In Honor of Dreer

Chenault gift establishes the new Herman S. Dreer Fellowship to bring exemplary leaders to engage with the Bowdoin community.

KENNETH I. CHENAULT ’73, H’96 and his wife, Kathryn C. Chenault, have made a $2 million gift to Bowdoin College, the bulk of which will be used to establish a fellowship in honor of Herman S. Dreer, Class of 1910, the second Black man to graduate from Bowdoin, eightyfour years after John Brown Russwurm, Class of 1826. Dreer’s life story—and, in particular, his relationship with the College—is revealed in “The Blackman at Bowdoin,” the history honors thesis Chenault wrote in 1973.

Dreer graduated in just three years as the second-highest-ranked student in his class. Even so, he was isolated socially because of his race. In his honors thesis, Chenault wrote that “The fact that he was left alone and not intimidated physically by his classmates was all he could expect or ask for. ... Slavery may have ended, but Dreer was tolerated for the most part rather than accepted socially, just as Russwurm had been eighty-one years earlier.”

Despite the significant racism Dreer experienced, he led a remarkable life as an academic, educational reformer, author, minister, and civil rights leader. Chenault wrote that Dreer had “a lifelong mission: helping Black people in any way he possibly could, be it educating them, tending to their spiritual needs, or as he did in November of 1972, engaging in a fierce political struggle to help Blacks gain elective office in St. Louis.” Along with historian Carter G. Woodson, Dreer initiated the observance of Black History Month in the United States.

“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 Ken 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.”

The Herman S. Dreer Leadership Fellowship will seek fellows from across society, including leaders who rose from similar underresourced backgrounds as Dreer. It will support individuals from any professional field—leaders “from all walks of life”—in business, technology, government, law, the arts, the military, the nonprofit sector, and other disciplines.

Dreer Fellows will be named for a semester or an academic year, with the general expectation that they will visit campus several times, deliver a public lecture, and engage with students and the greater Bowdoin community, both inside and outside the classroom.

Passions