On the Value of a Liberal Arts Education

(excerpts from an informal address by Kenneth F. Montgomery '25 at Dartmouth in November of 1977)

When I arrived at College, obviously many years ago, I of course had no standards of values whatsoever. I had a slight reputation as an athlete in high school, and my heroes were George Gipp, the old Notre Dame great football player; Jack Dempsey, whom you know; and Ty Cobb, the Detroit base stealer who injured more second basemen, I guess, than anybody in history. So, I arrived at Dartmouth with no objectives except to sort of keep going. I was on the freshman football team and was the boxing champion and the captain of the freshman baseball team.

At the end of my freshman year, I began to ask questions a little bit.... They were sort of disturbing. I began to lose interest in athletics, and I wanted to become an aesthete, instead of an athlete.

That spring vacation, I stayed here at Dartmouth and proceeded to read a lot of books (and that was a great surprise to everybody). And the next year I got into a class of sociology; under John Mecklin, and that really was disturbing to me. He had values that were very important. It was very exciting.

I don't know when the liberal-arts aspect began opening up new vistas for me, but my senior year, I found myself in a class of fourth-year Greek.... Professor Nemiah was our teacher and let us sit around a table and just discuss philosophy. Socrates became our friend, and all those Greeks. And it was for me a most stimulating experience.

My whole set of values changed during that time. I don't know what they were, but I opted for the liberal-arts education; and I am terribly grateful for the education and terribly grateful to Dartmouth. It has been a great, great help to me in so many ways. It just opened so much up.

This portrait of Kenneth and Harle Montgomery at their home in Northbrook, Illinois, painted by Ray Kinstler, hangs in the dining room of Montgomery House.