"In going to Dartmouth, I think I'll find the things I'm looking for," said David T. McLaughlin '54.
One might suspect that the College's 14th president spoke these words when he accepted his position as its head. Or possibly, that he had made such an optimistic remark upon his appointment as a trustee in 1971. Yet this statement heralded McLaughlin's initial tie to Dartmouth: his application to the Class of 1954.
Once he became a bona fide student, McLaughlin seemed to carve out a highly respectable niche for himself at the College, engaging in a plethora of campus activities as an undergraduate.
Although he lettered in basketball and track, it was football at which McLaughlin excelled. In his senior year at the College, he was ranked the fifth leading receiver in the nation, topping the Ivy League and the Intercollegiate Football Association. A record he set for yards gained in a single season remained unbroken for 23 years.
Yet McLaughlin's endeavors were not by any means limited to the athletic sphere. As president of the junior class and of the Casque and Gauntlet senior society, he was also one of 21 students who graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
SIGNS OF LEADERSHIP
McLaughlin was unanimously elected president of the Undergraduate Council when all the other nominees withdrew, one by one, leaving him as the sole contender. "It's the first time in the history of the UGC that such a tribute had been given," reported the College's alumni magazine in 1954.
The same issue touted McLaughlin's personal characteristics as well, noting his "reputation for plugging for what he thinks is right regardless of the consequences. It is a form of courage that is a part of this daily life."
Also a Green Key society representative, an Air Force ROTC cadet and a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, McLaughlin was awarded the Barrett Cup for his promise "of becoming a factor in the outside world through his strength of character and qualities of leadership."
As an undergraduate, McLaughlin majored in international relations and returned to the Amos B. Tuck School of Business Administration after his senior year to pursue a masters degree in business administration.
Upon graduation, McLaughlin continued to be active in College life as an alumnus. He served as Class of 1954 president from 1960 to 1964 and was president of the Chicago Alumni Club in 1968. The same year, McLaughlin was appointed to the Board of Overseers of the Tuck School. Two years later he became chairman.
In 1971, McLaughlin was named to the College's Board of Trustees. He assumed the chairmanship in 1977 and in 1981 he was chosen to succeed the College's retiring president, John C. Kemeny.
ROLE AS BUSINESSMAN QUESTIONED
After a lengthy search that considered nearly 400 candidates, McLaughlin was inaugurated on June 28 and presented with the Flude Medal, the College president's 200-year-old badge of office.
"[McLaughlin's] decision to become the president of Dartmouth College has people wondering," reported The New York Times in its March 9, 1981 issue. College faculty and administrators were also wondering whether a businessman could effectively assume the role of president of an Ivy League institution.
Indeed, after serving as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force for two years, McLaughlin spent his entire career between just two firms: Champion Paper Co. and Toro Manufacturing Co. He served as chief executive officer of Toro from 1970 until his resignation in 1981.
Although McLaughlin's association with Toro initially produced large company profits, the company didn't remain as successful. In the nine months prior to McLaughlin's departure, Toro reported tens of millions of dollars in losses.
By February 1981, McLaughlin had fired the company's president and three vice-presidents and laid off 125 salaried workers.
"I don't think I'm running away from anything," McLaughlin told The New York Times. He added that he was unworried about leaving Toro at that time, saying, "it's in capable management hands."
A CHANGE OF HEART
McLaughlin's call to the presidency was not the first time the College had offered him an administrative position. In a 1979 interview with Nation's Business, McLaughlin recalled, "I once had an opportunity to return to Dartmouth as assistant dean of the business school. Then I recalled something the president, a close friend, once told me: 'Never return unless you can bring back enough knowledge to offer the College something.' I decided that I really did not have enough."
By 1981, McLaughlin had apparently changed his mind.
McLaughlin also defined his criteria for when a college president should resign in a May 20, 1983 interview with The Dartmouth:
"I took on more than I expected. I agree with that. I think that the time that you really get so discouraged that you don't like dealing with the problems, or when a student walks into the office with a particular issue of his or her own and you're not willing or really looking forward to dealing with it, then that's probably the day you ought to think about hanging it up."
