John Sloan Dickey
John Sloan Dickey (4 November 1907 – 9 February 1991) was an American diplomat, scholar, and intellectual. Dickey served as President of Dartmouth College from 1945 to 1970, and helped revitalize the Ivy League institution.
Early life
Dickey, born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, completed his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth in 1929 and later graduated from Harvard Law School. Dickey worked variously as a lawyer, special assistant to the Secretary of State, and director of the State Department's Office of Public Affairs. In 1945, he became President of Dartmouth College. "Even after he assumed office in 1945 he was a principal actor in public policy, serving on President Truman's 1947 Committee on Civil Rights, the United Nations Collective Measures Committee in 1951, and as consultant to Secretary of State Acheson on disarmament."[1]
Dartmouth presidency
While president, Dickey sought to revitalize liberal arts education, which he called "the liberating arts," at Dartmouth. Under his watch, foreign study programs were introduced, Dartmouth expanded its doctoral programs and opened a center for studying the new area of computer science, and a service foundation was opened to provide students with opportunities for social activism and community service. Dickey stepped-down as president in 1970.
In 1982, the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding was opened at Dartmouth to honor Dickey's legacy and "coordinate, sustain, and enrich the international dimension of liberal arts education at Dartmouth."[2]
Official Dartmouth College Biography:
Regularly welcoming freshmen at Convocation with the phrase "your business here is learning," John Sloan Dickey was committed to making Dartmouth the best liberal arts college in the country. A graduate of Dartmouth (1929) and Harvard Law School, he had a varied career before assuming the presidency: partner at a major Boston law firm, special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State and later to the Secretary of State, a member of the Office of Inter-American Affairs and the division of World Trade Intelligence, and Director of the State Department's Office of Public Affairs. Even after he assumed office in 1945 he was a principal actor in public policy, serving on President Truman's 1947 Committee on Civil Rights, the United Nations Collective Measures Committee in 1951, and as consultant to Secretary of State Acheson on disarmament.
John Sloan Dickey's commitment to the liberal arts, or, as he termed them "the liberating arts," was perhaps best expressed in an innovative course on "Great Issues," designed to introduce seniors to the problems of national and international relations they would face as citizens. President Dickey also reintroduced doctoral programs to Dartmouth, as well as a Northern Studies program and a Russian Civilization department. Dickey sought to expand the horizons of Dartmouth beyond Hanover and introduced foreign studies programs, a public affairs internship, and various social action programs. The William Jewett Tucker Foundation was opened by President Dickey, offering students opportunity and academic credit for social activism.
During his 25-year tenure, President Dickey headed two capital campaigns, doubled African American student enrollment, reinvigorated the Dartmouth Medical School, built the Hopkins Center and instituted continuing education for alumni. Consistent with his concern for awareness of and involvement in the great movements of the time, he saw the emerging importance of computers--a field then in its infancy--and built the Kiewit Computation Center in 1966. After stepping down as president, he continued his affiliation with the College by teaching Canadian-American relations as the Bicentennial Professor of Public Affairs.