This is the second installment on the story of the Class of 1964 Leadership Initiative.


Last month’s Class Notes covered the events that initiated and developed the leadership initiative. This is the rest of the story.


The effort to establish and more fully fund the leadership initiative culminated in a meeting held April 29, 2013, in New York, where six classmates mentioned in the prior article—Ron Schram, Bob Bartles, Fritz Corrigan, Sabin Danizger, Brad Evans and Sandy McGinnes—joined Dave Hewitt, Roy Lewicki, Ed Williams, Hop Potter, Dick Couch, Tom Seymour, Burt Alimansky, Steve Blecher, Pete Benzian, Lou Goodman, Roger Hull, Wilson Madden and Harvey Tettlebaum and gathered with Drew Galbraith, Harry Sheehy and Andrew Samwick to discuss what by then was the class legacy project. As mentioned in the first installment, the Rockefeller Center and the department of athletics agreed to take up the leadership initiative within their respective programs. 


At the New York meeting the implementation and experience of both programs were explained to demonstrate the immediate benefit the leadership initiative was having on the students and the College. We learned that through Dartmouth Peak Performance, the athletic department was teaching leadership utilizing Sophomore Summer, where students on a voluntary basis go through the “Drive” program, half in class and half in the field. It teaches students to go from teammate to upper-class leader. The next phase, “Thrive,” when fully funded would allow 1,000 students to be trained in the program. 


The Rocky Center has developed four different courses focusing on the theory and practice of leadership. It also offers training through its management and leadership development program and skill practice through the Policy Research Shop and global policy seminar. Special programs are available for first-year students (Create Your Own Path) and seniors (Rocky leadership fellows). It is most impressive that although participation in the leadership initiative in both programs is entirely voluntary, a substantial percentage of the student body has chosen voluntarily to participate. This speaks not only to the character of today’s Dartmouth undergraduate, but to the unmet need the leadership initiative is filling at the College. 


With the extreme generosity of Fritz and Glenda Corrigan and gifts from 75 other class members, the initiative is off to a great start. President Hanlon supports it as part of Moving Dartmouth Forward and, as stated, we have seen students flock to the program even though it is voluntary and carries no college credit. We hope that classmates’ future planned giving to the College will include the leadership initiative.


This program will benefit the college, the students, the alumni and ultimately the world from the training and experience each participating Dartmouth graduate receives. While other 50th reunion classes have endowed legacies in different forms (buildings, rooms, collections, scholarships) the 1964s have chosen as their legacy a program with an exportable element, allowing the participants to create their own legacies to the College and their communities upon graduation and beyond. 


—Harvey Tettlebaum, 56295 Little Moniteau Road, California, MO 65018; (573) 761-1107; dartsecy64@gmail.com