Joyfully Performed

When F. William Andres '29 stepped down as an Alumni Trustee following Commencement, he completed a term of 14 years as a Board member, five years as its chairman. It was a time of enormous change in the College and a time of considerable turbulence.

At Class Officers Weekend, the Class Secretaries Association presented a special award to Andres, who had for 25 years - from graduation till 1954 - been one of them. Honored for his long service to Class and College, Andres responded that they had been "services joyfully performed."

Musing about the College and the components that together constitute the entity that is Dartmouth, Andres likened the students to its heart, the faculty to its brain, and the alumni to its soul.

"The brain and the heart are finite things," he said, but "the soul is infinite and so perhaps there are greater opportunities for service to Dartmouth College for the infinite that you are, the diversity that you are, sharing one big basic primary component of life, and that is your commitment to this place."

Without the soul, Andres went on, "the Trustees would be powerless, the administration would be ineffective, the faculty would not have the satisfactory experience of teaching these fine young people who are here."

Noting the "periods of controversy, periods of misunderstanding, and periods when you perhaps wondered whether your faith had been placed in the right people," Andres told the alumni that the Trustees "welcome this controversy, this challenge, as we welcome your deep, deep commitment. ... I appreciate this opportunity that I have had to be a Trustee of your College ... I could not have served you as well as I hope I have if I hadn't had the understanding support - the valiant, valiant support - that you people have given the Trustees of this College and the College itself."