David O. Hooke '84: Chubber's Boswell

Fall 1983: David Hooke '84 begins work on a history of the Dartmouth Outing Club and its members, who are known on campus as Chubbers . Fall 1986: David Hooke's 500-page manuscript for Reaching That Peak:75 Years of the Dartmouth Outing Club moves into pre-production.

David O. Hooke '84 isn't a reticent woodsman by any means, but he isn't loquacious either. The softspoken former director of freshman trips inspires a calm, quiet confidence. He speaks slowly and clearly. His sentences are separated with short, reflective pauses, giving the impression he is listening to what he is saying. Hooke is direct without being abrupt. Even though he has a lot to do, Hooke conveys the feeling that he has nothing more pressing on the docket than sitting and talking.

The idea of writing an updated history of the Outing Club (Bill Rotch '37 wrote one in 1937) in time for the club's 75th anniversary (celebrated in 1984) was not Hooke's. Hooke says Mark Winkler '79 conceived of the idea in 1979. A number of people had started the project, but no one ever finished. Would-be authors either gave up or graduated before completion because the task was so huge. Hooke doesn't give the slightest indication that completing a DOC history was an arduous task requiring years of effort. He described the writing experience backed by a modest stipend as "a luxury." Hooke names Bernie Waugh '74 as a figure crucial to his success. Waugh persuaded the DOC that a full-time intern was needed for the job, stayed involved with the project as an informal supervisor, and this fall wrote the book's preface.

As a writer, Hooke was something of a trailblazer. The trails he blazed were not through mountains, however, but through boxes upon boxes of uncatalogued papers and other DOC memorabilia. The photocopies of Aegis pages devoted to the DOC, compiled by Bob Avery '72, alone filled four bound volumes.

And there probably is no single word that best describes the unprocessed portions of the DOC archives that are now part of Baker's special collection. Mary Guerine, an archival assistant in Baker's special collections department, says that DOC materials in elude administrative papers, back issues of DOC publications, logbooks from cabins and shelters, the sometimes risque minutes from the Cabin and Trail council meeting written in the years before coeducation, and old parking tickets.

Hooke estimates that he explored "only"about a third of the 90 boxes of DOC material housed in Baker. Hooke also examined Baker's collection of 3,000 DOC-related photographs before choosing 75 for inclusion. An additional 25 photographs were contributed by alumni.

Not all of Hooke's research time was spent in Baker Library. Hooke conducted about 30 interviews with alumni and exchanged letters with about 100 more. The one thing Hooke didn't do wijs travel very much. The farthest he went in search of material was the office of Sherman Adams '20 at the Loon Mountain Ski area in Lincoln. Some recall Adams as a former governor of New Hampshire and special assistant to President Eisenhower, but in DOC circles he is remembered for walking down the cabin chain, a distance of 83 miles, in 24 hours. Hooke recalls the interview with Adams as "one of the most fruitful I had in the whole course of the project."

Adams told the tale of a trip he led to the Presidentials in March of 1920. As Hooke relates the incident in his book, it stands as not only as an episode in the annals of the DOC, but a glimpse into another era.

The 57 trip members left Hanover in a warm, unwintery rain aboard a special railroad car and arrived at the Ravine House at the base of the northern Presidentials in the evening, with the rain still falling. In the middle of the night the storm changed to the worst blizzard in the memory of the hotel people. The drifts had mounted so high from the nearly four feet of snow that fell during the storm that the tracks were completely blocked and there was no way home for three days. Not a group to mourn a situation such as this, parties set out in all directions to explore the countryside, and on the second day after the storm succeeded in reaching the summits of Madison and Adams, the original objectives.

During the day of the storm, ten of the men decided to go up to spend the night at Madison Hut. To make a long story very short, they went despite Adams' warnings, and came back that evening very badly frostbitten. The whole group arrived back in Hanover a day later than expected, in high spirits. Adams got a call from the formidable Dean Laycock, to explain not only the frostbitten students, but the reason for the delay in returning to campus. In those days, unexcused cuts were reason for denial of credit for the semester and usually only a death in the family was sufficient excuse. Adams escaped the charge of cuts by arguing that the storm was an Act of God (i.e. not even Adams could have manufactured that sort of convenient weather.)

As an author, Hooke writes from three perspectives. There is Hooke the historian, the man who sifted through reams of DOC documentation. Then there is Hooke the journalist, who interviewed and corresponded with the extended DOC family (and probably got some leads from his father, Richard Hooke '53, also a DOC member). Finally, there is Hooke the quintessential insider. He joined Cabin and Trail during his freshman fall and went on to become director of cabins, director of trails and shelters, and director of freshman trips. He was on hand to celebrate the 75th anniversary activities and later chronicled the event in Reaching That Peak. In the preface, Waugh sums up this aspect of Hooke's style: "Dave has turned his insiders's view into the book's greatest strength. His was a labor of love by one of our own."

As Hooke's research gave way to writing, the physical task of putting words on paper was made easier because of the Kiewit Computation Center. First he used the com- puter to organize his raw material, and then he used it again as a word processor. The later usage led to a surprise. Since he had written the book chapter by chapter at a computer terminal, Hooke never had a reason to produce a "hard copy" of the en- tire manuscript until he decided to present the complete manuscript to the club's board during a meeting they held last fall. Hooke was still revising the manuscript up until the last minute. What he didn't foresee was that the print job would take an hour to complete. The board meeting was over before the manuscript completed printing. Rather than wait for Hooke to come to them, the DOC board came to Hooke's cubicle in Kiewit where they celebrated the arrival of the 954-page manuscript with a champagne toast.

This fall, with most of the editing complete, Hooke has shifted his attentions to production. With the help of Jay Evans '44, Hooke made his first foray into the world of publishing. Hooke spoke appreciatively of Evans' dedicated efforts to tranform the manuscript into a book.

Aside from some small details, ReachingThat Peak is essentially complete. This is somewhat problematic for Hooke, as he now must decide on his next move. His immediate plans called for for an extended canoe trip into Maine with his father. Over the long haul, he'd like to stay in the Upper Valley. "I'd like to be around here. I feel a strong attachment to this place." For Hooke, who has held numerous paid positions with the DOC, including director of the Nordic Ski School, there is a constant struggle to be involved and still feel useful. "Not being an undergraduate, it is no longer as easy to feel I belong here . . . and I do in a way." The question as Hooke sees it is "how to apply loyalty and devotion to other situations."

David Hooke '84 recently completed a history of the DOC entitled Reaching that Peak: 75 Years of the Dartmouth Outing Club.