Dean Dey To Head Choate

Charles F. Dey '52, Dean of the Tucker Foundation and former Associate Dean of the College, will leave Dartmouth at the end of this academic year to assume the presidency of The Choate School and Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn.

He will become on July 1 the first president of the two institutions, which have been coordinate schools since 1971. Both founded in the 1890s by New York jurist William G. Choate, each will retain its own identity while under the unified leadership of Dean Dey.

Described by retiring Choate Headmaster Seymour St. John as a man who "will bring to us imaginative, loving, and strong leadership," Dey was greeted with "a long, loud, standing ovation" by 1000 students and faculty members when his selection was announced February 22 at the Mellon Arts Center on the Wallingford campus.

"Doc" Dey, who holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Harvard, followed three years of Navy duty with three at Phillips Academy, Andover, where he was a history teacher, coach, and housemaster. He returned to the College in 1960 as Assistant Dean, receiving after two years a leave of absence to serve as Regional Director of the Peace Corps in South Luzon in the Philippines. He became Associate Dean of Dartmouth in 1963 and Dean of the Tucker Foundation in 1966. He was director of the ABC program at the College during the summers of 1964 and 1965 and currently serves as chairman of the board of the recently formed ABC, Inc., the non-profit corporation responsible for programs at private and public secondary schools throughout the country.

Addressing the student bodies and faculties of Choate and Rosemary Hall following the announcement of his selection, Dey said that "two distinct forces were leading me to this occasion: my teaching years at Andover in the '50s, my deaning years at Dartmouth in the '60s. It was at Andover that I first encountered teaching as art ... even as ministry. ... If the Andover years introduced me to competence, the Dartmouth years tutored me in matters of conscience."

Alluding to the different climates of the two decades, as well as to the personal experiences they brought him, the Presidentelect said that, as he met trustees, faculty and staff members, and students of the two schools, he found himself asking "Is it possible that in the 1970s the ability, energy, idealism, and resources represented here might be marshaled in new ways to combine the competence of the 1950s with the conscience of the '60s?" If such a reach could be accomplished well in one place, he went on to ask, "Is that not the best way to contribute to the larger society?"

Dey, who will also teach history at both schools, invited colleagues and students "to that shared journey."

A screening committee has been formed to commence the search for Dean Dey's successor at the College. Several of its members currently serve on the Tucker Foundation Council, an advisory body reconstituted last fall, which includes representatives of the student body, faculties of the College of Arts and Sciences and the graduate schools, the administration, and members-at-large.

Charles F. Dey '52