Commencement

`76 Gleamed Benignly Down

OUT FRONT, as they say in show biz, it was a socko performance, the Commencement Exercises in the 206th year of the College's history. Meteoro-logically, it was an absolute smash, with a high, blue sky, warming sunlight, and a playful, cooling breeze. This, plus the fact that a record number of degrees (about 1,000) were being awarded, made it, in Variety's headline argot, SRO at the BO - more than 7,000 persons, veteran Commencement watchers said, were in attendance.

This throng was a good Commencement crowd not only in quantity, but also in quality. The attire was colorful, with fine splashes of summery hues, and the mood seemed a nice blend of pride, happiness, and shared goodwill. Bosoms in plentitude were festooned with cameras; the age range ran from what clearly were grandparental onlookers to quite young siblings of graduates; and there was just the right amount of dogs (one of whom, a yellow Lab, was seen carrying his owner's M.B.A. degree in his mouth during the recessional).

And is it male chauvinism (Commencement emotion? failing eyesight?) to say that the women - of all ages - were uncommonly winsome? Whatever reason one wishes to attach to this statement, there it stands, good and true.

Backstage, it wasn't bad, either. Not long after the Hartt Brass Ensemble had' gained the vertigo vantage-point of Baker Tower to do the Class of 1879 chores, the faculty, Trustees, honorary degree-winners and other of the uncommonalty began to gather in the forecourt of the Hopkins Center, where coffee, orange juice, and doughnut interiors were to be had. As they gathered, they began slipping into robes and adjusting one another's hoods to a nicety, much like gay cockatoos preening each other.

Down East Wheelock Street at the Alumni Gymnasium, the graduating class had already gathered, in that cavernous upstairs room where so many a Dartmouth undergraduate has sweated over a final exam in years gone by. There they were, the 848 men and women who were on hand in Hanover to get their A.B.s - the actual number of degrees awarded was 933, but some early achievers took theirs in absentia.

Ralph Manuel was presiding over this ingymnasia session, his first such as dean of the College. At this semi-private gathering, various prizes and awards are made. For one at least - the Dean's Cup to Nancy Kepes of Pittsford, New York, the dean received, in turn, a warm embrace from the recipient. Which is not only fair play, but nice work. He also received, during the actual awarding of degrees at Commencement proper on Baker lawn, an enviable number of busses from women graduates.

At the conclusion of the awards, Dean Manuel made a nice, short, but emotional speech. He noted that the Class of 1976 was the first he welcomed as dean of freshmen and it would be the first he would help to usher out into the world as dean of the College. Further, he noted with mathematical foresight, in the year 2001, when 1976 returned for their 25th reunion, he would have reached retirement age.

"I hope," he said, with a little smile, "that a lot of us are back here for those two events."

Then bagpipers Scott Hastings Jr. and Fordyce Ritchie came front and center, askirling away, to lead the seniors down the stairs and up East Wheelock toward the College Green. Just behind the kilted pair came the color guard, bearing a spanking new, swirlingly colorful Class of '76 flag designed by John Scotford '38, flanked by the U.S. and Dartmouth ensigns.

As the procession reached the Green and started down a diagonal path, coveys of cameras broke before the wild Caledonian wail of the bagpipers. Here the uncommonalty joined the procession and it headed, after a small delay, toward Baker lawn. When it reached the south edge of the lawn, Head Platform Marshal Lawrence E. Harvey, Edward Tuck Professor of French, intoned, "Ladies and gentlemen, the academic procession will now begin."

Forthwith, the Hartt Ensemble, now firmly on ground to the west of the Commencement platform, began a brassy and courtly fanfare. These ten musicians played beautifully and with exquisite timing throughout much of the exercises. Most of the reason for this, of course, is their musical artistry; but some, it should be said, was due to the fact that a Hanover housewife's clothespins (hastily requisitioned at 9 a.m.) held the music firmly on the music stands despite the playful wind.

The procession marched in, the faculty as gaily caparisoned as ever (and a marching group that would make a drill sergeant chew turf), while high up on the south face of Baker Tower, the painted green numerals "76", put there by persons unknown, gleamed benignly down.

It all went well, as Commencements do, and should. Chaplain Warner Traynham gave a truly eloquent opening prayer, referring to the day as "the crown and blossom of the students' endeavors." Dean Carl Long noted that the Thayer degree candidates included a woman for the first time (Jane Brechlin of Mount Holyoke College and Meriden, Connecticut, bachelor of engineering) and the well-remembered and sonorous phrases - "all the rights, honors and special obligations here and elsewhere belonging to this degree" - rang out.

As the doctoral candidates in medicine, arts and sciences and engineering (Joseph Yen Ting of Tokyo, doctor of engineering, was the only person to get an individual fanfare) came forward, it was noted that Robert E. Huke, professor of geography, an honorary degree marshal along with George F. Theriault, Lincoln Filene Professor of Human Relations, was getting remarkably good elevation whilst emplacing the doctoral hoods.

The honorary degree conferrals, recognition by President Kemeny of 16 retiring officers of the College, and the Senior Valedictory by Jeffrey M. Rieker, scholar and athlete, all preceded the real event of the day, the awarding of the A.B.s. For, as truly earned as are the graduate degrees and as apropos as are the other recognitions and speeches, this day is really the bachelors' party.

It had started, in a way, when a plane chugged overhead at about 8:30 a.m. towing a sign proclaiming, "Gregory the Great and Class of 1976 Congrats." It was going to end, in a formal way, after the President's moving and thoughtful Valedictory to the Class, with honorary degree recipient Arthur Fiedler, one of the world's foremost fire buffs, getting a ride around the Green from Baker Lawn to the Inn on a Hanover fire truck.

And then, after a bit, the cars and station wagons, carrying low springs and high hopes, began to wend out of town, toward the hills and valleys, geographical and emotional.