IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
Dartmouth College
Recognizes with Deep Appreciation
the Extraordinary Achievements of
David W. Batchelder '51
2013 H. FLINT RANNEY '56 AWARD
Lifetime Achievement as Class Newsletter Editor
Following the publication of your final issue as editor of Fifty-One Fables, your classmates responded with an overwhelming wave of support and appreciation for the many years you dedicated to the class newsletter. Your fellow '51s describe you as "an institution" and "irreplaceable." This sentiment is perhaps best expressed by a classmate who shares his gratitude in the following limerick:
"Oh Batch, you've wowed us for years
With newsletter tales of our peers.
The Class "Fifty-One"
Owes you many a ton
For bringing us laughter and tears."
Yor life and career, and especially your 32-year tenure as Class Newsletter Editor, have set a gold standard to which all alumni volunteers should aspire. After graduating from Dartmouth with an English degree, you completed a course of study in the agricultural college at Cornell University. You then ran a dairy farm in Stowe, Vermont, until moving with your young family to Connecticut in 1969. There you worked in home construction and, starting in 1991, as a salesman for the Pine Plains Tractor Equipment Company.
You have shown the same eager devotion to your class and to the College as you have to your career and family. Through the years you've participated in the Campaign for Dartmouth Leadership Committee and served as both an alumni fund agent and alumni interviewer. Since 1981, you have also produced several hundred newsletters for the Class of 1951. The immensity of this oeuvre is, impressively, eclipsed by its quality -- a fact that was acknowledged when you were named Newsletter Editor of the Year in 1991 and again in 2001. You were also given the "Spirit of '51" Award by your classmates, who recognize you as "one of the truly unifying forces" of the class. And you did it all without the aid of a fancy graphic design program but with good old-fashioned paper, scissors, and glue -- the original cut-and-paste.
In 1956, just a few years into your career at Misty Meadows Farm, the State of Vermont recognized your great talent and strong work ethic with the Green Pastures Award for dairy farmer of the year. Today, the Class Newsletter Editors Association is pleased to present you with another COW-themed accolade, the inaugural H. Flint Ranney '56 Award for Lifetime Achievement as a Class Newsletter Editor.