Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, has announced a $2 million donation from alumnus Kenneth I. Chenault (’73, H’96 and his wife, Kathryn C. Chenault, will establish an endowed fellowship. 

The fellowship will be named in honor of Herman S. Dreer, Class of 1910, who was the second Black man to graduate from Bowdoin, 84 years after John Brown Russwurm, Class of 1826. Chenault wrote his thesis, The Blackman at Bowdoin, about Dreer while attending the college and encouraged the Bowdoin Afro American Society—of which he was a member—to acknowledge an African American leader annually at the baccalaureate ceremony. In 1973, Chenault presented Dreer with the Afro-American Society’s first Outstanding Alumnus Award.

The fellowship will select Dreer Fellows each semester or year, with the general expectation that they will visit the campus several times, deliver a public lecture, and engage with students and the greater Bowdoin community, both inside and outside the classroom. Fellows will be free to attend classes at faculty invitation, hold office hours for students to provide career and mentoring advice, and meet with alumni. 

“I stand on the shoulders of people like Herman Dreer who, despite being denied the opportunities they deserved, paved the way and valiantly forged ahead,” said Chenault. “Kathy and I are privileged to honor Herman Dreer and give him the long overdue recognition that he so justly deserves. The Herman S. Dreer Leadership Fellowship will ensure that Herman’s legacy lives on to inspire future generations of trailblazers.”

(Photo credit: Creative Commons/Ron Cogswell)