Editor's note: This is the third installment in a 10-part series profiling various members of the Upper Valley Community.
After managing night clubs, guiding fly-fishing trips, instructing skiing and working in restaurants, Kenneth McClintock, an Upper Valley native and one of Dartmouth's outdoor activities icons, returned to Hanover 19 years ago to work in the College's physical education program.
McClintock, Dartmouth's assistant director of alpine skiing and sailing, rotates from job to job as the seasons change -- he spends one term teaching emergency rescue classes and devotes other terms to training students to be skiing and sailing instructors. In the summer, he helps run a community sailing program based out of the College's facilities.
McClintock explained that he loves sports such as skiing and sailing because they can be done alone and still be enjoyable. Opportunities are more limited for team sports after college, he said. As a student at Hanover High School, McClintock was captain of the soccer team and also competed in skiing and track, he said.
"You don't need a dozen other people to ride a bike or to go out in a sailboat and enjoy the afternoon," McClintock said.
McClintock also applies his belief in developing strong, individual skills to his love of cooking, particularly on the grill during a summer day.
"I learned in my boy scout days -- you want to eat, you have to learn how to cook," he said.
In his spare time, McClintock can be found engaged in various building projects.
He worked in construction before he came to Dartmouth, notably at the Beaver Creek ski resort in Colorado.
"It's so satisfying once you've finished to look back and see what your own hands have created," he said.
McClintock's handiwork is best displayed through his involvement in the Homecoming bonfire tradition.
In the past, he has been responsible for collecting the wood used in the fire, although he said this has changed in recent years as the College has relied on a commercial provider.
Reflecting on his youth in Hanover, McClintock recalled the Homecoming bonfire and Winter Carnival sculpture being much more grand in those days.
"Growing up, a bonfire was built for every home game, not just once," he said. "As a kid, I would walk beside the drummers in the marching band."
McClintock's family, along with others in the community, housed the women bussed up to the College for big weekends. His mother still lives in the Upper Valley.
Despite his fascination with small town life, McClintock said that he eventually felt like "broadening his horizons."
After graduating from Hanover High, McClintock attended the University of Rhode Island and later received a master's degree in physical education from Colorado State University.
"I'm a real believer in doing things for your own health and well-being," he said.
McClintock said he does not believe in going to the gym to achieve this wellness goal.
"It amazes me that people are upstairs on a treadmill when it's 60 degrees and beautiful outside."
His love of the outdoors made him realize he could never have a "cubicle job," he said, and he was able work as a ski instructor at resorts in the Rocky Mountains for 10 years.
But his travels eventually led him back into the Hanover area, where, after building houses in Queechee, Vt., and managing an inn in West Lebanon N.H., he began working as a ski instructor at Dartmouth.
"[Hanover] is a wonderful place to be because you can take a mini-vacation every day by walking outside," he said.
It is particularly rewarding to work with students, McClintock said, especially when he has had the opportunity to influence students' lives.
Students who took his emergency rescue class have written him letters saying they were thankful they knew how to respond when they encountered medical crises, even years after leaving Dartmouth, he said.
Teaching a sport or a skill that people can pursue or use their whole lives is also quite gratifying, he said.
McClintock currently lives with his dog, Bodee, a German Shepherd he saved from being put to sleep by its owners, who were going through a divorce.
"I'm a single dad of one puppy," he said.
