Horace Fletcher 1870

Mode of exit: Dropped out to sail around the world

Career: Businessman, pop philosopher

Most notable achievement: Invented one of America's first fad diets

Quote: "You can't understand your stomach if you subject it to any stimulation or unnatural influence."

Fletcher shipped on a whaling voyage in the Pacific just before coming to Dartmouth. He spent a single year at the College before the sea called him again; his trips took him around the world four times. Settling down in San Francisco, he manufactured printer's ink, imported silks from the Orient, and helped found the Bohemian Club. He went on to manage the New Orleans Opera House, served as art correspondent for the Paris edition of the New York Herald, and exhibited his own paintings in the United States and abroad.

But he is famous for none of these things. He is famous because, in 1895, an insurance company declared him too risky for a policy. Fletcher immediately determined to lose 50 pounds and to cure his chronic indigestion. In the course of losing weight, he discovered the secret to happiness and well-being: chewing your food carefully. He described this principle in his two books, Menticultiire, or The A-B-C of TrueLiving and Happiness as found inForethought minus Fear-thought. His theory boiled down to chewing every mouthful until die food "swallows itself." "To fletcherize" became an expression known to nearly every American household.

The cure worked for Fletcher himself; he celebrated his 50th birthday by riding almost 200 miles on a bicycle. But it didn't work perfectly. He died at the age of 60 of bronchitis.