23/05/2022
BADA: Why I’m going? | 50 for 50 Podcast Feature
-Ricki Fairley ’78
BADA FAM:
I was 16, a junior in high school, when my dad, Richard Fairley ‘55, said, “Pack your bag, we are going to Hanover for a week. I have some important work to do there. The Black students need us.” After the 11 hour drive from DC, we pulled into the driveway at the Hanover Inn. I was ecstatic as on our many trips to Hanover, we always stayed at the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction because my dad said we couldn’t afford to stay at the Inn and that is where my mom stayed when she visited my dad in the 50’s.
I was immediately put into a corner room with 12 children and my job was to be the babysitter. My dad’s instructions were: “Stay here with these kids and DO NOT LEAVE this hotel. There are a lot of boys out there that may try to talk to you. Do not talk to any of them as this is not a safe place for girls.”
Uncle Garvey, Uncle Gene, Uncle Sam, Uncle Fritz, Uncle Archie, Uncle Keith (all I had known most of my life) and the rest of our esteemed BADA founders huddled for a week with students, administrators and each other to form BADA. As we drove home my dad explained how important it was to have the Black alums give support to the students as most of them were in an environment that most of them had never experienced. That is my first memory of BADA. My dad and I made many more cherished memories over the years with each other, and with my daughters, Amanda Brown Lierman ‘07 and Hayley Brown ‘14, and now with my three wonderful grandchildren.
—Ricki Fairley ’78
Check out Ricki’s feature on Dartmouth’s 50 for 50 podcast:
https://alumni.dartmouth.edu/content/50-50-podcast-episode-2.
Learn more about BADA’s 50th:
bada1972.org/50th-reunion/
✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼
#1972
🌿
