Dear Editors:
A number of Dartmouth students have written eloquently about the contributions that Ron Edsforth has made to the intellectual life of this community, both in and outside the classroom. I would like to add my voice to theirs in praising his abilities as a teacher and thinker. I am not a student, rather a member of the administrative staff who acts as a liaison between the Hood Museum of Art and the students and faculty. Ron has worked with us here at the Hood, both as speaker for two exhibitions -- one on World War I and II posters and another on the treasures of Rauner library -- and also in class visits to the museum to view works from storage with his students. I have also served on a committee with Ron that is dedicated to organizing events in conjunction with the anniversary of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese war in 1905. I have been incredibly impressed by his abilities to synthesize material, raise intellectual questions about the objects he chose to talk about and to conceive, plan and run a program that will contribute to our understanding of the first United States-brokered peace agreement between two foreign countries. In my fourteen years at Dartmouth I have seen many professors teach in the museum and have many other scholars speak about visual arts and culture. Ron Edsforth is among the best, something that you cannot doubt from reading the recent letters from Nicolas M. de Zamarczy '07, Neil Danberg '02, Miles Harrigan '03 and Matthew Singleton '04. I would only hope that Dartmouth recognizes the loss that it will incur by not keeping Ron Edsforth teaching here on campus. If the college turns its back on its best, it certainly sends a wrong message to the students here on campus.