Four years ago, John Weeks '44 returned to Dartmouth and visited Thayer Dining Hall expecting to see the portrait of his grandfather Harry Bates Thayer, Class of 1879, hanging in the television lounge.
Much to his surprise, Weeks found the dining hall had been renovated and the picture of the man who provided the money for the building had disappeared.
Weeks decided to hunt down the picture and contacted Director of College Dining Services Peter Napolitano to find where it had been moved to.
"I thought the guy who gave the hall deserved some credit," Weeks said.
Napolitano knew nothing about the portrait, but offered to look into the matter, Weeks said. Weeks then wrote a letter to the Alumni Magazine enquiring about the painting's wherabouts, but said he received no response.
"I finally ended up going to the Hood Museum," Weeks said. There, he contacted Timothy Rub, the museum's director.
Rub discovered the painting in the museum's archives and offered to refurbish it if needed.
"The painting had been in storage for a number of years, I thought it would be great if it went up again," Rub said.
The painting had been taken down in the early 1980s when Thayer was renovated, Napolitano said. Food and beverages had damaged the paniting, and it needed to be restored before it could be hung again.
The portrait has been hanging in the lobby for about two weeks now. Napolitano said there it will be less susceptible to food damage.
Thayer began his career in the stockroom of Western Electric of Northfield, Vt., the manufacturing branch of Bell Co., Weeks said. He later went on to help build the collosus that soon became AT&T Co., eventually becoming the company's chairman.
When Thayer died in the 1930s, he bequeathed a portion of his earnings from AT&T to the College. The money was used to construct the dining hall.
"I did some research on Thayer in the library," Napolitano said. "He had a fantastic mind for details, setting goals and getting tasks done."
According to Napolitano, Thayer was an innovator even as a child.
Preferring baseball over his chores, Thayer once convinced the entire team to help clean his basement, Napolitano said.
When his mother asked how he got the children to do his work, Thayer said he had promised an apple to the hardest worker.
Napolitano said Thayer used the same techniques to rise through the ranks at AT&T. He had quick solutions and propelled the company to lead in telecommunications.
Members of the family have recently joined Mr. and Mrs. Weeks in Hanover to celebrate the painting's return to Thayer.
Weeks said Napolitano even made plans to go to dinner with the family to commemorate the painting's display last week.
