Class Note 1951
Issue
September-October 2020
I am shamelessly borrowing from a recent class of ’52 column that analyzed the demographics of that class since its enrollment 70-plus years ago.
Here are our numbers: Our Green Book profiled 654 new freshmen arriving in 1947. Four years later, according to our Aegis, 546 of us graduated. Today, the number of living ’51s is 180, just more than one-quarter of our entering class and one-third of our graduates. Two hundred forty-two widows are increasingly active members of the ’51 family; six of them serve on the class executive committee. We have sent at least 150 of our children and grandchildren to Dartmouth.
We arrived from 38 states, heavily weighted toward the East and Northeast. Only seven entering students came from outside the United States. Fewer than a dozen were Black, Latino, or Asian. Contrast these numbers with the class entering Dartmouth this fall. The class of ’24 has 1,150 students—half of whom are women. They come from all 50 states (42 percent from the West and South) and 71 foreign countries. Fifteen percent are first-generation college students. One-third of the admits are students of color. Clearly, “global” and “diverse” are key characteristics of the new class.
Could we get in today? Doubtful!
Where have we gone and what have we done since graduation? Nearly 60 percent of us now live in California and Florida. Only four live outside of the United States. More than half (308) went on for advanced degrees, especially M.B.A.s (101, of which nearly half were awarded by Tuck). Class of ’51 members earned 53 degrees in medicine, 41 in law, and eight in theology. Thirty-three are Ph.D.s. More than 60 became professors, elementary and secondary teachers, or academic administrators. (Note: these numbers are close but not perfect; they come from multiple sources, prepared at different times.)
Perhaps the most striking contrast to today’s graduates: 73 percent of us served in the U.S. armed forces. Military service is rare today among new college grads.
We mourn the recent loss of six classmates: Jim Culberson, Chuck Fitzsimmons, Bob Fullerton, Bill Merkle, Bill Rugg,and Mo Monahan.
—Pete Henderson, 450 Davis St., Evanston, IL 60201; (847) 905-0635; pandjhenderson@gmail.com
Here are our numbers: Our Green Book profiled 654 new freshmen arriving in 1947. Four years later, according to our Aegis, 546 of us graduated. Today, the number of living ’51s is 180, just more than one-quarter of our entering class and one-third of our graduates. Two hundred forty-two widows are increasingly active members of the ’51 family; six of them serve on the class executive committee. We have sent at least 150 of our children and grandchildren to Dartmouth.
We arrived from 38 states, heavily weighted toward the East and Northeast. Only seven entering students came from outside the United States. Fewer than a dozen were Black, Latino, or Asian. Contrast these numbers with the class entering Dartmouth this fall. The class of ’24 has 1,150 students—half of whom are women. They come from all 50 states (42 percent from the West and South) and 71 foreign countries. Fifteen percent are first-generation college students. One-third of the admits are students of color. Clearly, “global” and “diverse” are key characteristics of the new class.
Could we get in today? Doubtful!
Where have we gone and what have we done since graduation? Nearly 60 percent of us now live in California and Florida. Only four live outside of the United States. More than half (308) went on for advanced degrees, especially M.B.A.s (101, of which nearly half were awarded by Tuck). Class of ’51 members earned 53 degrees in medicine, 41 in law, and eight in theology. Thirty-three are Ph.D.s. More than 60 became professors, elementary and secondary teachers, or academic administrators. (Note: these numbers are close but not perfect; they come from multiple sources, prepared at different times.)
Perhaps the most striking contrast to today’s graduates: 73 percent of us served in the U.S. armed forces. Military service is rare today among new college grads.
We mourn the recent loss of six classmates: Jim Culberson, Chuck Fitzsimmons, Bob Fullerton, Bill Merkle, Bill Rugg,and Mo Monahan.
—Pete Henderson, 450 Davis St., Evanston, IL 60201; (847) 905-0635; pandjhenderson@gmail.com