Although William King '63 arrived on campus for the first time in the fall of 1959, his father, Class of 1933, had told him enough to make him feel as if Dartmouth was old news.
"As a child, I had decided to go someplace else," King said.
It was his sister's stories of weekend visits to Dartmouth from Smith College that enticed the newly-appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees back to the Hanover campus. King applied early decision and the College accepted him. There was no looking back.
Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, King wanted to leave the state for his undergraduate degree. Dartmouth, in 1959, was a considerable break for someone in the South, King said. Dartmouth was predominantly a school attractive to students from the Northeast and Midwest, King said. "From my standing in the South, it was not frequent for kids to go to Dartmouth."
The College had a reputation as an outstanding institution, both academically and intellectually, but was considered extremely isolated by comparison to its peer schools, King said. Great emphasis was placed on teaching and the student-teacher relationships were excellent. "Consequently, it was not as well known."
With other students, King arrived on campus on a college bus from the White River Junction train depot. His first impression of the College was Baker Tower rising above the fields from Sachem. "I'll never forget it," King said.
Almost immediately King became involved in a number of College activities.
An avid athlete, King had played football in high school and decided to join the football team at Dartmouth as a walk on. There were about 150 people in his class that chose to try playing football, of which more than 30 wanted to be quarterbacks - a few too many, King said.
At Dartmouth, King saw lacrosse for the first time close-up. Not a popular sport at the time in the South, the only local lacrosse team was at the University of Virginia, where most of the players were recruited from the North. In addition to football, King decided to try lacrosse.
King excelled at both sports, and by senior year he was elected captain of both the football and lacrosse teams.
King was also a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity and the senior society Casque and Gauntlet. King said he just felt "compatible" with the house members that he had met during rush at Theta Delt. In addition, several of his friends decided to all join Theta Delt together, making it an even more appealing decision.
"I never did regret it. It was a great house, a great house," King said.
King's time at Dartmouth was filled with so many memories, "there isn't really a single one [greatest memory], but you think of the experience of those four years and there are multiple memories," King said.
"In my Freshman year I took a course from a guy named Harry Bond ... the experience of taking that course and reaching new levels of understanding or intellectual challenge as a young man coming out of my region of the country is something I will never forget. It was one of the courses that turned me into a reader," King said.
In addition to the thousands of memories of times spent with friends, a culminating experience to King's four years in sports at Dartmouth was the undefeated season in football his senior year. The team had not been undefeated since 1925, and it is one of his happiest and strongest memories, King said.
After Dartmouth
After graduating, King traveled to Athens, Greece to spend a year taking classes offered by the American Embassy from 1963 through the summer of 1964. In return for room and board, the American students in the program taught young men at a local college.
Returning from Greece, King enrolled the following Fall at UVA to study law, where he spent his next three years. After law school, King joined the law firm of McGuire, Woods, Battle and Boothe, where he works today. As all law students do, King said he interviewed with a number of firms, but felt that McGuire offered the best fit. "Looking back 32 years later, I can say I made the right choice. It is nice to say that," King said.
Almost immediately out of Dartmouth, did King begin getting involved with the College. Helping to fund raise and hosting interviews for perspective students, King also joined the Dartmouth Club for his Virginia area, where he was soon elected president.
In 1987, King was asked and appointed by the Trustees to the Committee on Board Organization. Made up of trustees and alumni representatives, the committee was given the task of reviewing board member terms and the process of alumni nomination of trustees over the following year.
In 1991 King was nominated as an alumni candidate for the Board of Trustees. He was then elected a member for a five-year term by the Board. Currently, King is on the third year of his second five-year term.
In 1997, when then-College President James Freedman announced his resignation, King was asked by the Board to lead the search committee that would look for the 16th president of the College.
"It was probably one of the most intriguing exercises that I have ever been through. First of all, the responsibility is unique. To be able to find someone to lead an institution such as Dartmouth which is one of the leading institutions in this country. It is a very formidable task," King said.
Even though after more than six months of searching it would be one of Dartmouth's own that was chosen, the search was "open and evaluative," King said.
The process examined a number of candidates, of which none was the immediate front-runner, though by the end of the process it was clear that James Wright had the "interests, background and credentials that ensured Dartmouth would move in the direction that the Board wanted Dartmouth to move in," King said.
'Exciting Times' as Chair
Replacing Stephen Bosworth '61 as chairman of the Board, King was elected to a one-year term, from 1999 through 2000. If asked to serve a second year as Board Chair from 2000 to 2001, King said he would do so, but in 2001 his term on the Board expires. Board members are only elected to two terms, so he would then leave the Board and the chairmanship.
"It is an honor and also a tremendous responsibility," King said. Serving as Board Chair means that his time commitment to the College will increase greatly. The Board works with the President day-to-day on a set of issues, to "make sure the College is on the right course financially" and to "set the right kind of priorities."
King insists that he personally has no specific goals for the College, but that instead the Board as a whole is moving ahead together on a number of priorities, primarily the Student Social Life Initiative.
"The chairman is merely reflective of what the Board is, the chairman does not have an agenda," King said.
"The Board really operates as one unit," King said. Board members are encouraged to be active at the College. Because of the small size of the group and the consistent meetings, the members are very close. "You become good friends with the other members."
For the remaining two years of his tenure on the Board, King sees the Initiative as the most important task the Board will undertake.
Though King did not want to comment on specific plans offered in the Task Force Report, he has read the report and looks forward to the Steering Committees final report, expected to be delivered at the November meeting of the Board. "For me to prejudge [the suggestions] would be inappropriate," King said.
"We do not intend to have this take any longer than necessary," King said, adding that the Board also would "want to make sure we do this with the right kind of thought and listening, so that everyone that wants to talk to us will have the opportunity to do that."
"When you are dealing with something as important as this, to put an absolute date on [receiving the report] would be a mistake. To rush without giving it the kind of necessary consideration that it needs would be inappropriate in the long term needs of Dartmouth."
The College, in the years since his graduation, has "developed into an absolutely wonderful institution," King said. "I believe Jim Wright is committed to improving Dartmouth. We have the resources to do things that many institutions would like to do, but that we can do. All levels of campus life will improve."
New exciting times are starting at the College, and the Board has a very positive view, King said.
King's only regret - "I just wish my tenure on the Board was just beginning."
