"We have not contacted Justice Souter yet, but we think that having him teach at Dartmouth would provide a wonderful opportunity for our students, and we plan to be in touch with him," Folt said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
Souter is not without ties to Dartmouth: he served as a member of the Dartmouth Medical School Board of Overseers from 1981 to 1984.
Former DMS Dean Robert McCollum, who led the medical school during Souter's tenure on the Board of Overseers, said he would be "surprised" if Souter chose to teach at the College.
"He was not interested in teaching, period," McCollum said, adding that Souter declined several invitations to give lectures at the College during his three-year tenure on the DMS Board. "He was not an academic in that sense."
Souter, however, expressed a desire to teach a hypothetical course on Proust in 1993 in an interview with The New Republic.
McCollum described Souter as an "avid reader" who has amassed a substantial library in the 200-year-old farmhouse his family purchased in 1951.
"I visited his house, and books were stacked in every conceivable spot," McCollum said.
Betty Straw, Souter's sixth-grade teacher, said she predicted at the time that Souter would be successful as an adult.
"I knew he was a very bright boy and that he was going to do well," Straw said. "He was one of those kids where we just knew that he was going to make his mark."
The Weare Historical Society has compiled a separate file documenting Souter's career as a Supreme Court justice, Straw, who is a director of the society, said.
Souter, himself a member of the historical society, has told several Weare residents that he hopes to write a history of the town, according to The Washington Post.
"I had a chance to visit [with Souter] when he was [in Weare] for the dedication of the new middle school, and he mentioned he was interested in getting more involved with the historical society when he retired," Straw said. "We certainly have a lot for him to do."
Souter, an avid outdoorsman who often hikes in the White Mountains, is much more at home outside or in a library than in the Washington, D.C., social scene, Straw said.
"I think he's sort of a Yankee figure on the court -- independent, prepared to go his own way, takes a dim view of the shenanigans in Washington and the life there," government professor Linda Fowler said.
Appointed by former President George H.W. Bush in 1990, Souter has drawn criticism from conservatives who believe he has betrayed them in his court decisions.
"I think the idea of Souter as a liberal justice is a silly idea," Fowler said. "What's really happened on the court is that the right has moved farther right and that the left has moved closer to the center."
Attempts to contact Souter through Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg were unsuccessful.
