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2002 Granger Award Recipients

Edward B. Marks '32

For over 50 years, Edward B. Marks '32 has committed his life and energy to international humanitarian assistance, working in both U.S. Government agencies, for the United Nations and for non-governmental organizations.

As a young man, he helped refugees escaping from Hitler; then the Japanese Americans evacuated from the U.S. west coast; he helped European wartime refugees brought to the U.S.; in Germany, Austria and Italy after the war his efforts helped refugees and the many displaced persons; his work in Greece, to which I have referred, was remarkable.

Back in the U.S. the resettlement of refugees and orphans were his principle focus: Hungarian refugees who had fled Yugoslavia in 1957 and the refugees who were victims of the fighting in Vietnam in 1965-66 and the poor Biafrans dislocated by the Nigerian Civil War.

As the Chairman of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and the Immigration and Refugee Services of America, Ed Marks was responsible for resettlement of Cuban, African, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, Bosnian, Iraqi, Russian and other refugees throughout the U.S.

Upon completion of a program of development assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development in West Africa and in Washington, DC, AID Administrator Parker presented him with the agencies first Distinguished Career Award.

He was transferred in 1971 to UNICEF for emergency work in Geneva and in New York City. Ed returned to AID in 1973. He then returned to UNICEF as deputy director of the UN's Year of the Child and as UNICEF liaison for the Year of the Disabled, two highly successful programs. In 1988 he was designated acting President of the U.S. Committee for UNICEF.

Ed was Chairman of the American Branch of International Social Services. He now serves on several boards and continues his writing. He has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and many other publications.

Since his retirement he has produced two illustrated books about the United Nations, "A World of Art - The United Nations Collection" and "For a Better World". His UN Poster Exhibit, which has toured the western world and will go to Asia in 2002, as received great notices and high praise including from Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Charles F. Dey '52

A scholar-athlete, Dey graduated from Dartmouth in 1952 with an A.B. in History. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Navy and served three years as a Combat Information Officer on the USS Albany, attaining the rank of lieutenant. He received his M.A.T. degree from Harvard in 1957 and started his career in education at Phillips Academy/Andover as a teaching fellow and then instructor in history. He returned to Dartmouth in 1960 as Assistant Dean of the College.

In 1962, he took a leave of absence to serve in the Peace Corps as a regional representative in the Phillipine Islands. One of the first in-country directors, he took on tough assignments - supervising 80 volunteers and trouble-shooting community projects.

He returned to Dartmouth once again in 1963, as Associate Dean and director of two programs devoted to underserved communities:

  • A Better Chance (ABC), an experiment to give promising but seriously disadvantaged secondary students "a better chance" for college and life-long leadership

  • A Summer Institute for Teachers of the Disadvantaged under sponsorship of NDEA (National Defense Education Act).

Dey got ABC going at the request of President John Sloan Dickey, as part of the College's effort to have undergraduates be aware of what he called "the unfinished business of our society." There was a perfect fit in the fortuitous combination of President Dickey, who articulated the problem ("a modern society fractured by inequalities in educational opportunity") with Dey putting a bold solution into action.
ABC was launched inthe summer of 1964 with 57 low-income minority students selected for their academic ability, motivation and achievement. It was at the height of the civil rights strife that Dey and his wife Phoebe went south to drive four of those first students back from Birmingham, an integrated journey that provoked hostile responses.

Dey spearheaded the effort to get ABC kids into public high schools, beginning with Hanover High School. He arranged housing in Hanover and recruited a resident housemaster from Andover. "It took a tremendous amount of creativity, persuasiveness and leadership," recalls a Dartmouth classmate.

Dey ran the summer transition program for two years, helped expand it to public schools in the third, and then turned over the directorship to Tom Mikula. As national chairman, he continued to watch over a program that grew to include private and public high schools coast to coast. More than 10,000 sudents have attended public and private schools under this program.

Reaching beyond the campus, in collaboration with the Urban Superintendents of Connecticut, Dey created the Connecticut Scholars program for urban high school students. This was followed by Young Science Scholars, which drew students from all over the world. Other outreach programs included minority students, the Very Special Arts Festival for the learning disabled, the Annual Special Olympics, and programs for disabled swimmers and skaters.

Theoretically retired in 1991, he went back to work to launch a new program for the National Organization on Disability - Start on Success (SOS), a paid internship program for high school students with disabilities. Whereas ABC deservedly attracted attention, including national media coverage, the embryonic SOS program is less well known. It is no less significant or less ambitious in its goals.
Charles Dey began as a young student who dedicated his life to public service. An educator who worked ceaselessly for racial equality. An idealist living his ideals more than 50 years later. A man whose life is still making a difference.

Last Updated: 1/6/05