The Class of 1963 celebrates its 50th Reunion this June. We took a look back at some facts and interesting developments during the senior year of the class.
During the 1962–1963 academic year:
- The Hopkins Center for the Arts opened. Nelson Rockefeller ’30 said it was “a symbol of Dartmouth’s leadership in a cultural movement.”
- At the University of Mississippi, James Meredith became the first African American student to attend classes
- John F. Kennedy was president of the United States; John Sloan Dickey ’29 was president of Dartmouth
- Robert Frost gave one of the last lectures of his life at the Hopkins Center. He died in January 1963.
- A traffic light was installed at the intersection of Main and Wheelock streets
- The Hanover CO-OP opened on South Park Street, advertising “plenty of free parking”
- The football team went 9-0
- Bestselling books in Hanover were Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck and Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters by J.D. Salinger
- Virginian Bill King ’63 received the Barrett Cup, presented to the most outstanding senior. King later served as a Dartmouth trustee.
- Lambswool pullover sweaters sold for $6.95 at the Moose Mt. Store on Allen Street
- 14 Dartmouth students—the highest percentage in the Ivy League— joined the newly formed Peace Corps
- 22 faculty members, including mathematics professor Thomas Kurtz, were promoted
