Bequest Chairman of the Year

Bequest Chairman of the Year, honored at Class Officers Weekend May 5-6 in Hanover, is H. Sheriden Baketel Jr. '20 who was cited as follows:

H. Sheridan Baketel Jr., Class of 1920, your accomplishments, honors and awards in your distinguished life insurance career are much too numerous to recount here. In your forty years with the Union Central Life Insurance Company until your retirement in 1964 and in the years since then with your own firm, Baketel & DeCoursey, you have clearly earned the title, "Mr. Life Insurance of Philadelphia." In 1958 you received the Presidents' Cup Award, the highest honor of the Philadelphia Association of Life Underwriters. Chartered Life Underwriter, member of the Million Dollar Roundtable, Past President of the two major Philadelphia life insurance associations, prolific author of life insurance articles and co-founder of the Life Insurance Digest are only a few of the prominent milestones in your productive and successful business career.

Today, however, we honor you as a dedicated custodian of the traditions of the College on the Hill. Since the day of your graduation you have demonstrated your devotion to Dartmouth and your Class as Class President, long-time Assistant Alumni Fund Agent, member of the Alumni Council, stalwart supporter and Trustee of your Dartmouth fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, and active worker in two capital gifts campaigns. In 1962 you received the coveted Alumni Award.

You have been the Bequest Chairman of 1920 since the beginning of the Bequest and Estate Planning Program in 1951. In these twenty-two years the program has produced $51-million for Dartmouth and your conscientious zeal in promoting its importance to your classmates has been a major reason why the Class of 1920 stands high among all classes in program participation and over-all financial support of the College. You have built a substantial Medical School scholarship fund honoring the memory of your father, Dr. Baketel of the Medical School Class of 1895, himself a devoted advocate of Dartmouth and the Medical School, and you and Betty have recently established a generous life income trust. You are a Past President of this Association and the perennial Chairman of its Nominating Committee.

Now, in honor of your dedicated service as Bequest Chairman of your Class and in recognition of your lifetime of devoted effort on Dartmouth's behalf, the Association of Bequest and Estate Planning Chairmen is proud to proclaim you, Bequest Chairman of the Year.