Recently appointed President of the College James Wright keeps a piece of his past on his desk in 205 Parkhurst Hall -- a piece of solid lead he removed from the roof of the Graham Mine while he was working as a powder man setting dynamite charges there.
Wright, a native of Galena, Ill., grew up in a community of miners and farmers, and his summer job in the zinc mines was one of many he held while he was working his way through the University of Wisconsin at Platteville.
Wright, who double majored in English and history, also worked as a bartender, janitor and night watchman, experiences he said taught him "the full appreciation of the value of education."
But when Wright went to Wisconsin, he was not planning to continue his education beyond four years of college.
"I expected I would come back, get a job and be a member of the [Galena] community," Wright said.
Instead, encouraged by the university's young faculty and excited by history and an honors thesis he wrote about the Galena mining district, Wright decided to continue his education to the graduate level.
With the help of a grant from the Dansforth Foundation, Wright financed his work towards masters and doctorate degrees at the University of Wisconsin.
In the summer of 1969, after studying with eminent professor Allan Bogue, he came to Hanover with a doctorate to work as an assistant professor of history.
Childhood in Galena
Hanover is a far cry from Wright's native Galena, a close-knit community of about 5,000 farmers, miners and factory workers.
Galena was "a local and, in retrospect, secluded place," Wright said.
Most of his family lived within 15 miles of each other, and, as a child, he admired the sense of responsibility of his hard-working grandparents, Wright said.
His grandfather was a zinc miner, and his father, who attended college for a semester during the Great Depression but could not complete his education due to a lack of finances, supported Wright and a brother by working as a bartender.
After graduating from high school, Wright served in the Marines for three years. He said he joined the organization because "it was a better option than going to work in the mines."
After three years as a Marine, he considered becoming a high school teacher, but graduate school did not cross his mind until he was a student at Wisconsin University.
While Wright was trying his hand in the academic world, his brother, a mathematics major in college, was working his way towards a position as head of manufacturing for the John Deere plant in Davenport, Iowa.
The early years in Hanover
When Wright came to Hanover in 1969, he planned to spend his career teaching history to Dartmouth students.
Instead, Wright's relationship to the College took a slightly different turn as he broadened his responsibilities to include administrative positions.
In 1981, Wright served four years as the College's associate dean of the faculty for the social sciences, while continuing to teach history courses.
He was married when he came to Dartmouth in 1969, but was divorced in 1982. He has three children by his first wife.
In 1984, Wright married his wife of 18 years, Susan, who is associate director of Career Services at the College.
Wright resumed teaching in the history department full-time in 1985.
"I enjoyed teaching very much," he said. "One of the great ironies is that I know students from the '70s and the '80s better than students from the '90s."
Wright said he has kept in touch with some of his students, and he sees "many at one gathering or another."
He said he also enjoyed accompanying students to London in the fall of 1988 on a history Foreign Study Program.
But Wright did not completely abandon his work with the administration even while he acted as a full-time professor.
In 1987, he chaired a committee on residential life that issued the "Wright Report," a document that recommended the College build a new campus center, reduce the influence of Greek organizations on campus and increase the sense of community in residence halls.
Wright was invited to serve as the College's dean of faculty in 1989, a position he accepted partly because of his admiration for Freedman.
Freedman said he selected Wright because of his qualifications for the position.
"He's a scholar committed to the life of the mind," Freedman said. "He's very broadly educated."
Wright served in the position two terms, a total of eight years.
Wright said he initially thought he would continue to teach during his tenure as dean of faculty, but after he accepted the position, he recognized this might become difficult for him and his students.
"I soon realized [I would] start treating my 10 o'clock class like a 10 o'clock appointment," he said. "My students deserved better."
Wright said he hopes to find "some way to get back in the classroom while president" but worries this might be "an act of self-indulgence," and while he would enjoy the experience, it might not be beneficial for his students.
Wright as Provost
After his tenure as dean of faculty, Wright was looking forward to an opportunity to return to his teaching and writing.
Freedman, however, asked him to replace Provost Lee Bollinger who had recently left the College to serve as president of the University of Michigan.
Wright served as acting provost for the next year-and-a-half, and, for six months of his term, balanced his duties as provost with his job as dean of the faculty.
Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty June Sweeney said Wright was very effective at balancing the responsibilities of provost and dean of faculty.
"He would be [in the dean of faculty's office] for half of the day," she said. "They're extremely demanding positions. He really did everything."
Executive Officer for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Chris Strenta said he was impressed with Wright's "broad range of knowledge" and his ability to deal with issues that arose in discussions during meetings of the College Budget Committee, the Committee on the Faculty and the Committee on Enrollment.
Wright was asked to continue as provost last summer, but resigned from the positions after members of the faculty raised questions about the absence of a search to replace Bollinger.
Wright also served as acting president of the College while Freedman was on sabbatical in 1995.
Although he enjoyed his first week as president of the College, his life took an unexpected turn shortly afterwards.
His wife Susan told him she had breast cancer after his first week in office, and the remainder of his tenure was spent learning more about chemotherapy and drug treatments than about the duties of president, he said.
Susan is now doing well and her cancer "may have been totally eliminated," Wright said.
Wright enjoyed working "closely with the faculty" as part of the administration, he said.
Wright said he was proud he managed to improve "the research environment for the faculty [while] trying to protect the strength of Dartmouth as a teaching institution."
He was also satisfied with his role in Dartmouth's five-year capital campaign, which ended in the fall of 1996, in which he spent the campaign on and off the road talking to potential donors.
Wright, an avid reader and gardener, said he is excited about his new role as president of the College.
"Serving as president of Dartmouth is a unique and wonderful thing," he said. "I can't imagine any more exciting a place to be."
