Class Note 1962
Issue
Homecoming 2009 brought a large and stalwart group of classmates back to Hanover. Rain threatened the Friday night parade and on Saturday fell with bone-chilling intensity, prompting some to enjoy the game on the radio, or in front of the fire at Dowds’ Country Inn with a hot cup of tea and a scone. The younger, tougher—and much colder and wetter—Big Green players braved the elements and broke their long losing streak with a substantial win over Columbia. They were no doubt inspired at the pep rally the night before by President Jim Yong Kim’s pledge to sprint around the bonfire with the freshmen. Students were jubilant, spirits undampened.
With the arrival of Dartmouth’s new president comes renewed vitality and commitment. Phil Cantelon writes, “I attended the inauguration of President Kim as a representative of the American University of Rome (I’m a trustee of the university). I marched in the academic procession and by luck I had a chair on the middle aisle right below the dais. It was a marvelous ceremony, replete with Native American and Korean performance groups and singing as well, including Kim’s sister. I’ve attended a number of presidential inaugurations in the past, but none matched this one for liveliness and ceremony without the pomp. It seems to me that our new president has brought a fresh energy to the campus, particularly in his reaching out to the undergraduates, most specifically the class of 2013. There was an electricity on campus regarding Kim and the potential of his presidency that I’ve not seen anywhere before, though it may have been similar for John Kemeny, someone else from outside the usual Ivy League mold.
“Pete Lothes and I attended a marvelous panel discussion on leadership for social change the afternoon before the inauguration. I thought Paul Farmer, Kim’s colleague in Partners in Health, Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, Ed Haldeman ’70 and Jeff Immelt ’78 of GE were excellent. Ruth Simmons, the president of Brown, was also good, though I thought her talk on being a president at the inauguration ceremony trumped her panel contribution. What Kim has done is blend idealism with solid business strategy and sense to create a more robust model, at least in my opinion, for social change. His challenge to the undergraduates and especially the freshmen was to embrace those values and take a systematic approach to working toward desired outcomes. Now he will need to bring the College’s faculty and staff and alumni along. From speaking with a few undergraduates, he certainly has their attention. Immelt says that he is doing the same thing at GE in identifying and preparing the next generation of business leaders. It will be interesting to see if both tracks can be successful. The honeymoon has risen in Hanover.”
Looking toward our 50th reunion yearbook, president Gordy McKean wryly reminds us: “Now write your biography that makes you tick, lest someone less knowledgeable writes your obituary and it is too late to be ticked.”
—Jim Haines, 307 Sewickley Ridge Drive, Sewickley, PA 15143; (412) 741-9088; jbhaines@comcast.net
Jan - Feb 2010
Homecoming 2009 brought a large and stalwart group of classmates back to Hanover. Rain threatened the Friday night parade and on Saturday fell with bone-chilling intensity, prompting some to enjoy the game on the radio, or in front of the fire at Dowds’ Country Inn with a hot cup of tea and a scone. The younger, tougher—and much colder and wetter—Big Green players braved the elements and broke their long losing streak with a substantial win over Columbia. They were no doubt inspired at the pep rally the night before by President Jim Yong Kim’s pledge to sprint around the bonfire with the freshmen. Students were jubilant, spirits undampened.
With the arrival of Dartmouth’s new president comes renewed vitality and commitment. Phil Cantelon writes, “I attended the inauguration of President Kim as a representative of the American University of Rome (I’m a trustee of the university). I marched in the academic procession and by luck I had a chair on the middle aisle right below the dais. It was a marvelous ceremony, replete with Native American and Korean performance groups and singing as well, including Kim’s sister. I’ve attended a number of presidential inaugurations in the past, but none matched this one for liveliness and ceremony without the pomp. It seems to me that our new president has brought a fresh energy to the campus, particularly in his reaching out to the undergraduates, most specifically the class of 2013. There was an electricity on campus regarding Kim and the potential of his presidency that I’ve not seen anywhere before, though it may have been similar for John Kemeny, someone else from outside the usual Ivy League mold.
“Pete Lothes and I attended a marvelous panel discussion on leadership for social change the afternoon before the inauguration. I thought Paul Farmer, Kim’s colleague in Partners in Health, Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, Ed Haldeman ’70 and Jeff Immelt ’78 of GE were excellent. Ruth Simmons, the president of Brown, was also good, though I thought her talk on being a president at the inauguration ceremony trumped her panel contribution. What Kim has done is blend idealism with solid business strategy and sense to create a more robust model, at least in my opinion, for social change. His challenge to the undergraduates and especially the freshmen was to embrace those values and take a systematic approach to working toward desired outcomes. Now he will need to bring the College’s faculty and staff and alumni along. From speaking with a few undergraduates, he certainly has their attention. Immelt says that he is doing the same thing at GE in identifying and preparing the next generation of business leaders. It will be interesting to see if both tracks can be successful. The honeymoon has risen in Hanover.”
Looking toward our 50th reunion yearbook, president Gordy McKean wryly reminds us: “Now write your biography that makes you tick, lest someone less knowledgeable writes your obituary and it is too late to be ticked.”
—Jim Haines, 307 Sewickley Ridge Drive, Sewickley, PA 15143; (412) 741-9088; jbhaines@comcast.net