Warming Trend

"Throw a log on the fire" had a renewal of the meaning of its cheery good fellowship in Parkhurst Hall during the December 21-January 2 heat-down. That building, like most on campus during this period, was cooled off to 45 degrees. So, President Kemeny and some staff associates found it cool going on December 27 when they came in to answer presidential mail - until they lit a log fire in the fireplace in the President's Office.

The lighting of the fire that day (and many days since) was a continuation of a snug custom started by John Dickey and the lengthening of a warm story that now is more than 20 years old. A plaque, set under the mantel of the Presidential fireplace, tells much of the story in President Emeritus Dickey's economic prose:

"The cheer of this fire was provided from a fund given Dartmouth by John Wilder Parkhurst, son of Richard Parkhurst 1916, grandson of Lewis Parkhurst 1878, whose coming to Dartmouth was denied by his death in World War II."

John Parkhurst was a chief ambulance driver with the American Field Service serving with the York and Lancaster Regiment in Burma in 1943-45. He died of pneumonia in Calcutta, India, in July, 1945 at the age of 20. He left a sum of money to Dartmouth and the income from it has been used since to provide wood for the fireplace in the President's Office in Parkhurst.

The building, of course, was given to the college by his grandparents in 1910, in memory of a son, Wilder D. '07, who died during his college course. A small room off the President's Office, called the Parkhurst Room, was given by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Parkhurst in memory of their son. It was furnished and decorated by them and contains memorabilia of three generations of the family.