs. John Kemeny." ... Well! However many times removed, kinship to that lovely lady adds luster to Harvey's already distinguished name, and we congratulate him. To the lady herself we all swear fealty, especially those of us with whom her Vermont birth, or her Maine upbringing, or her Smith College years are bonds not wholly factitious.... And, let it here be added, her thus making our column renders its writer grateful - for the smooth transition she provides back to her husband's inauguration!

Back we go, but en route let us pause for a glance at the February MAGAZINE'S cover picture, which portrays the two principals in the inauguration to ensue. It prompted Rollo - and others — to inquire, "How come Mr. Kemeny is seated higher than Mr. Dickey? At that time Mr. Dickey was still president, wasn't he?" Right, of course. But Rollo - and others - subsided when asked: Which man even then deserved more a deep, easy chair in which to rest?.... It's a great photograph, and reassuring.... Each of the two men is at ease, each faintly smiling.... By the way - Nonsense! The point I want to get at, and not coyly by the way: Do you note a detail in the picture that many miss? I just chanced to spot it, and in my delight telegraphed my friend Edward Lathem '51, our College Librarian, that day in Chicago: "See what you see beyond Mr. Kemeny's right elbow." It's four-fifths of the title of a book by a Dartmouth-Harvard author, a book that Lathem during the past couple of years has been readying for publication. Lathem replied he'd immediately seen what I saw when he first viewed the picture.... One's obsessions determine, etc. ... Any Eighteeners still mystified? Let them look again. They can't miss, but they can verify their finding. The volume in question Stearns Morse reviewed in the March issue.

Room now only to say Mr. Kemeny's inauguration was memorable - no, is memorable, because none there will ever forget - it—memorable for the relaxed dignity of every ceremonial move and for the sincerity of every utterance. There were throattightening, tearful moments,but moments only, throughout the prevailing joyous but quiet excitement, which the crowd released in bursts of laughter or standing tributes of applause. I'll never forget the twinkle in Mr. Dickey's eyes as he passed over to Mr. Kemeny the Wentworth Bowl, the Flude Medal, and the gold Bicentennial Medal, accompanying each bestowal with a smiling caution that Mr. Kemeny could be the treasure's custodian only so long as he remained in office; some day he'd be required to transmit each to his successor. I'll always remember too Mrs. Dickey's beautiful radiance when from the new President, to her complete surprise, she received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. ... Mr. Kemeny's address, delivered, not read, was in substance wise and in manner straightforward, unembellished by rhetoric, free of oratorical flourish. As by reading it you've discovered. Further comment from me - superfluous.

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