1956

1956

Ladies and gentlemen of 1956: Chief Plenty Coups’ plea to his people was to get an education to be the white man’s equal—100 years after Eleazar sought to provide just that. Line Spaulding continues with part two of the brand. “Through the years Dartmouth has been fortunate to have had gifted presidents who recognized the compounding effect that remote Hanover has on the growth and development of Dartmouth students, enabling our graduates to achieve beyond the sum oftheir parts. Tucker, Hopkins, Dickey, Kemeny, and Wright fully understoo d these backwoods synergies. The school thrived on the mix, and it stuck to its motto Vox clamantis in deserto’ as evidenced by the adoption of yearround education, athree-subject courseload, and a semester abroad to facilitate the absorption of a 50-50 male-female mix. It also did not toss out the Greek system. So what is our brand now? Are we still doers? How do we capture doing in a logo? And what’s happened to the memory of Eleazar, our original and peerless Dartmouth doer? Have we thrown him under the bus with the weathervane? Here’s a thought: Let’s poll our Native American alumni and see if they would support a search for a new college symbol. Our entire alumni body, unified behind a symbol suggested by our Native American classmates the College was chartered to serve—now we’re talking about a brand with which to be reckoned!”

Tom Gidley, a barrister turned poetry fancier and course leader in Rhode Island, has enlisted Alan Sklar to recite Robert Frost at our 65th reunion in September. And I wish to recognize our class ophthalmologist, Alan Friedman, M.D., whose holistic approach to aging presented at our 55th in Hanover and Stowe, Vermont, I desperately try to follow! Excellent advice from a third-generation Dartmouth gentleman. Finally, my good friend Suzanne Lyons of Manhattanville College and Norwich, Vermont, is pleased and amazed to see the friendship, fellowship, and love we of1956 have for each other. May it never fade. See you in “The Woods”! The Indian will never die.

—J.W. Crowley, 15612 SE 42nd Place, Bellevue, WA 98006; (425) 746-1824; jackcrowley@hotmail.com

J.W. Crowley