The Men Behind the Buildings, Part II

Last time, we focused on the successful philanthropists whose names grace the fronts of the buildings of our main library complex. Today, we continue to investigate the names behind the buildings of Dartmouth, this time focusing on two key STEM buildings—Kemeny and Thayer. These men, for the most part, were famous for making contributions to their respective fields in math and engineering, rather than being extremely wealthy. 

JOHN GEORGE KEMENY 

Kemeny was born in Hungary on May 31st, 1926. Born in Budapest to a Jewish family, Kemeny was brought to America along with the rest of his family in 1940, following the adoption of the second antisemitic law in Hungary. His grandfather, along with his aunt and uncle, refused to leave and died in the Holocaust. Kemeny’s family settled in New York City where he graduated as valedictorian from George Washington High School. In 1943, he enrolled at Princeton and studied mathematics and philosophy, taking a year off to work on the Manhattan Project. There he worked under Richard Feynman as well as John von Neumann. After returning and graduating from Princeton, Kemeny worked as Albert Einstein’s mathematical assistant in graduate school. At the age of 23, Kemeny was awarded with his doctorate. In 1953, four years after finishing his doctorate, Kemeny was appointed to the Dartmouth Mathematics Department as a full professor, and would become the chairman of the department just two years later, serving in that position until 1967. 

In 1970, he was appointed president of the college and served until 1981, with the primary goal of creating a more diverse student body, continuing to teach undergraduate classes and do research. He presided over the coeducation of Dartmouth in 1972, and instituted the “Dartmouth Plan” allowing the college to house more students with fewer buildings. He first enrolled women in the summer of 1972, in order that more conservative trustees would be less opposed to new students. During his administration, Dartmouth became more proactive in its attempt to recruit and retain minority students, and revived its founding commitment to provide education for American Indians. One of the first people to anticipate the role computers would play in the modern world, Kemeny also made Dartmouth a pioneer in student use of computers, placing computer literacy on the same level of importance as reading literacy, considering it an integral part of a liberal education. 

SYLVANUS THAYER: 
Born in Briantree, MA, as the fifth of seventh students, Sylvanus Thayer wasn’t destined for success. His family had been New England farmers for generations and had little money, but saw the potential in their son. They sent their fifth son to live with his uncle Azariah Faxon and attend school in Washington, New Hampshire. While working at his uncle’s general store, he fortuitously met General Benjamin Pierce, the father of future US president Franklin Pierce. Both General Pierce and his uncle fueled Sylvanus’ fascination with military matters, including the ambitious campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

When he was 16, Sylvanus was teaching in Washington and preparing for college. He wanted a technical education that would prepare him to be an engineer. Unfortunately for him, no institution existed like that at the time. He decided to pursue the next best thing—a college that offered advanced mathematics as well as a classical education. 

In 1803, he entered the then 34-year-old Dartmouth College and quickly distinguished himself as a top academic talent and man of high ideals, having been invited to join United Fraternity, one of two literary societies at the time, which only opened its ranks to students displaying “respectability of talents and requirements, and a fair moral character.” His interest in world affairs was apparent, as was his interest in Napoleon, and was the only student on campus to subscribe to the National Intelligencer a DC-based paper that covered foreign events, including Napoleon’s conquests. 

Dartmouth made its mark on Thayer. The small classes, daily recitations, and prescribed curriculum with focus on the humanities influence his ideas of what higher education ought to be. Thayer, like many Dartmouth students today, formed lifelong friendships with his classmates, including his best friend and roommate George Ticknor.  

In 1807, on the same day, Sylvanus Thayer was simultaneously named valedictorian of his class and, at the insistence of General Pierce, was appointed to be a cadet at the US Military Academy by James Madison. At the age of 22, Thayer never gave his valedictory speech, and with his degree and Phi Beta Kappa key, left for West Point. 

West Point was nothing like anyone today would expect. The institution was characterized by a shocking disorganization and lethargy. There was no fixed curriculum and students graduated whenever professors thought they were ready. A top student, Thayer graduated in one year. 

During the war of 1812, Thayer, was named a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. Thayer planned and directed the defense of Norfolk, Virginia, and though the British captured many coastal fortifications during the war, Norfolk was never taken. 

President Madison and then Secretary of War, James Monroe, were alarmed at the educational deficiencies of the Army’s officers, especially when compared to their foreign counterparts. A devoted student and lover of all things European, Thayer volunteered to spend time abroad expanding his knowledge of international military and engineering practices with the hopes of implementing them on the home front. He left in 1815 to procure books, maps, and equipment for West Point from the European continent. Just two years later, President Monroe appointed Thayer to be the superintendent of West Point. Never a man to waste any time, sweeping changes quickly followed Thayer’s arrival. He dismissed more than forty cadets whom he deemed unqualified and, in the interest of egalitarianism, forbade cadets to bring or send for any money from home. Each cadet had to live with their eighteen-dollar monthly salary.  

Cadets were organized into companies, each with its own cadet officer. In class, cadets were now required to recite daily, and were graded on each and every recitation. He also brought together a world-class faculty whose students were in high demand as canal and railroad builders, or as presidents and deans of newer scientific and engineering schools which were modeled on West Point and would spring up later that century. 

Thayer had a reputation as an austere man, having no known vices. A West Point historian wrote, “throughout the day, he was always prompt, always courteous, and always looked as if he had just shaved, bathed, and dressed.” He seemed to know everything about each cadet, including their debts and grades.  

Thayer left West Point after Andrew Jackson reinstated a dismissed cadet, upset by this and other incidents of what he considered intolerable political interference. The faculty was dismayed and wanted to honor him on his departure. Thayer was determined to allow no such thing, not wanting it to be interpreted as a disloyal attack on the President. 

He continued to work in the Corps of Engineers for the next thirty years of his life. When he retired from active service in 1863, Thayer returned to his home in Briantree and drew up plans for a new addition to Dartmouth. 

Thayer wished to establish a civilian school to train engineers, desperately needed by the young country. In 1857, Dartmouth President Asa Smith allocated money for the establishment of a school of architecture and civil engineering, which morphed into what we now know as the Thayer School of Engineering, with the goal “to prepare the most capable and faithful for the most responsible positions and the most difficult service.”