In Memory of Harvey Hood
The following tribute was offered by President Emeritus John Sloan Dickey at a memorial service for the late Harvey Hood '18 on March 8, 1978.
To know Harvey Hood was to know one of the rarest of human graces - matter-offact nobility.
Matter-of-fact as he was about himself and his attainments, he was far from being a casual person in either work or play; indeed, he was a good competitor in both, but in all his doing he had as little time or taste for self-advertisement as human nature permits even the most modest among us.
His vocation, of course, was business, principally that dairy products institution familiar to at least five generations of New Englanders as the H. P. Hood Company. The combination of prudence, vision, and integrity which he brought to the family business was also sought on the boards of other enterprises in banking, paper products, railroading, and communications as well as numerous community-service charities.
.After his family and the family business, there was one special love to which Harvey accorded well-nigh a lifetime of singular service. That love was the college from which he graduated in 1918 and thereafter for sixty years probably served longer in more capacities than any other person in Dartmouth's history.
During his three-score years of Dartmouth service he moved from an undergraduate leader and wartime naval aviator to alumni leadership in many roles, serving as trustee-mentor of two presidents of the College and leading the Board in numerous critical areas. Much, much more could be said about Dartmouth's debt to Harvey Hood, but I am constrained by my knowledge of what he disliked. So let us turn our thoughts for a moment to other memories for which we can all be glad.
As with all else that he did, Harvey's enjoyment of life was no on-again, off-again thing to be taken as a kind of television prescription for boredom, or even "tired blood." If he was ever bored it was a secret he never shared with his friends, and as for
"tired blood" (whatever that is), the only person who might occasionally have wondered whether there might not be something for her in television's magical medicine closet was the one person who dared match his pace, his wife. Whether sailing, snorkeling, skiing, tumbling on the trampoline, relaxing at Ashburnham, or even on occasion fending off the cruel thrusts of that fencing partner we call fate, Barbara was his dauntless companion. On this side of things I shall add only this: in the circle of his family, whatever the weather, he knew the quiet assurance of an inner belonging that enriched all else and which is best honored by us as the private heritage of those who shared it.
In the world of affairs, whether in business or as a Trustee of Dartmouth, prudent judgment and integrity were the foundations on which his attainments rested. But Harvey Hood was also a man of independent mind and extraordinary determination, both essential qualities in the management of large affairs, but also qualities which in some managers can be less than endearing to other people. It is precisely here that Harvey's make-up set him apart: above all else in his human relations he was genuinely considerate of others. He worked hard at bringing out the best in others; he made you believe that you could find a way.
And so we acknowledge the matter-offact nobility of a modest man whose quiet strength left everything he touched, family, college, community, and business, the better for his being here. A teacher by example, from whom it was a pleasure to learn. Of such a man it can truly be said: his life is monument.
