On the Court or Off A Winner

Glen French '84 has probably spent more time raising funds for worthy causes then he has playing tennis during the past two years. "Much to my coaches' chagrin," quipped the 22year-old French, who co-captained Dartmouth's 1983-84 men's varsity tennis team. Back in the fall of 1982, French ran Beta Theta Pi's food drive for needy families in the Upper Valley. His fraternity's fundraising efforts had generated $1,100 the previous year. "We made $3,700 this year," said French. "It was both successful and rewarding." The money enabled the brothers of Beta to provide Thanksgiving food baskets to 95 families in communities surrounding Hanover. And there was even $800 left over that the fraternity donated to the Holiday Basket Helpers of Lebanon for their Christmas food packages. French oversaw the operation from start to finish. At one point, Beta's living room was filled with food. Two vans and a station wagon were needed to deliver the baskets. Delivering the food was an eye-opening experience for French, who was accustomed to the affluence of Hanover during his four years at Dartmouth. "One place was just like a barn and it was literally 10 feet from the road. It had a tar paper roof and a dirt floor. There was a big console TV in the middle of the room. It didn't work, but was used as a table. We set the stuff down on it and they thanked us as we left. That was the worst I saw," French said.

During the spring of 1983, French headed Beta's work weekend. Members of the fraternity house are hired out to perform various jobs at $5 per hour. "It was my job to motivate the brothers to contribute as many hours of work as they could," said French. That fund raising effort brought in $1,700, some $700 more than they had raised the previous year. The money was contributed to the Big Brother-Little Brother Program, then part of the Tucker Foundation.

French, also ran the undergraduate part of Dartmouth's United Way drive last fall. He worked with Tom Byrne '55, who was the campuswide chairman. "We devised new strategies in trying to tap into the undergraduates," French said. Students had contributed only $4,200 to the United Way drive in 1982. French set a public goal of $9,000, which many thought was unrealistic, and a personal goal of $10,000 "I felt it was a reachable goal if we reorganized," he said. By the end of the fall their coffers yielded some $10,500.

French is the son of Glendon E. French Jr. '55, who received his MBA from Tuck in 1959 following a stint in the U.S. Navy. The elder French began his business career in Hanover as the New Hampshire and Vermont sales representative for American Hospital Supply. Young Glendon E. French III and his older sister Debbie were both born in Hanover. Their father's business career took the family to Arlington Heights, 111., Needham, Mass., and finally Deerfield, 111. Glen ("Frenchie" to his fraternity brothers), grew up in Deerfield. He began playing tennis when he was about 10 years old. "I hacked around for about a year before I took any lessons," he said, playing most of his tennis between the ages of 13 and 15. Later, summer became a time to get ready for football in the fall. He starred in both football and tennis at Deerfield Public High School. As a quarterback, he received second-team all-state recognition, in addition to allcounty and all-conference honors. He was named to the all-state tennis team during his junior and senior years. He was primarily a doubles player, finishing fourth in the state as a junior and winning the state doubles title as a senior. "I did better in high school in tennis, but I wasn't recruited to play tennis. I was recruited by a bunch of colleges to play football," French said.

He decided that he wanted to go to a small liberal arts college and narrowed his choices to Williams, Amherst, and Dartmouth in no particular order. "I got into Amherst and Dartmouth," French said. "I figured I couldn't go wrong with either school." French received no pressure from his father to attend Dartmouth. He also had three great uncles who attended the College prior to 1920. "Obviously I was exposed to Dartmouth very early on, but my father shut up about it. He didn't want to sway me. But there were certain things about Dartmouth that stuck in my mind. My final decision was a gut decision. I felt I'd get along better here. So it wasn't that tough. My father was happy with the decision, but he didn't try to influence me at all."

French was a quarterback on the freshman football team, although he didn't see much action. "It was an interesting year. I met a lot of great guys and enjoyed hanging out with them. Everyone was a top notch individual. After freshman year, I felt I had made a lot of friends on the team. I chose to pursue tennis. I did not have a life-or-death love for the game of football."

French won his varsity letter as a freshman on the tennis team. He was once again a doubles specialist since he had not played a lot of singles in high school. He also got to travel to Southern California for the tennis team's annal spring practice trip. "That's one of the best trips any team takes," he said. French played tennis in both the fall and spring of his sophomore year, again winning his varsity letter as he has every year since. French spent 10 weeks in Spain during the winter term of his junior year participating in the College's Language Study Abroad program. A highlight of his stay in Spain was a 10-day trip to the Canary Islands during his mid-term break. The 1,600 mile round-trip flight, accommodations, daily breakfast and transfers cost a total of $185. "It was amazing," said French. Not so amazing was his flight from Granada, Spain, to Claremont, California, to rejoin the tennis team on its spring practice trip. French was scheduled to travel from Granada to Madrid to Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Hartford, Conn., to Chicago and to Los Angeles. Because of bad weather, he was unable to make his Hartford connection. "The trip was supposed to have taken 24 hours. It took 52 hours," he said. It took him an additional five hours to reach Claremont by bus from Los Angeles. Meanwhile, he was lugging around all of his gear from Spain and a bag full of tennis rackets. "But I finally got to Claremont a couple of days late," he said.

French played more tennis this year than he has ever played before. During the fall the team, which is also co-cap-tained by Kris Robbins '85, posted a 60 record. French played every day during the winter and all spring. Playing tennis for nine months has helped his singles game. "I played very well this year," he said. The Dartmouth team stayed with alumni families during their California trip this spring. "That was nice," French said. "I hope the team will be able to do it again."

French, a history major, will be following in his father's footsteps once again after his Dartmouth graduation in June. He has accepted a job with American Hospital Supply as a sales representative. The elder French, a freshman football player and four-year varsity baseball player during his own undergraduate days at Dartmouth, was the president of American Critical Care, a division of American Hospital Supply. He recently became president of Health/Care Sector, a division of ARA Services. The younger French will begin his new job in August following a five-week trip to Europe with his college roommate.