Commencement

With satisfactory echoes

THE preparations had all been made, the usual ones and a few new extra fillips, and now it all came down to sweating out the weather for the College's 209th Commencement. The platform for the Commencement dignitaries, gleamingly repainted, was in place in front of Baker's main door. The grass, zealously protected by Building and Grounds minions against the frisbee-softball-soccer crowd during May and early June, was never greener.

Student weatherman Steve Storfer '80, who lets WDCR listeners know what's about to move on the weather front, had been hired by the Commencement panjandrums to go and do likewise for June 10 and the 209th. On the morning of that date, he was due to soar aloft from Lebanon Regional Airport and report back to the ground-bound. Alas, at 7:30 a.m., visibility in the upper Connecticut River valley was so poor he could not take off. Nothing daunted, he scanned the weather board at the airport to see what pilots who were aloft had reported in. His message: Go. Outside.

And so, as 11:00 a.m. rolled around, the crowd, estimated by estimable Carl Richardson of B and G at 8,000, had gathered. The weather was not tip-top. It was hazy and a good thing, for it was also humid and, if the sun had come through strongly, there might have been some heat prostration cases. Most of the time, too, a saving breeze played under the elms and rippled the gay, national flags bordering on Wentworth Street.

The splendid Hartt College Brass Ensemble, with amiable, unflappable Roger Murtha in command, had come down from its Class of 1879 Trumpeters performance from the top of Baker Tower, which warns that the big show is about to begin. A trombonist brought up an occupational worry he has at every Dartmouth Commencement. A trombonist, he pointed out, cannot operate with full brio from the narrow (and lofty) confines of Baker Tower. A trombonist, he continued, is always worried that his slide might drop out, not only sidelining the trombone but possibly also sidelining a spectator after a drop of a couple of hundred feet.

The crowd was cheerful and relaxed and, well, anticipatory. Who could not be at this ending and beginning time, this gay and utterly youthful time? The male portion of it was largely in shirtsleeves (with the smart money on short ones) and the female portion in sensible, but chic, sleeveless tops. Members of the Glee Club, robed in academic black for their performance (the last robustly led by Paul Zeller), mostly had wisely worn shorts underneath.

Then the ritual began, stylized and familiar and therefore all the more cherished, as rituals should be. The reunion classes, led by an astonishing nine of eleven of 1909's doughty survivors, came down the main aisle to deserved and heartfelt applause. The academic procession, as peacock as ever, came next, with Governor Hugh Gallen of New Hampshire (the first gubernatorial Commencement-visit since Walter Peterson '47 in 1971) ambling along with President Kemeny. Then, came the proper centerpiece of the occasion, the graduating A.B.s, with bagpiper G. Fordyce Ritchie of Springfield, Vermont, skirling in front of them for the 26th (and last) time.

Dean Warner Traynham '57 of the Tucker Foundation gave the opening prayer ("grant that knowledge mixed with concern will make them wise.") and the time-worn, comfortable phrases rang out — "rights, honors, and privileges" in the granting of degrees, and "exercise your art solely for the cure of your patients" from the ancient, concise, and remarkably durable Hippocratic Oath.

There were, to be sure, occasional troubles with the amplification system, but they were minor and were more than made up for when the Glee Club's joyous last two words of the traditional Milton's paraphrase — "ever sure" — came echoing back in a ricochet (off Hopkins Center Center? the Inn?) as a wonderful choral bonus.

After the advanced degrees in medicine, engineering, business, and arts and sciences, the honorary degrees were awarded. Bill Andres '29 and John Kemeny exchanged affectionate bear hugs after the former chairman of the Trustees got his doctor of laws, and the faculty of the College rendered a standing-O for yet another '29er, philosopher Maury Mandelbaum, when he got his doctor of humane letters. Appropriately, 1929 bracketed the list, these two being the first and last recipients.

The main act followed. For the first time each graduate's name was read by a rotating team of students. There were some predictable jinks by the baccalaureates, but it went well. Then, after John Kemeny's valedictory, "Men of Dartmouth" (with satisfactory echoes) rang out (with the seniors locking arms and swaying togetherly), and John Kemeny's tenth straight rainless Commencement was over. Just as Steve Storfer had said.

The Senior Valedictory

MANY people have asked me how it feels to be the first woman valedictorian at Dartmouth College. All I can say is that I'm sorry there were not a hundred others before me!

I have chosen to write this speech as a challenge to all of us gathered here, especially, of course, to the graduating class, myself included. This is a challenge to work against a force, an attitude prevailing in our present society which Christopher Lasch has called narcissism.

In his book The Culture of Narcissism, Lasch describes our society as one in which "impending disaster has become an everyday concern. People busy themselves with survival strategies, a retreat from politics and a repudiation of the recent past. Survival has become the catchword of the seventies, and collective narcissism the dominant disposition." This attitude results from fear, from a loss of faith in the future. In the face of these, we feel we must withdraw into ourselves, direct our energies toward our own private ambitions, and place a protective shell between ourselves and other people. ...

So far, this has been a terribly somber message, but I do not intend it to be so. On this joyous day the message of optimism and the challenge is that we can change this trend, or at least we need not conform to it. The founders of this college would never have conformed to it. They had a faith rather than a fear in the future. . . .

Why, you may ask, should such responsibility fall upon us? Why shouldn't we adopt the every-man-for-himself attitude as we head off into our careers, our graduate schools, medical schools, and law schools? First of all, we are social beings. We do need each other, and service to others may actually be one of the most selfsatisfying things we can do. Secondly, as graduates of Dartmouth College, we are challenged to live up to the ideals of our predecessors.

I would like to close with a statement made by President Hopkins in his baccalaureate address to the Class of 1940: "... Altogether the most important interest which the College has in the undergraduate is to his potentiality through intelligent thinking and intelligent action to become of discriminating service to the society which has made his education possible."

Let us not be afraid to be people of faith. Armed with it we can help the world.

ELIZABETH PROCTER '79

Honorary Degrees

F. WILLIAM ANDRES '29 (doctor of laws): "... You capped a lifetime of service to Dartmouth by a 14-year term as Trustee, five of them as chairman of the Board. As your fellow Trustees have said: 'You have brought a deep understanding of the heritage of the College, a pride in her role today, an abiding belief in her future, and a relish in personal relationships. ... ' "

LISLE C. CARTER JR. '45 (doctor of laws): "... [At H.E.W.] you organized and directed the Center for Community Planning, with broad responsibility for urban and other problem-focused needs. You played a major role in reorganizing the welfare and rehabilitation administrations and in the internal reform of the public assistance administration. ... You were the logical choice [for] the presidency of the University of the District of Columbia, the only exclusively urban land-grant institution in the United States. ..."

LADONNA HARRIS (doctor of laws): "... Your organization [Americans for Indian Opportunity] has pioneered the basic concept that a positive Indian selfimage, with Indians drawing strength from a common heritage and identity as a people, is fundamental to advancement to full opportunity. You have also stressed the concept of Indian tribes as developing nations with emphasis on Indian control of Indian resources. A firm believer in your own saying that 'No good cause is hopeless,' you have also been a national leader in the field of women's rights. ..."

WILLIAM S. PALEY (doctor of laws): "... As president and chairman of CBS you have led and shaped one of the most imaginative and enterprising corporations in the history of the communications industry. Your strong commitment to excellence has put a personal mark on one of the central institutions in our lives. Broadcast journalism was little more than commercialized trivia before you gave it a standard of quality. ..."

ALFRED GILMAN (doctor of science): ... You have made basic contributions to research in the field of kidney and electrolyte physiology. ... But your greatest contribution to medical education came in 1940, when you and your close friend Louis Goodman wrote a textbook entitled ThePharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. While it is hardly unusual for teachers to write textbooks, yours was so unique that it came to be regarded by many as the best text ever written in the field of medicine. ..."

KATHERINE DUNHAM (doctor of fine arts): "... For years black American dancing had existed only on plantations and in the streets. It was you who brought it to the stage, and your vivid theatrical sense, choreography, and costuming paved the way for acceptance of black dancers as artists. You have had an enormous influence on dance through your revues, your films, your writing, and the Dunham School of Dance, which reflected your special ideas of the relationship among anthropology, ethnology, and dance...."

MAURICE MANDELBAUM '29 (doctor of humane letters): "... In 1957, you went to Johns Hopkins, where you held one of the most distinguished academic chairs in this country, the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship of Philosophy. ... But you never lost your deep affection for your alma mater, and after your retirement from Johns Hopkins, you rejoined our faculty as adjunct professor of philosophy. ... You are the outstanding figure of your generation in the philosophy of history. At least two of your many works — TheProblem of Historical Knowledge and History, Man and Reason — will remain lasting monuments. ..."

The honorary degree recipients with President Kemeny (top row, from left): Gilman,Carter, Paley, Mandelbaum and (bottom, left) Harris, Andres, Kemeny, Dunham.