Economics Professor William Baldwin, a College faculty member for 42 years, will begin a second career when he retires on June 30 -- that of a "faculty spouse."
Baldwin, whose wife is Government Professor M. Anne Sa'adah, said he plans to remain in Hanover after his retirement, but he has never let small-town life limit his horizons.
Baldwin, who came to Hanover in 1956 to accept his first full-time teaching position, said he has only spent 37 or 38 years on campus.
He worked in Thailand with a Rockefeller Foundation University Development Program for four years and taught for one year at Princeton University.
Baldwin said he has appreciated the flexibility of the College's leave policy and sabbatical program.
"Anytime I wanted to go away, the College was supportive," he said.
Despite his travels, Baldwin witnessed major changes in College life, including the admission of women and an increase in the emphasis on academics.
When Baldwin came to Hanover in 1956, he joined a faculty body where the composition was in flux.
Then College President John Sloan Dickey was "trying hard to raise the caliber of the student body" and to raise the faculty's interest in scholarship, Baldwin said.
The increased interest in scholarship has given Dartmouth a reputation as an academic powerhouse, a departure from the one it had when Baldwin applied to college as a student.
Baldwin said he considered applying to Dartmouth after a high school teacher suggested it, but changed his mind after speaking to the school's principal.
"If you want to have a good time, go to Dartmouth," she told him. "If you want to get an education, go to Duke."
When the College began debating the merits of coeducation, Baldwin again found himself a witness to change. He said he disliked the attitudes of professors who opposed coeducation, which he said revealed "the worst of old masculinity."
Baldwin said a professor who was not in favor of coeducation questioned whether Baldwin would be able to handle the presence of women in his classroom during the debate.
"Would you know how to cope with it when a student breaks down in tears in the classroom?" the faculty member asked Baldwin.
But Baldwin said the presence of women has "made the classroom more interesting."
"Men and women ask different questions," he said.
Despite the differences the presence of women has created, Baldwin cited increases in the number of minority students enrolled as the cause of even greater change.
Students said nearly 40 years of teaching economics have not made Baldwin impatient in the classroom.
"He's really motivated to make sure all students know exactly what he's talking about before he moves on," said Lee Kuhn '98, a student in Baldwin's Economics 1 class last spring.
Baldwin said one of his most vivid memories of teaching was when a student who received As in an introductory economics course finished an intermediate level industrial organization course with a B-.
When Baldwin showed the student his B- average, the student grinned, said "Oh, great!" and began to walk out of Baldwin's office.
Baldwin called the student back and asked him what he was grinning about.
"I shouldn't be proud," the student responded. "But do you mind awfully if I'm happy, sir?"
Baldwin called the exchange "one of the nicest put-downs I've had from a student."
Baldwin said he plans to work as the book review editor of the Journal of Technology Transfer after he retires. He said he is also considering collaborating on a book.
Baldwin said he plans to travel with his wife, and he may have more time for his hobbies, reading science fiction and completing cryptic crossword puzzles.
