Alanson P. Stevens III ’57

Alanson P. Stevens III ’57 passed away on May 9, 2022. Al graduated from English High School in Boston. In 1943, on his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. A year later, as a machine gunner in the infantry he was part of the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Next he was in a sharpshooter group bringing down enemy planes. Al fought in five campaigns, including the Battle of the Bulge. He had studied German and served as an interpreter. After the war he briefly entered the music industry, playing alto sax with a tour group. He re-enlisted in the Army, joined the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper, and became a jump master. Realizing military life would be hard on his wife and family, he resigned and entered Dartmouth as a freshman on the G.I. bill. He was 28 years old—10 years older than most classmates—and had a wife and three children. He majored in German, belonged to Sigma Chi, and played in the Barbary Coast and the Sultans. After graduating he earned his M.A. in Russian from Yale. In 1962 Al joined Phillips Andover Academy as a language professor in German and Russian. He was on the faculty for 23 years until retiring in 1985. Al bought a home in Cornish, New Hampshire, to be close to the Dartmouth area. He is survived by sons Alanson ’72 and Geoffrey and daughters Catherine, Ruth-Ann, and Sarah.