Bowdoin College - Bugle Yearbook (Brunswick, ME)

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4 i WILLIAM DAWSON ALEXANDER Class Secretary Place of Birth and date: Watertown, Mass., July 12, 1906. Advanced degrees, other colleges at- tended: Bates A.M. Graduate study at Harvard Business or profession: Belmont Hill School, Belmont, Mass. 1928-1943 Head of Math Dept., Acting Assistant Head- - master, Head football coach. Middlesex School, Concord, Mass. 1943- Head cf Math Dept., Head of Day Dept., Admissions Com- mittee. Line Coach. Residence: New Gloucester, Maine. Community interests: 3 year term on New Gloucester School Board, Draft Registrar. Wife's Name: Virginia Green Children: William D., Jr. born May 28, 1932. Graduate of Fryeburg Academy, 1951. 1951-52 at Unversity of Maine. Now in U. S. Army Air Force. Charles C., born Feb. 22, 1936. Will graduate from Middlesex School. June 1953. College: Williams. In June, 1928, with a diploma in hand, and my young wife, Virginia, I set out to conquer the unknown Independent School world. My head was possibly slightly swollen with the idea that I was a gridiron great but I found that world possible to dent, not because of my football skill or the odds and ends of misinformation represented by my degrees, but by my wife's delightful ability to malge a place for herself and to drag me along with her. In 1932 our older boy was born. That, too, added responsibilities, but my pay, although cut by the depression, still enabled us to live at a standard the good years have never permitted us to attain again. 9

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One beautiful June morning in 1951, while celebrating the 50th Birthday of Middlesex School, I was fortunate enough to hear the Reverend Vivian T. Pomeroy of the First Parish Church in Milton, Massachusetts, address the graduating class. As usual, his remarks were adroit, touched with kindly humor, and to the point. Having pointed out that most gradu- ation speakers are great tycoons, or men who hold distinguished positions in public life, who exhort the youth to take their rightful places in the race, and correct the world's problems, he then went on to say: when times are rather troubled and uncertain, as they are at present, the head- master and those who conspire with him, fall back upon a more ordinary man, even upon an obscure little parson like me. They say to themselves: 'Well, as things are, we can stand an inspirational graduation speech'. This is what we ministers, among a few other duties, are expected to do- to encourage people in times of adversity . . . . Mr. Pomeroy, having explained why he was the speaker, then went on to tell the seniors: I think it is extremely unlikely that most, if any of you, will reach positions of such rare prominence or have upon your shoulders such tremendous responsibility. I am not a betting man-ex- cepting in very small waysg but I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that most of you will take a much more modest position in the body politic. It may be a position a little different from what you dreamed, but you will come to terms with it and do your best in it and be happy in it-as a man can be happy who puts his heart into his job, whatever it is. and . . . How fortunate we shall be, how truly privileged, if we can do our best work without the elevation of great celebrity. I don't mean that we can confine our influence to the local corner or escape the impact of wider affairs. Anybody who behaves or thinks today as if he didn't be- long to the world-and a dangerous world at that-is no better than the village idiot. But how favored we are, or shall be, if it is our fortune to be useful and meritorious mediocrities, able to start where we areg to sow our corn in fields which are near, to discharge some constant responsi- bility near our own doorstep, to stand by our friends and those who need us, and taste the sweetness of a little special approval . . . Our class was never distinguished in college in any way. We had fewer honor men, fewer athletes, and fewer members. As a class since graduation we have had few, if any, whgo have attained any real promi- nence. Most of us could qualify as the average college educated man, and in most cases, the family man. The following pages, however, bring out rather well what liberal education can do for men. We have as a class taken our place in our respective communities and served them with dili- gence if not distinction.

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In 1933 we purchased our home in New Gloucester. There were several benefits from this: Q19 It gave us a sense of permanence and a home center that a boarding school master never reaches in those quarters, nice as some of them are. 121 It permitted me to know my father-in-law. Dr. Green, as a person, and to absorb some of his very real wisdom. Q32 It allowed my older son to know his granddad well before he died. C41 Lo be it spoken, it gave us our Maine citizenship, something that although we must allow it has certain tax benefits, is a possession we are all glad to hold. In 1936 George Washington's birthday and Charles Christian arrived simultaneously. He was a very quiet and easy baby-perhaps parents do learn on the poor first one- at least we never held mirrors in front of his mouth to see if he was breathing! The remaining years have been relatively uneventful except for the violent upheaval of changing from Belmont Hill, a school that I love dearly - one might almost say we grew up together - to Middlesex, a school with which, as as the years go by, I'm very proud and pleased to be associated. Possibly as President Conant of Harvard indicated, my years in these private institutions have been poorly spent. I think not. The boys we teach may, for the most part, come from the top segment of the population, economically speaking, but they seem to me like most good American boys. I approve of seeing and having something to do with teaching boys how to take it, both on the athletic fields and in the classrooms. For the young men in this type of institution learn to work hard, far harder than I ever did in public schcol. I think that lesson alone justifies our existence. This fall we saw our older son off for the Armed Services-to be honest, it was a wrench. As a good friend puts it: It is rather too bad that anything as good for boys as life in the Armed Services, carries with it as its ultimate purpose, destruction. Next fall our younger son leaves for college. Although the home won't be quite as lively as in the past, I hope that both Ma and Pa have a few good years left yet. 10