More than 45 widely respected and admired individuals -- ranging from anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu to former U.S. President Gerald Ford to Grammy winning singer Sheryl Crow -- have visited the College through the Montgomery Endowment, now marking its 30th anniversary.
Renowned portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler, whose paintings -- including portraits of former College President John Kemeny, Theodore Seuss Geisel '25 and Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth F. Mongomery '25, who endowed the fellowship in 1977 -- hang throughout campus, is set to commemorate the anniversary with a speech on Tuesday.
Historically, Montgomery Fellows have ranged in the length and breadth of their Dartmouth visits, according to Montgomery Endowment Executive Director Susan Wright.
Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, distinguished screenwriter and author Wendy Wasserstein called Wright personally to accept her invitation for a 2005 Montgomery Fellowship, Wright said.
"Wendy said 'I'd love to come!'" Wright said. "'But could I go for two terms?'"
At the time, Wasserstein was producing a play and asked to try it out at Dartmouth, casting professors and holding auditions for students.
"She would take the students who were not cast [for the play] to Molly's and talk with them," Wright said. "It was an incredible opportunity."
Each year, the Montgomery Fellowship invites prominent individuals to the College, where they stay at the Montgomery House on Rope Ferry Road and work with students through various lectures, discussions and workshops.
"Members of the Dartmouth community are not only able to hear a lecture, or, in some cases, attend a performance by a fellow, but they can also find themselves attending a class taught by the fellow or meeting with the individual informally at the Montgomery House," College Provost Barry Scherr, chair of the Montgomery Endowment Steering Committee, said. "It is this wide-ranging involvement with the campus that distinguishes the program."
Anyone in the Dartmouth community can nominate someone for a Montgomery Fellowship. The Montgomery Endowment Steering Committee meets twice a year, usually in May and October, to review nominations and finalize plans for upcoming terms. Fellows' tenures on campus range from a few days to a full year.
"Whenever we can, we have fellows stay for a full term and teach a course on campus as well," Scherr said.
Zainep Mahmoud '08, the 2007-2008 Montgomery Fellows intern, works with Wright to arrange informal gatherings such as luncheons between fellows and interested students.
"It definitely pays off," she said. "Students always come ready with questions for the fellows and a strong desire to know more about the fellows' backgrounds and how they found their passions."
Working as the intern for the program, Mahmoud said that meeting the fellows was an excellent end to her Dartmouth career.
"My experience working with the Montgomery Fellows has been, in one word, phenomenal," she said. "I can only hope students continue to reach out and meet these fellows for the next 30 years and beyond."
