Commitments by Class of 1978 and Williamsons support life
sciences, student experience, and medicine
Two major gift commitments, from the Class of 1978
and from Susan and Peter Williamson ’58, will move the College, Dartmouth Medical School, and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
substantially forward in supporting Dartmouth’s priorities through the Campaign for the Dartmouth
Experience. These gifts bring the total raised in the campaign to $919
million as of Sept. 30, 71 percent of its $1.3 billion goal realized over 70
percent of the campaign time line. The $1.3 billion fund-raising campaign is
the most ambitious in Dartmouth’s history.
A national model for “green” building
Setting a new standard for Dartmouth class-driven philanthropy, the Class of
1978 Reunion Giving Committee, led by Bill Daniel, Elissa VonHeill Hylton,
Steve Mandel, and Barbara Dau Southwell, has committed to meeting two goals by
the time of its 30th reunion next June. They will raise the $40 million
necessary to name the College’s new life sciences building and contribute at
least $3 million in unrestricted gifts supporting the student experience
through the Dartmouth College
Fund. This commitment comes on the heels of the class’s record-setting
25th-reunion gift in 2003.
 A view of the Class of
1978 Life Sciences Center. The Class of 1978 Reunion Giving Committee has
committed to raising $40 million towards the cost of the facility.
(Illustration: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson)
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The life sciences facility is a top priority in the Campaign for the
Dartmouth Experience. The Class of 1978
Life Sciences Center will be a national model of sustainable design,
expected to consume one-half of the energy of the best-performing laboratories
currently in use in the United States. At 174,500-square-feet, the facility
will have spaces devoted to undergraduate- and graduate-level teaching and
research, including classrooms, teaching and faculty laboratories, and offices
for the Department of Biological Sciences. Among its notable features: a
6,000-square-foot greenhouse, a 200-seat auditorium, a two-story atrium for
“science in sight” gallery displays, a third-floor sorghum and grasses green
roof to help keep the building cool, a storm water management system that will
reuse one million gallons of rain water annually, and a state-of-the-art energy
management system.
“The ’78s have done it again,” says Dartmouth President James Wright. “Their
latest plan for investing in the College raises the bar. When they meet their
goals next June, they will have set a new record for a 30th reunion gift
through the Dartmouth College Fund and supported one of our top academic
priorities. The life sciences are a pillar of the liberal arts. The Class of
1978 is not only extraordinarily generous, but farsighted in enabling the work
of students and faculty in these critical fields.”
Four years ago the class raised a record-setting $14.4 million reunion gift.
Nearly half the total was given for unrestricted current use, which is
essential for the College to stay responsive to student and faculty needs
during a given fiscal year. The previous fund-raising record, held by the Class
of 1951 at its 50th reunion in 2001, was $6.46 million.
“The generosity and loyalty of our alumni are legendary,” says Charles “Ed”
Haldeman Jr. ’70, president and CEO of Putnam Investments, and the chairman of
Dartmouth’s Board of
Trustees. “So are the good-natured rivalries between classes. Alumni
engagement enables Dartmouth to continue a mission that was first begun in
1769: to provide one of the finest student experiences anywhere. We’re
grateful.”
The life sciences has developed in the past decade as an umbrella for all
disciplines that study life. These include the traditional and emerging fields
of biology, biotechnology, ecology, environmental studies, proteomics,
genetics, neuroscience, and medical imaging. Scientific advances that affect
all living organisms increasingly occur at the intersection of these and more
than a dozen other fields, with implications for public policy, law, ethics,
and religion.
“In thirty years as a biologist I’ve witnessed a revolution,” says Carol
Folt, dean of the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences and professor of biological sciences. “New areas of study have
transformed biology into a web of connected fields as diverse and dynamic as
the most intricate biological systems on our planet. The new life sciences hold
promise for unraveling pressing concerns affecting the human condition and our
quality of life.”
The Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center will be constructed on the site
currently occupied by Strasenburgh, Butler, and the Medical Modular Laboratory
building, to the northeast of the Vail-Remsen complex. Its north wing will be
allocated largely to classrooms and teaching labs, the east wing to faculty
laboratories and administrative facilities, with faculty offices distributed
between the two wings. Generous amounts of common space will facilitate
interactions. The signature element of the teaching wing will be the two-story
atrium featuring displays from sources such as the College libraries, the Hood Museum of Art, and the Department of Biological
Sciences.
Williamson gift makes history for Dartmouth medicine
Peter and Susan Williamson have made a $20 million gift commitment to
Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC).
Their gift, the largest to the medical school and the medical center, will help
support those institutions’ highest priorities.
 Susan and Peter Williamson ’58 are
supporting DMS and DHMC with a $20 million gift commitment. (Photo by Jon
Gilbert Fox)
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Peter Williamson ’58 is a professor of medicine in neurology at DMS and the
founder and director of the Epilepsy Program at DHMC.
“I believe in the excellence of Dartmouth medicine and its ability to truly
transform medicine. Susan and I feel this is exactly the right time to make a
contribution of this magnitude to support the academic mission of DMS and hope
this will inspire others to contribute as well,” he says.
Williamson is chair of the Transforming Medicine Campaign for
DMS and DHMC, part of the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience. His $20
million gift commitment brings the total raised for the Transforming
Medicine Campaign to $190 million toward its $250 million goal.
“Peter Williamson has committed himself to Dartmouth, and Susan Williamson
has been a full partner in the family’s philanthropic work at Dartmouth, in the
local community, and more broadly,” says President Wright. “This is a
transformational gift for Dartmouth medicine and accelerates our ability to
advance knowledge quickly and for the benefit of us all.”
Stephen
Spielberg, dean of Dartmouth Medical School, says, “Through their
generosity, Peter and Susan have given us tremendous power to capitalize on our
greatest strengths.”
“This is a magnificent gesture from an individual who is sincerely
passionate about medicine,” says Thomas A. Colacchio, president of the
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic, speaking on behalf of the Office of the Presidents
at DHMC.
The Williamsons have been generous supporters of Dartmouth and DMS over the
years. They committed $1 million toward the creation of the Alexander Garden
Reeves, M.D. Professorship in Neurology in 2004.
Williamson is a world-renowned neurologist and epilepsy expert. After 20
years as director of the Yale Epilepsy Program at Yale University, he returned
to Dartmouth in 1991 to establish the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Comprehensive
Epilepsy Center. In 2002, the American Epilepsy Society awarded him the
J. Kiffin Penry Award for Excellence in Epilepsy Care.
Susan Kettering Williamson is a 1959 graduate of Skidmore College and has
served on its Board of Trustees since 1973. She received the Dennis B.
Kemball-Cook award for exemplary service at Skidmore and an honorary Doctor of
Humane Letters in 1998. In 1999, the Surrey Williamson Inn on the Skidmore
campus was named in her honor.
The Williamsons have four children: two are Dartmouth graduates, Debbie
(Class of 1981) and Doug (Class of 1985). Doug is also a 1993 graduate of
DMS.
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