1958

“On a beautiful summer Sunday,” wrote Barbara Dodds on July 12, “Harry passed away at home with me at 5:15 a.m.” Harry Dodds’ obituary will appear in a future issue, scrunched to the requisite 150 words yet reaching from Nigerian and Brooklyn courtrooms to corporate and foundation boardrooms and countless other involvements. The College flag was lowered to half-mast July 16 and 17 in his honor as a former trustee. Carl McCall delivered the eulogy at White Plains Unitarian Church, near Mount Kisco, New York, where Harry died of amyloidosis, a cardiac disease. Gersh Abraham and 10 others also spoke, including an eloquent encomium from former Brooklyn congresswoman and district attorney Elizabeth Holtzman extolling Harry’s ability to work with diverse groups. Gersh added some light touches like the obfuscations Harry and Jerry Manne employed to win debates for Dartmouth and Harry’s feisty goaltending for the Chi Phi hockey team. Gersh also recounted Harry’s deadpan suggestion at a trustees’ meeting that the College, having admitted women, should consider investing “in a corporation that manufactures, say, Kotex.” Some trustees laughed, others were aghast, Harry told Gersh. Ailments prevented Harry from completing his oft-promised reflections for our 50th reunion book too bad, for he had quite a remarkable journey. Nick Stevens forwarded a request from Masachika “Chik” Onodera in Tokyo for a 50th book. He had misplaced the one he picked up at reunion. Nick and co-workers on the Dartmouth ski history project discovered Chik (“a ’58 I’d never heard of”) in tracking down Chick Igaya ’57 and other Japanese skiers. Delighted to send another book, I asked Chik how he became a ’58. Here’s his story: “In April 1957, at 27, Mitsui & Co. awarded me a one-year scholarship in the United States to learn the language, culture and ways of thinking and represent the company. After a summer course at Columbia our New York manager advised/ordered me to spend a year at a school at least 100 miles outside the city. Students and professors at Columbia recommended a small Ivy League school that was not coeducational. After visiting several, Hanover enchanted me with its campus environment and high instructor-student ratio. [Secretary’s Note: Mori Mitsui’s father, head of the firm, may have put in a plug for Dartmouth.] Dean Dickerson admitted me as a special student for 1957-58. I lived at 202 South Massachusetts, took Govy 1 and courses at Tuck, attended ‘Great Issues’ and joined Theta Delta Chi. Reassigned to New York in 1972, I met Joel Portugal on business. When we found we were in Hanover at the same time Joel kindly suggested I apply for adopted membership in the 1958 class. I belonged to the Dartmouth Club of New York until returning to Japan in 1982 and continue to pay class dues.”

Head agent Jack Bennett reports that the class topped its goals for the June 30 fundraising year, setting a sixth consecutive Dartmouth College Fund participation record: 74 percent for a 51st-year class.

65 Chapel Road, New Hope, PA 18938; squickel@dartmouth58.org