Stan Williams will provide us with an update on the imaginative approach ValleyNet/ECFiber/LymeFiber is using to help provide the Upper Valley region with internet service. As one of those residing in a high-speed desert I am looking forward to learning how and when connectivity will come to lower Dogford Road in Etna! 

 

 

Rod Thomas presented Jesse’s stellar service staff leader, Dylan, with a Christmas remembrance from the club. Rod singled out Dylan’s guidance on making the wisest food choice possible and for tending to the needs of the club when meals don’t 

 

Todd Allen, acting president, reminded everyone there will be no meetings December 25 and January 1.

 

Dave Allen reported that he received a note of appreciation from the school in Kenton on Sea in South Africa where our club donated funds for books. 

 

Nan Carroll announced that club members should help themselves to an official Hanover Rotary Shopping Bag as they leave. 

 

Dave Bradley, our Birthday and Anniversary tracker, won the raffle. 

 

 

Jay Satterfield of the Rauner Library offered a history of Dartmouth’s first female professor, Elizabeth Hapgood. Jay knew who the first professor was, but did not realize the details of her background until he did some research using original source materials. By examining letters and official documents of the college that are in the archives of Rauner, Jay learned that Ms. Hapgood was a Russian language teacher who was born 1894, went to Russia with her mother, graduated from college in France, and attended graduate school in Columbia. There she met Norman Hapgood, a noted publisher and theater critic who was 20 years her senior. After marrying Mr. Hapgood, Elizabeth joined him on a trip to Hanover in her last month of pregnancy when he received an honorary degree from the President Hopkins.

 

As a result of his research, Jay fond that Dartmouth's President Hopkins wanted to launch Russian in the Fall semester, which began in August—two months after Mr. Hapgood arrived. Mr. Hopkins was challenged, though, because he didn’t think a qualified man was available for only one semester on such short notice. Although President Hopkins REALLY wanted a man, the head of the language department ultimately had no choice but to hire Mrs. Hapgood. The enrollments in her course were high but after one full term Ms. Hapgood left Hanover to join her husband in Denmark where he was appointed to a State Department job. 20 years later Dartmouth hired its first full time female even though resistance to the hiring of a female professor persisted.  Jay’s talk not only provided us with some interesting history, it illustrated the kind of painstaking work required to conduct historic research. Jay invited us to avail ourselves of the resources available at Rauner should we want to conduct research on our own. 

 

 

January 15 – Rubi Simon will give us a report on her recent trip to Honduras under the auspices of ACTS Honduras. 

 

January 22 –Dartmouth College President Hanlon will give us an update on the latest developments at the college. 

 

January 29 – Jenn Packard will tell us about the newly merged Lebanon-Hanover Chamber of Commerce

 

February 5 – Jarvis Green, the Artistic Director of JAG productions, an African American theater group operating out of White River Junction. 

 

Wayne Gersen