Belmont Hill School - Belmont Hill School Yearbook (Belmont, MA)

Page 8 text:

DEDICATION MR. ROGER FENN DUNCAN For seventeen years Mr. Roger Fenn Duncan has proved to the boys of Belmont Hill that a philosophy of competence which demands the pursuit of impossible perfection can often result, not in frustration, but in achievement. The charge which sparks this extraordi- nary man continually invigorates his English students and crew. Yet nothing captures more succinctly, we feel, the mental and physical energy that is Mr. Duncan than his advice to Lyceum debaters, imparted with a sincerely facetious smile: Deny everything, admit nothing, and shout loudly for prooflv 4

Page 7 text:

THE YEARBOOK CLASS OF 1962 J YEARBOOK BOARD Editor-in-chief Executive Editor Layout Editor Copy Editor Sports Editor Associate Editor Editorial Assistants Photography Editor Photography Assistants Business Manager Business Associate V Business Assistant Circulation Assistant Carl Casselman David Wallace John Litvack James Cole Daniel Barnard Michael Nigro Arthur Brooks Alden Harrington David Hightower Robert Stewart Mark Weinbaum John Perry Donald Robinson Peter Shapiro Jeifrey Lockshin David Wallace George Keyes Foster Furcolo PURDY'S OF .BOSTON Official School Photographer 3

Page 9 text:

CONCERNING DEDICATED MEN At graduation time the word dedicated is used frequently and loosely. Last J une Mr. Hamilton was dedicated, so was Dr. Fuessg so was the faculty as a whole, at one time Dick Birnie referred to me as dedicated. Danny Barnard was described as a dedicated crew captain, and even this book is dedicated. And always there is an implication that the dedicated one is somehow almost too noble to be a mortal man, that very few people, least of all the speaker, are dedicated. There is also a suggestion that if the dedicated one had a little more ordinary common sense, he would at once cease to be dedicated and make a little money for himself. I see the word in a very different way. By derivation it means Hhaving given - having given oneself for a purpose worthy of the gift. I believe that most people are dedicated, and I am sure that all happy people are. Look at it this way. Each of us is like a man who is given a million dollars and is told that he must spend it all within the year. He can keep none of it, take none of it with him. He can give it away, invest it, spend it in riotous living, do as he likes, but on New Year's Eve it vanishes with a stroke of the magician's staff. Your treasure is your life. How would you spend it? The world is a complicated and apparently confused place, but it appears to be governed by natural laws. Would it not be worth while to untangle the confused mass of empirical knowledge and scattered observation we have before us and reduce some part of it to a comprehensible system? Then, perhaps, if we under- stood the system, we could use and develop it further to untangle more confusion. Behold, then, the dedicated scientists, picking away at the knots in this prodigious- ly tangled fish line and trying to reduce it to order. There are some two and one-half billion people living on the earth. We have productive capacity enough to keep them all well fed. Yet a large percentage are hungry, and some are starving. Would it not be worth while to spend some of our treasure finding out why this is true and seeing what can be done about it? Behold, then, the dedicated agronomist or economist. These two and one-half billion people are often at odds with each other. They disagree on fundamental beliefs about the proper way to conduct their lives and governments, about the relationship they feel must exist between God and Man, about what is really good and true and beautiful. The dedicated philosopher, priest, or statesman spends his treasure in this cause. It would be tedious to outline the work of other professions. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen, artists, carpenters, and plumbers-each has his dedication, that on which he spends the treasure of his life allotted to him. In the next few years you will decide how to spend your treasure. Make an intelligent and conscious decision. Pick something which you feel is really worth doing and which you enjoy doing. Prepare yourself for it as effectively as the current stage of human knowledge will allow, and go to it with all your energy and imagination. This is really what dedication means. In this sense almost everyone you know is dedicated. Join us. We will be glad of your help and proud to have you with us. R.F.D. 5