2008 Association of Alumni Candidates

Bert Boles '80, Arcadia, CA
INDEPENDENT, PRO-PARITY PETITION CANDIDATE FOR 1st VICE PRESIDENT

J.D. / MBA, Stanford University. Litigation partner, Kirkland & Ellis, Los Angeles.  Dartmouth Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude. Ebers Award for Outstanding Earth Science major. Editor-in-Chief of The Dartmouth; Casque and Gauntlet; Lord Hall Dormitory Chair; Alpha Delta Fraternity. Vice President of the Board of St. Monica Academy, a private liberal arts school. Married, nine children.

(Continued from Murphy Statement)

“So how do we explain this reach for greatness by Dartmouth? We believe that there have been two basic reasons, and they both date from the same moment in history. One is outstanding leadership; the other is an unusual, intense level of alumni support and participation in the life and future of the College.

“The Association of Alumni was formed in 1854 because many alumni were concerned by the direction of the College. These disagreements intensified, as efforts over the next few decades to induce the Board of Trustees to reform were not successful. Finally, when the College reached a crisis, the now famous Agreement of 1891 was concluded. Dartmouth alumni pledged to provide financial and other support, and the Trustees agreed to seat 50% of the Board with elected alumni trustees; 50% with appointed charter trustees, plus the President who could break ties.

“This was the turning point in Dartmouth’s history.  Shortly after this Agreement the first of Dartmouth’s great leaders – William Jewett Tucker – became President (1893).  When Tucker took over, Dartmouth had 26 faculty, 300 students, was deep in debt, and had a small physical plant.  When Tucker retired in 1909, there were 81 faculty, 1,100 students, and over 20 new buildings. Tucker’s biographer said that he “refounded Dartmouth.”  There is no question but that the outpouring of alumni support following the 1891 Agreement and the active participation on the Board by the alumni trustees nominated by the Association were decisive.

“Tucker was followed by two other outstanding Dartmouth presidents:  Ernest Martin Hopkins and John Sloan Dickey.  Both considered alumni indispensable in making Dartmouth a great college.  President Hopkins said it best, in 1930:

And the fact is that a college cannot be of maximum
influence except with the support of its alumni, and
consequently that a college must have the support of its
alumni if it is to be truly great.

(Continued in Mirengoff Statement)

• Back to Candidate's Gallery