Alumni Awards
During recent months the College's high honor, the Alumni Award, has been presented to the following distinguished alumni, from whose citations we quote. The Dartmouth family, and the wider world, are enriched by their contributions.
Thomas William Gerber '43 has spent a lifetime as a newspaperman. His parents were both reporters and at Dartmouth Tom got his career rolling as undergraduate editor of The Daily Dartmouth. Subsequently Tom had a stint with the United Press and the Boston Herald Traveler. But it was principally with the Concord Monitor that Tom, as editor and assistant publisher, earned the accolades of his peers and his readers. Writing the paper's editorial almost every day for 15 years, he has been a liberal voice in a state where a rival newspaper has positioned itself at the opposite end of the spectrum. Tom has also made time available for Dartmouth, serving the College in many capacities. He has been 1943's president and most recently its secretary, turning out highly readable copy on his classmates' activities. He has been an alumni representative on the Board of Proprietors of TheDartmouth, and has served on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Public Affairs Center since 1974. He participated as both secretary and treasurer of the Bernhard Committee in the 1986 Trustee election. And he still writes a weekly column for The Monitor.
J. William Craig '44 had a distinguished undergraduate career letterman in lacrosse, fraternity president and treasurer of the IFC, senior honor society, cum laude graduate in economics. Then, during army sevice, he won a battlefield promotion in Germany. His business career was capped by 34 years with L.M. Berry Company in Dayton, rising from general sales to president and vice chairman of its board. Over the years he was very active, too, with a range of community organizations, but he always had time for his alma mater. He served 24 years as a class agent, 17 as class treasurer, has been both a reunion chairman and club officer, and has been on the Alumni Council. There was also time to work on multiple College fund campaigns including the Campaign for Dartmouth and the Berry Sports Center drive.
Today Bill Craig lives in Hanover, still supporting the College and its athletic teams, playing golf, and attending the famous morning Kaffee Klatsch at the Inn.
Benjamin Franklin Jones '44, like the other Ben Franklin, has fitted a lot into a lifetime and doesn't seem to be slowing down. He earned a black belt in karate at age 60 and ran the Boston Marathon at 64. And after completing the grueling Emergency Medical Technician course he has ridden ambulances night after night as a volunteer.
At Dartmouth Ben was manager of the football team, a leader in Green Key, and member of Casque & Gauntlet. After four years in the army he began two lifelong associations. First, there was marriage. Now, 44 years later, he and Betty proudly enjoy three children and two grandchildren. Then there was career. Ben has been with Monarch Life Insurance Company, now Monarch Capital Corporation, for 42 years. He began as a field underwriter and advanced through the ranks to president, CEO, and chairman. He has also been a director, trustee, or officer of 32 other major institutions or organizations, and was given Springfield's highest award for "good citizenship and outstanding public service."
His commitment to Dartmouth has been equally full as class agent, head agent, leadership chairman, reunion committeeman, and member of the Alumni Council. Twice Ben has been class president, winning the Class of the Year award in 1986.
Robert Shaw Wilkinson Jr. '50 came to Dartmouth from the Mount Herman School in Northfield, Mass. following his father of the class of '24, and preceding daughter Amy '78 and son Robert '83.
While he was at Dartmouth Bob Wilkinson was in the Dartmouth Christian Union, the Outing Club, Ledyard Canoe Club, and Gamma Delta Chi. His chemistry/zoology major prepared him for the NYU School of Medicine, from which he won his degree in 1955. Service in Germany, internship, residency, a research fellowship in medicine, and a teaching post at New York's Upstate Medical Center led to a long and distinguished career in internal medicine with the Group Health Association. He has also been medical advisor to both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and this year joined the board of directors of the Academy of Medicine in Washington, D.C. He has taught clinical medicine at George Washington University for 25 years.
Since Dartmouth Bob Wilkinson has devoted much of his limited spare time to the Alumni Council, the Club Officers Association, alumni interviewing, and the Campaign for Dartmouth. He was president of the Dartmouth Club of Washington, and of the Alumni Association during the hotly contested trustee election of 1986. Withal, he still finds time for tennis, jogging, and now piano lessons.
Peter Baldwin Bogardus '51 was, as an undergraduate, an entrepreneur, actor, fraternity man, and athlete. He was on Dartmouth's first rugby team and was an outstanding football lineman for four years, "down in the trenches making sure the backs would always go tearing by." Armed with a degree and an M.B.A. from Tuck, Pete logged time with the air force, spent 12 years with Polaroid, and since 1971 has been a stockbroker and now director with Henry F. Swift & Company in California. The roles he has played for Dartmouth include district enrollment director, fund raiser, class agent, newsletter editor, academic seminar organizer, DCAC national committeeman, club president, member of the Alumni Council, and parent of Peter "Skip" Bogardus Jr. '87.
Alden Guild '52 came to Dartmouth from Kimball Union Academy. His time here was interrupted by three years in the air force. He subsequently won a law degree at the University of Chicago. Along the way he was a magna cum laude student, Phi Beta Kappa, a senior fellow, and editor of his school's Law Review. He has now spent 30 years with the National Life Insurance Company in Montpelier since 1983 its vice president and general counsel. He has found the time to write three books on business insurance, all now in their fourth editions. He has given time as trustee or officer to Norwich University, Kimball Union, historial societies, art galleries, the Red Cross, several banks, insurance associations. And he has given time to Dartmouth, as class agent, club president, member of the Alumni Council, president of the Association of Alumni, committee member in two major fund drives, secretary of the ballot committee in the 1986 trustee election, and as father of Heather '82.
Paul Donnelly Paganucci '53 left Dartmouth with a Phi Beta Kappa key and a summa cum laude degree, graduated from Tuck with distinction, and won a law degree at Harvard. After four years working directly for Peter Grace at W. R. Grace & Co. he founded a successful and prosperous investment firm. But then he returned to Hanover, first as an associate dean and professor at Tuck, and subsequently as vice president and treasurer of the College.
"And what a difference you made in your second run at Dartmouth! The endowment increased threefold to $435 million, land holdings were enhanced by the bargain purchase of over 2,100 acres in nearby Lebanon, and the innovative Dartmouth Educational Loan Corporation was launched, providing low-interest loans to hundreds of needy students. And through your powers of persuasion the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center will move to an exciting new $200 million campus."
Today Paul Paganucci is back at Grace. Dartmouth honors him, too, for additional and no-less-important activities: he has been a '53 class officer and was the first reunion-giving chairman to raise a million dollars; he has served as a member of the Alumni Council, Tuck overseer, trustee of Casque & Gauntlet, president of the Dartmouth Club of New York, overseer and trustee of Aquinas House.
