Class of 1974

By the time you read this, many of you will be enroute to attend our Dartmouth class of 1974 50th reunion. We are closing in on 400 registrants. There is a busy schedule planned with lots of entertainment and a chance to hobnob with classmates, faculty, trustees, administration, and 2024 graduates. Events include a presentation by the Class of 1974 Health Equity Project’s first group of student researchers, our memorial service, a concert with prodigy Matthew Whitaker, (nephew of “Rocky” Whitaker) and our formal class dinner. Please see our class website for the most current information and to check our progress on all three fundraising projects.

I hope you’ve all seen “Too Many Too Soon II.” This video concisely describes our groundbreaking class project on health equity. The entire mortality working group has been awarded the 2024 Ongoing Commitment Award by the Dartmouth Social Justice Committee with a ceremony in Hanover on May 1.

Rick Ranger, our class newsletter editor for 40 years, who has been so influential in chronicling our classmates’ activities since graduation and whose prose reads like a Pulitzer Prize winner, is receiving an honorary degree, doctor of humane letters, during graduation ceremonies. Please attend this if nothing else, as Rick deserves all the honor our class can bring. Rick is reapplying for another three-year stint as an Anglican missionary teaching at Uganda Christian University Business School.

On a personal note, my wife, Linda, and I decided to take our concerns for health equity to another country by visiting an orphanage we support in western Kenya. Devastated by HIV, malnutrition, and a complete lack of governmental social support, this facility outside of Kisumu is an under-developed country in every sense. When we first connected with them some years ago, they had 15 orphans. There are now 70 and increasing. They also support 27 widows (of about 500 in the region) who are without income, food, or housing.

It was impressive to see how much the orphanage staff have done with so little. The children we met demonstrated remarkably high levels of maturity and hope for their ages. The mission’s estimated needs were originally less than $10,000 a month, but they were surviving on $5,000. Part of our visit was to obtain a more realistic assessment of their situation, and it’s fair to say $15,000 per month is a more realistic figure for what’s needed. This includes the only functioning school (grades 1-8) for the surrounding community. High school is available privately through boarding and day schools that are accessible only with outside financial support and this applies to the largest proportion of the current orphan population.

With an absent generation of adults unable to support the elderly, infirm, and young, it’s left to private nonprofits such as United Hope International to meet those needs. If any of you within the wider Dartmouth community would consider supporting its work there, please check out its website at www.unitedhopeint.org or contact me for more information.

Blessings.

—Philip Stebbins, 17 Hardy Road, Londonderry, NH 03053; p.stebs@gmail.com