Was It Something In The Water?

IS IT JUST PLAIN COINCIDENCE that an unusually high number of alums from the classes of 1976 and 1977 have reached levels of prominence as art historians? Among them are three museum curators, an art history professor, a fine art dealer, and a museum director. Theories abound:

George Shackelford 77, curator of European painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: "I really don't know. Perhaps there was something to the late seventies period, when people were interested in idealistic and intellectual pursuits and not everyone was insistent on making a buck."

Howard Lay '76, assistant professor of art (nineteenth- and twentieth-century French and American after 1945) at the University of Michigan: "I'd have to say it was John Wilmerding (now the chairman of the department of art and architecture at Princeton University), an inspirational professor. He was just a phenomenal teacher."

Julia Miller Shepherd '76, art teacher for grades kindergarten through five, Bromwell Elementary School, and president, World Art Explorers, Denver: "Dartmouth infused us with a passion for art. There were great professors and lots of personal attention."

Lawrence W. Nichols '76, curator of European painting and sculpture before 1900 at the Toledo Museum of Art:. "We were allowed to study actual objects from the College collection. Plus, the influence of fabulous professors who gave generously of their time, such as Frank Robinson (now die director of the Herbert F.Johnson Museum, of Art at Cornell University)."

Robert Dance '77, New York City dealer specializing in seventeenth-century Italian art: "There weren't many of us, so we were given a lot of attention plus tremendous freedom to do what we wanted. It was the early- to mid-seventies, the end of the do-your-own-thing era, so we were supported and encouraged and left to do our own thing."