"Everyone always asks about my name."
Watt Boone '00, whose real first name is Daniel, is a history major and an aspiring archaeologist, but his relationship with history doesn't just end there.
Boone said he is frequently asked about his connections to the legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone who led expeditions through the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky.
"He's somehow my great, great uncle," Boone said. "I'm related to Daniel Boone's brother."
Boone grew up in a house littered with biographies on the historical Daniel Boone and even sported a raccoon-skin cap as a child.
"My parents bought me a coonskin cap when I was little," Boone said. "They didn't buy me toy guns or anything like that but I do have a coonskin cap."
Boone is one of three students on the committee searching for the next dean of the College, along with Cara Mathews '99 and Student Assembly President Frode Eilertsen '99.
Boone said he is excited and honored at the opportunity to represent the student body in the dean search.
The committee is charged with finding a replacement for Dean of the College Lee Pelton who will step down at the end of this year to assume the presidency at Willamette University in Oregon.
"Dean Pelton's done a great job, and Dartmouth is in pretty good shape right now," Boone said. "There's not a whole lot that needs to fixed, but there are improvements that can be made."
Boone said he hopes the new dean of the College will be someone who will "work hard to establish a good relationship with the students."
"A working relationship -- not antagonism over issues which have plagued us in the past," Boone said.
He said he hopes the new dean will maintain and increase the diversity of the campus and respect the role of the Greek system.
Boone also hopes the new dean will devote his or her time to creating a common social space for students.
"I think it's something that's very lacking right now," Boone said.
This isn't the first time Boone has served on a search committee. In high school, Boone was a part of a search committee for a new principal and for a new athletic director.
"It was really interesting to get involved in representing the student body," Boone said. "It's going to be lot more difficult now, but I feel I can represent a significant portion of the student body."
Boone said he came to the College because he was drawn by the students and, to this day, his favorite part of Dartmouth is the people here.
"I am amazed continually about the new people I meet everyday," Boone said. "There's never enough time to hang out with everyone."
Boone is a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity and a member of Bait and Bullet.
"I love hanging out at Psi U and I like to go fishing when I can," Boone said.
After Dartmouth, Boone said he will most likely attend business school, but in the meantime, he is also toying with the idea of archaeology as a career.
"I've always enjoyed watching Indiana Jones digging up things," Boone said. "I'd like to do something with that in my off term."
An early excavation dig in a slave cabin at the Hermitage in Nashville, Tenn., further spurred his interest in archaeology. There, along with his classmates, he found an amulet that a slave had brought along from Africa or made on the plantation.
"The amulet showed that he was a leader of a tribe -- a king or a chieftain," Boone said.
Boone said it was interesting to discover firsthand how slaves still carried on their history and heritage across continents and centuries.
