Jeff Garneau '85
Discovered a comfortable place to read in this newly-renovated lounge in the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. The lounge is dedicated to the late Harold H. Leich '29, civil service official, writer, and lifelong outdoorsman and conservationist. The entire lower level of Moosilauke Lodge has been renovated, turning an area which couldn't be used because of its dampness, broken concrete floor, and unsightly walls into a comfortable, usable, and desirable area. The lounge was dedicated in June 1984 in a ceremony attended by his widow, Marian Nash Leich, and representatives of the class of 1929 and the College administration.
For Hal Leich, "love of mountains and water, both the sea and the Whitewater rivers, and concern for their preservation, had been the driving force of a lifetime," wrote Mrs. Leich. "To encourage this love and concern in later generations seems in an indirect way to carry on Hal's own life."
The effect of his years at Dartmouth on his subsequent wilderness adventures is described in his book, Shipwrecked in CataractCanyon, which chronicles his solo trip down the Colorado River in 1933. "I left the banks of the Ohio in September 1925 to enter Dartmouth College in the granite hills of northern New England. . . .After four years of outdoor life among the scrub forests and granite crags of the high country I came out of college determined to knock around a while before following my classmates into the business world. Somehow the life of a logger, deck hand, or hobo seemed more attractive to me than a career as a bond salesman or production executive. . . .One might ask why the expenditure of thousands of dollars on a college education had led to such an outcome. The answer would seem to be too many hours in the public library reading Charles Kingsley . . .Robert Louis Stevenson . . . Mark Twain, Jack London . . .and similar writers. Four years of climbing and skiing over the summits of the White and Green Mountains reinforced the impelling call of these spirits to be on my way, down to the sea or the splendid wild regions of forests and mountains."
