|
Posted 06/12/05
Honorary degree citation to Gordon W. Russell 1955 (Doctor of Humane Letters)
Gordon W. Russell
|
From the frozen ponds of your native Arlington, Massachusetts, to the old Davis Rink where you starred as a Dartmouth goalie, you learned to compete and to be part of a team. Through lessons derived from your parents and priests, as well as the principles advanced by President John Sloan Dickey, you learned responsibility for the less fortunate. And you have spent the last half-century both teaching and living these lessons.
A successful venture capitalist with the legendary Silicon Valley firm Sequoia Capital, you have brought to helping others the same intelligence and passion that advanced and sustained you there. Your generous service and philanthropy have advanced health care in East Palo Alto, as well as at Ketchum, Idaho. You have supported environmental causes and Native American communities.
You serve the Peninsula Community Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Woods Hole Research Center; and you were a founder of the Sun Valley Writer's Conference.
At Dartmouth, the Medical School, our new Center for the Advancement of Learning, and the Native American Studies program have all benefited from your generosity and your wise counsel.
As a hockey player, you have never liked pucks in your net, and you have never turned away from making a difference. You know, I hope, my own personal pride in recognizing publicly your quiet work now, on the occasion of your fiftieth College reunion, with the degree Doctor of Humane Letters.
- James Wright
Return to Commencement 2005
|
