David Dawley ’63

David Dawley ’63 died November 16, 2023 in Hanover. He was from Westminster, Massachusetts, and attended Gardner High School where he participated in the newspaper and yearbook, dramatics, cross-country, and track. At Dartmouth, David majored in history, was a brother of Beta Theta Pi, and a member of Casque and Gauntlet, the Dartmouth Christian Fellowship, and the Judiciary Committee. He was a skiing instructor and a cox on the rowing team. He was also the president of the Dartmouth Rowing Club and a coach. He was an active alumnus as an admissions volunteer, an alumni fund volunteer, and a class officer. After Dartmouth, David volunteered for the Peace Corps, served in Honduras and was profiled in the Ashoka Forum as a “Peace Corps Entrepreneur” advocating for social change. He earned a master’s of social work at the University of Michigan in 1967. David then embarked on an extraordinary career as a civil rights activist in a period of national trauma and became the only “white Vice Lord” on the west side of Chicago, developing strategies for that notorious gang for community development. His autobiography of the gang, A Nation of Lords was featured on The History Channel. He was a founding organizer of Youth Organizations United, a national coalition of youth groups. He participated in hearings of the Black Legislators of Illinois and served on the Massachusetts Governor’s Committee on Corrections. David then became president of a family company which he sold and then became acting director of Dartmouth’s foundations relations and developed one of the largest federal grants in our College’s history. He also served on the board of the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth, as advisor to the taekwondo club, treasurer to Friends of Dartmouth Rowing, on the Advisory Committee of Investor Responsibility, and advisor to Passion For Skiing, a movie on the history of skiing at Dartmouth and the influence of Dartmouth on the ski industry. His resume is longer still and can be found on the internet.