AROUND THE GREEN

Dr. Richard Crocker has been hired as Dartmouth's newchaplain, filling a job that's been vacant for two years. Crocker, most recently senior pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair, New Jersey, is responsible for leading the Tucker Foundation's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and directing the religious groups associated with the United Campus Ministry. He sees his role as, among other things, helping "people understand and appreciate the role of religious belief." Crocker is a 1969 graduate of Brown University; he was also a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.

Size matters, especially when it comesto football. And the players just keep getting bigger. The average weight of a player on this year's aptly named Big Green squad: 219 pounds. More than seven team members weigh more than 275 pounds and four exceed 300 pounds. Dartmouth's football season got under way with a loss at Colgate September 21.

Some of the nation's best doctors forwomen work at Dartmouth MedicalSchool. Last year Ladies' Home Journal conducted a national independent survey of doctors to find "exceptional, highly skilled" practitioners in the areas of obstetrics and gynecology, gynecological oncology, and breast cancer. Four Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center doctors made the list: Emily R. Baker, John L. Currie, E. Dale Collins and John E. Sutton.

When the 2002 U.S. Canoe Association Marathon Canoe & Kayak National Championships came to townlast August, Dartmouth figured prominently. Thayer School professor Marc Lessard and his wife, Chris Wilson, spent several years organizing the event. Peter Heed '72, a former president of the association, designed a 13-mile marathon course on the Connecticut River for the races. John Hugus '78 won the masters 12.5-mile race and Ben Zabar '04 won the orienteering race. This year's event set a record for the largest gathering of marathon canoe racers; the previous record was set in 1988—the last time Ledyard Canoe Club hosted the races.