1965

For much of his life, our classmate Richard Joseph has been trying to decide whether to be a political activist or a scholar. Fortunately, his dilemma has resulted in a well-balanced career with significant contributions in both areas.

Rich entered Dartmouth at the age of 15 after three years of high school in Brooklyn, N.Y. Hi's family had come to the United States from Trinidad in 1958. One of five black students in our entering class of 818, Rich says, "Race was not much of an issue on the Dartmouth campus in those days. We were such a minority, it just didn't seem to matter." A French major, Rich says his undergraduate years "nurtured the seedlings of almost every important aspect or my work and personality: my love of languages and experiencing different cultures, my commitment to political action in the service of social justice, my pleasure in challenging intellectual work, and my joy in a few close friendships as well as solitude.

Following graduation Rich worked briefly for a civil rights research and lobbying organization in Washington, D.C. He then returned to the academic world by accepting a one-year Fulbright scholarship for study at the University of Grenoble. Subsequently, he was named a Rhodes scholar and began work in political science at Oxford University in the fall of 1966. The next summer, Rich became heavily involved in the voting rights efforts of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Sensing he was making an immediate contribution toward social justice, Rich seriously considered abandoning further academic studies. Fannie Lou Hamer, the leader of the Mississippi civil rights campaign, convinced Rich he might find even greater solutions to racial problems through continuing his educational work. She persuaded him to return to Oxford.

In 1969 Rich began a teaching career in political science. He was named an instructor at UCLA and, later, a lecturer at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. He then served on the faculty of the University of Ibadan. Nigeria, for nearly four years. In 1979 Rich accepted an offer from the Government Department of Dartmouth to become a member of the College faculty. He remained in Hanover until 1986, when he was named a program officer for the Ford Foundation in Senegal. In this position he had responsibility for all foundation grants pertaining to human rights, governance, and international affairs in West Africa. In 1988, Rich became a visiting professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Rich's travels have not been made alone. He met his wife, Jennifer, at Oxford in 1967. Jennifer has now built her own successful career as an administrator in several countries. At Dartmouth, she served in executive positions in the affirmative action, freshman, and admissions offices. The Joseph family includes three sons: Mark, a senior at Harvard; Anthony, a sophomore at Yale; and Robert, a seventh grader, who Rich hopes may eventually choose a "good" college.

Rich says he is looking forward to returning for our 25th Reunion on June 1417, 1990. He adds, however, that his love for Dartmouth has been strained by the events of recent years. He regrets "the set of circumstances that allows a few vicious persons to receive national attention, far beyond what should be expected, and unjustly hurt the reputation of the College." He believes alumni have a pivotal role to play in the future of Dartmouth and encourages all members of our class to return to Hanover and experience the positive feelings he believes should be associated with the Dartmouth of today.

Last September Rich became a Fellow of the Carter Center in Atlanta. He will be directing a program that concentrates on understanding and improving governmental institutions in Africa. Pursuing this objective, he recently returned from a working tour of Africa with former President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter. Rich continues to have a tie with the academic world by also serving as a professor of political science at Emory University.

He says he is excited about the new opportunity and expects "to see a different balance emerge between my political involvement and my scholarship, perhaps with more attention paid to the former while still pursuing the latter."

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