Onward & Upward
Divers Notes and Observations
With the light in the sky, let the Commencement begin," announced Professor Bill Cook, looking down at a sea of umbrellas, rain suits, and other ingenious devices brought to row-on-row of puddled chairs on the Green by 1,014 sheep-skin-seeking seniors and their guests, to foil the uncompromising downpour. Ifyou had a personal TV set, the best seats were the rocking chairs on the Inn porch.
As President Freedman walked back to his place on the dais, he was called by his successor-to-be, Professor Jim Wright, to turn around. Wright there-upon bestowed on him an honorary LL.D. He then introduced Trustee Kate Stith-Cabranes '73, who did similar honors to Dr. Bathsheba Freedman, the president's wife, for her devotion to the College and the entire Hanover and Upper Valley community.
We wonder who picks the honorary degree recipients each year—and why. Perhaps there's a clue in this year's choices, which recognize some of the major concerns of today. The honorees: Millard Fuller (founder of Habitat for Humanity); Mary-Claire King (noted geneticist); Julius L. Chambers (pioneer civil rights attorney); Samuel L. Katz '48 (pediatrician); Grace Paley (writer and Thetford neighbor); John Hope Franklin (historian and author of Slavery to Freedom), and Doris Kearns Goodwin (journalist, biographer, commentator). Ms. Goodwin, a frustrated candidate for Dartmouth in the '60s—"my timing was off by a decade"
took her cue from the lives of two men she had known well, worked for, and wrote about. LBJ, she said in her Commencement address, wore himself out with work; FDR, with the martini in the evening and the friendly and relaxing poker game afterwards, was easier on himself. Equal portions of work, love, and play was the burden of her message.
Indeed, the dislocations of family life seemed to dominate the local lecture platform in recent months. Social historian Stephanie Coontz, in The Way We Really Are, declared that the traditional American family of circa 1950 that we are so nostalgic about is overemphasized by the media. There has never been an Ozzie- and-Harriet golden age of the family. Anthropologist Johnetta Cole, former president of Spelman College and spring term's Montgomery Fellow, regretted that our divided economic and racial society was making it harder to establish what she called "cross-difference friendships." A crowded Cook auditorium heard Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition, bemoan the disintegration of the American family and the Clinton government's failure to cope with social problems. Finally, 1971 's football captain Stuart Simms '72, now an attorney and secretary of Maryland's Department of Public Safety, regretted the lack of communication and research in our criminal justice system, particularly in the cases of young people.
His philanthropy has changed the face of our campus," said Stan Colla, V.P. of alumni relations and development, about the late John Berry '44, who died in May after a four-month illness. He had every hope of seeing his major gift to Dartmouth under construction, but the trip to Hanover would have been too strenuous. He was represented at the library groundbreaking by his son George '66 and his wife Marilynn, who operated a backhoe with unexpected confidence. "We have one back home," she told the Daily D.
It looks as if the class of 2002 will be the first to use a completed Baker-Berry Library. Much sooner will be additions to the physics building; and the former Webster Hall (now the Rauner Special Collections Library) may open its doors before the snow flies. And the new Moore psychology building, now replete with four floors of windows on the Maynard Street side, within the year.
Two more honors for President Freedman: election to the American Academy of Arts "in recognition of his distinguished contributions to scholarship and public affairs"; and a doctor of humane letters degree from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, for "outstanding leadership in higher education" and for "moral leadership." (On the subject of awards, may we in all modesty reveal that this magazine was recently awarded the industry-standard "CASE gold medal" for college magazines.) And women's lacrosse went all the way to the NCAA semi-finals, beating arch-rival Princeton and Loyola in the last seconds along the way (see story on page 40). Women's sailing sailed into second in the nationals; regjohnston '99 won the IC4A decathlon going away; and Dartmouth women swept the distance runs in the Heps: Deirdre Milligan '98in the 10,000 meters, Jenna Rogers '98 in the 5,000, and Erin Dromgoole '01 in the 3,000.
In the Onward and Upward Department: Dean Lee Pelton has by now settled into the president's office at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Senior associate dean Dan Nelson '75 has replaced him, as acting dean. Financial, investment, and administrative officer Lyn Hutton has become vice president and chief financial officer of the John D. Mac Arthur Foundation. Fler replacement is "Win" Johnson '67, with the title of acting vice president and treasurer. Taking over for Dartmouth's new president, Jim Wright, with the title of acting provost, will be med school professor Constance Brinckerhoff. It is not true that the College is slowly running out of persons to serve on search committees.
According to Doris Kearns Goodwin, Winston Churchill spent so much time in the White House that he was given his own room, adjacent to FDR's. One morning Roosevelt saw him leaving the shower in the altogether, and offered to get him a robe or a bath towel. Churchill, never at a loss for a rejoinder, said, "The prime minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the President of the United States."
