To the Editor:
As the person who is too frequently called upon to write obituaries for Dartmouth students, I'd like to make a small protest about the easy assumption that drunken students pose no harm to themselves when they walk from a party to a dormitory room.
We could wish that were the case, but it isn't. Three years ago, 20-year-old Michael Scott Malone '93 never made it home. Intoxicated, he ultimately got lost, tumbled down the banks of Occom Ridge and fell into the Connecticut river. Reported missing from the Zeta Psi house, his body was recovered by divers a week later. The cause of death was "accidental drowning with alcohol intoxication as a contributing factor." The chief investigating officer was Nick Giaccone, now the Hanover Police Chief. A senior was arrested the next week, charged with providing liquor for the party Michael had attended.
Some current students were here in 1991 and remember his death. I do. I wrote Michael's obituary. I spoke with his parents. So perhaps it is my memory of this and other incidents that informs today's concern about the real dangers of alcohol abuse at Dartmouth.
