Charlie Zimmerman -- The Joy of Giving

Charlie Zimmerman is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, fund raiser Dartmouth has ever known. His passion for the College is legend. When Al Collins recruited a number of us into Leadership Chairmen and Head Agent roles after Al's appointment as Fund Director for the College, he assembled the disciples in September of 1988 to hear Charlie. Read a combination of love for the College and outrageous humor and one can understand why Charlie always "got his man." He once said, "Take your right hand and put it on your head; and your left hand and put it on your heart. Which is closest to your wallet? Pursue the joy of giving with that in mind."

By the way, Charlie's description of the incident on Saipan during the war where visiting Dartmouth people were invited to the commander's tent to drink beer, sing songs and listen to Japanese snipers in the background, that tent was the abode of one Paul Halloran '19, Charlie's great friend and Richard '51 and my old man! Between Charlie and Ort Hicks '21, and with Paul '19 at home, how could anyone say no?


Talk by Charlie Zimmerman '23, "The Joy of Giving"

Given during Alumni Fund Weekend, September 23,1988

Thank you very, very much. I can't think of a more gracious introduction a more gracious than I have just had from Allen Collins, Fund Chairman. Thank you again, Allen.

You know it's very appropriate that we're meeting in this gymnasium because I look now out on a group of great athletes. All of you. I saw so many of you staggering in here. In the days before coeducation, I used to make comments about Dartmouth wives, and I would say that Dartmouth wives were not only well formed, but also well informed. And I would go on saying that Dartmouth men married over their heads, and so forth, and so on. And I went on at quite some length at one occasion, and after I was through a Dartmouth wife came up and she said, "Young man, I want to say something to you!" She said, "You paid great compliments to Dartmouth wives, but you didn't mention Dartmouth husbands." And she said, "My husband is a Dartmouth man." And I thought about that, and I realized that indeed we quite often overlook the men. For example, who the hell has ever heard of Grandpa Moses, or Whistler's Father, or Lord Godiva. But least I be accused of being a male chauvinist pig, I would say that I admire both the Dartmouth women and of course I have great admiration and respect for the Dartmouth men.

It's always a great joy to be with Dartmouth people. To be here. Indeed, at my age it's a great joy to be anywhere. I can't think of a better place to be. However than Hanover. New Hampshire.

There's no truth to the rumor that I @ Alumni Fund in 1914; I was not there.

I have reached that age where I'm supposed to know all the answers, but no one asks you the questions. I've gone through those three stages of life which are sometimes known as believing in Santa Claus, not believing in Santa Claus-s, and being Santa Claus. Or the other three stages of learning, earning, and yearning. And finally the three stages known as raising hell, raising kids, and raising money, and that's the stage which I'm now. I have reached that age which is sometimes delicately referred to as the "Springtime of Senility." I can't think of a better place to be than Hanover. I can't think of a better leader that Allen Collins. I can't think of a better team than those of our Head Agents. I can't think of a better staff than that which backs up our Alumni Fund team -- headed by Henry Eberhardt, Kristin Farrish, and so forth-- and I can't think of a better cause than that of supporting higher education, and particularly higher education at Dartmouth. A fine faculty, fine student body, fine administration, and wonderful traditions.

Yes, there's no better time, there's no better leader, there's no better team, and there's no better time than to do something for the College this year and every year in the future. No better time than now; 75th anniversary; new administration under President Freedman; approaching our 220th anniversary of the founding of the College. Wonderful time. No better market. Americans are supposed to be the most generous people in the world, and Dartmouth alumni, Dartmouth people, are the most generous people of all Americans.

No better reasons for giving. All of us went through Dartmouth on a scholarship, 50%, whether we wanted to or not. We have a great indebtedness to the alumni who preceded us who made this possible. All of us have refreshed ourselves at a well, which we did not help dig. All of us have been persuaded by a great class, by great people at Dartmouth, to do more for the College because the College has done more for us. All of us have had the wonderful gift of the Dartmouth experience. It was William James who wrote, and I quote "The great use in life is to spend it for something which will outlast it." When we make a gift to Dartmouth, we are spending it, or making a gift , for something which will outlast us, and outlast future generations.

Permit me to become personal for just a few minutes. I go back to 1919, New Rochelle, New York. My father walked me to the railroad station, suitcas e in my hand to take a train to Norwich, Vermont. I knew that he wanted to say some well chosen words of advice to me, but the words did not come forth. And as I boarded the train, he embraced me. And he said, "Charlie, be a good boy." And that was it. And that's all there was to it. And that's all there needed to have been to it. I wish I had been a good boy!

To me Dartmouth was a new world. Geographically, culturally, physically, educationally, philosophically; a new world. And it was not until I was almost through college that I began to realize that the wonderful experience which I had had was due to the sacrifice of parents, my parents, due to the generosity of alumni who had preceded me at the College, and due to the wonderful people who had led this College to its great stature. And so I have a great deal to be indebted for. I can never repay my indebtedness to this College, Never.

I can recall so many Dartmouth experiences. A remember for example, being in Pearl Harbor during World War II when a Dartmouth man, Paul Sample, carted through. He had been painting submarines, I guess, commissioned by the U. S. Navy. And the Dartmouth group got together to welcome him to Pearl Harbor. I can remember landing -- incidentally, I'm not a great fighting man, believe me, I don't think anyone ever shot at me during World War II -- but, I can remember landing, getting off a plane, deplaning I guess, at Saipan, about 1944, and the officer of the day greeted me as I left that plane. He said, "You're Charlie Zimmerman, from Dartmouth!!" and I said, "Yes. How did you know?" He said, "I've been studying the list of arrivals and I recognized your name." And he said, "We are having a Dartmouth get-together tonight, and you're invited. You are invited to join with us." We got together, about 20 of us; Dartmouth people in a tent drinking some beer, singing Dartmouth songs, and in the far distance hearing some Japanese snipers. That's Dartmouth! There's nothing like it!

And so, here we are. You great leaders. You who have a great opportunity, and indeed, a great responsibility, to help others to experience the joy of giving. The joy of giving. You have the opportunity of persuading your Class Agents, the members of your Class to be generous to Dartmouth in relationship to their ability to give, to their feeling for the College and in relationship to what the College has given them. This is a terrific opportunity which you have, which we have, to get the message of Dartmouth, what Dartmouth has meant to all of us, across to others. This is a message which you have the opportunity of giving to your classmates and putting in proper pros pective what they have received in connection with what they can afford and in regard to what is needed by the College.

Allen Collins has set the theme as "75 years and the feeling's still the same." Let me correct that, Allen if I may, by saying that the feeling is even more enhanced, the feeling of love for the college, gratitude to the college, than it ever has been.

Yes, I think it was Horace who wrote, "if you wish me to weep, you yourself must first feel sorrow." I can feel not sorrow but joy at the great privilege I had of my years at Dartmouth. Dartmouth has changed, you have changed, I have changed. I think Dartmouth has changed for the better. I hope I have changed for the better, I'm not sure about that. But certainly I should have been strengthened by my experiences and enriched by my memories. They are wonderful memories. Someone mentioned here the twenties, I recall those roaring twenties. Spats, canes, prohibition. Someone asked a farmer out in Wisconsin, "What do you think about Prohibition?" He said, "It's better than no liquor at all!" I recall I was living in Newark in 1931 1 used to walk from the Newark Athletic Club, where I was staying, to my office, and I would walk by a little park called Military Park, where they were erecting a tomb to the unknown solvent. That was 1931. I went through the roaring twenties, the depressing thirties, the World War filled forties. I have had these wonderful experiences; wonderful memories. I've gone through the period of the "new deal," a "fair deal," the "square deal," the "raw deal," and the "no deal."I don't want to be too serious. However, I'm going to quit. I'm going to remind you that when it comes to giving some men stop at nothing. The audience is a little slow on the uptake. I remind you too that it was Jack Benny who said that "if I can't take it with me I refuse to go." and it was Fred Allen who said, "If you could take it with you it would melt!" Not only is it more blessed to give than to receive but as you know, its tax deductible.

And so, it's much greater to row the boat than to rock the boat, and all of us have an opportunity to make this a better life. I recall the cartoon in the New Yorker some years ago in which two prisoners were talking to each other in a Sing Sing cell, and one of them said to the other, "I like to think that this is a better world because we are here." And so I like to think that this is a better world. Thank you!


Updated February 22nd, 1999

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