John Sloan Dickey
John Sloan Dickey (4 November 1907 – 9 February 1991) was an American diplomat, scholar, and intellectual. Dickey served as President of Dartmouth College from 1945 to 1970, and helped revitalize the Ivy League institution.
Early life
Dickey, born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, completed his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth in 1929 and later graduated from Harvard Law School. Dickey worked variously as a lawyer, special assistant to the Secretary of State, and director of the State Department's Office of Public Affairs. In 1945, he became President of Dartmouth College. "Even after he assumed office in 1945 he was a principal actor in public policy, serving on President Truman's 1947 Committee on Civil Rights, the United Nations Collective Measures Committee in 1951, and as consultant to Secretary of State Acheson on disarmament."
Dartmouth presidency
While president, Dickey sought to revitalize liberal arts education, which he called "the liberating arts," at Dartmouth. Under his watch, foreign study programs were introduced, Dartmouth expanded its doctoral programs and opened a center for studying the new area of computer science, and a service foundation was opened to provide students with opportunities for social activism and community service. Dickey stepped-down as president in 1970.
In 1982, the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding was opened at Dartmouth to honor Dickey's legacy and "coordinate, sustain, and enrich the international dimension of liberal arts education at Dartmouth."
