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Christina Gillespie Dickey

Christina Gillespie Dickey was married to John Sloan Dickey. She was the 12th First Lady of Dartmouth College from 1945 to 1970. She and her husband endowed the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding.

Early Life

Christina Dickey, (nee Gillespie) grew up in Exeter, New Hampshire. She majored in English at Wellesley College (‘26) before receiving a Library Science degree from Simmons College. In 1928, she moved to Hanover and began working at the Baker Library. Dickey family lore says that she was present when the library lent out it’s very first book.

"Job of a Generation"

Christina met her future husband, then undergrad John Sloan Dickey, while working at the Baker Library. They were soon married and had three children. Christina graciously undertook what her daughter Tina Stearns calls “the job of a generation.” As a wife and mother of three, Christina ran her household and facilitated her husband’s professional life. From school trustee to hostess of President Eisenhower, Christina supported her family in their many endeavors.

First Lady of Dartmouth College

Mr and Mrs. John Sloan Dickey receive guests for a Dartmouth College Commencement Ceremony

During her 25 years as First Lady at Dartmouth College, Christina represented Dartmouth to affiliates of school, visiting scholars and the Hanover community alike. She said that the “purpose of President’s house is to “front” for Dartmouth and the purpose of the President’s wife is to be hostess for the college.”[1] By her own definition, Christina exceeded expectations of a President’s wife. John G. Kemeny once said about her that “she had a green thumb for human beings as well as flowers,” and that she “played a gracious and essential role in the life of the College. ”[2]

In the Hanover Community

As a daughter, wife and eventual mother of professors, Christina easily integrated herself into life in a college town. She was a member of the League of Women Voters, the Hanover Garden Club, the Swiftwater Council and the Women’s Association of the Church of Christ. A Dartmouth Alumni Magazine article describes her unpretentious presence in Hanover, saying she might be seen “shopping on Main Street, or pushing a market cart through the Co-Op Store, hoping like the rest of us that some genius would invent a new kind of meat.”

Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters [3]

Christina was recognized as an asset to the Hanover community in 1970 when she received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Dartmouth College President John G. Kemeny. In the ceremony, Kemeny said that Christina had “warmed the hearts of the Dartmouth family with a gentle presence, a quiet competence, and an unfailing sensitivity to the feelings of others.” In the same ceremony, her husband John Sloan Dickey was awarded an honorary doctorate in Laws.

Presidential Seat Covers

Mrs. Dickey with one of her Presidential Seat Covers

As part of her legacy, Christina leaves behind 12 needlepoint seat covers representing the term of the first twelve Dartmouth presidents. The seat covers, which depict important events from each President’s term, were designed by John R. Scotford (‘38) and stitched by Christina. Her daughter and granddaughter along with Eleanor Smith helped create seat covers for the 13th through 16th Presidents with the help of designers Louise Hamlin and R. Allan Burt. The seat covers are still used in the President’s dining room on the Dartmouth campus.