Ricki Fairley ’78

Left to right: Jan-Michelle Kearney (formerly Lennon), Ricki Fairley, Vicki Stewart, and Carol Bowen.

Ricki Fairley, Class of 1978, knew that Dartmouth was the college for her before it was a coeducational institution. When she expressed her desire to attend the College on the hill to her father, Richard Fairley, Class of 1955, he laughed. His Dartmouth was a space that he could not see his daughter occupying. His Dartmouth was a “men’s school.” However, when Dartmouth admitted women in 1972 and Ricki was accepted in 1974, his Dartmouth became their Dartmouth.

Ricki had grown up visiting her father’s alma mater. When she was about ten years old she made her first trip to Hanover. Visits during Winter Carnival Weekend became a tradition when she was about twelve. In the fall of 1974, Ricki and her family left their home in Silver Spring, Maryland to drop Ricki off for her freshman year.

When asked to share a memory that captures what Dartmouth means to her, Ricki recalls a memory from the last day she spent with her family before they left her in Hanover. The day she met Vicki Stewart, a fellow ‘78 who would become her best friend at Dartmouth.

My parents were about to leave me there freshman year and I had never really been away from home, even though I’d been in Hanover a lot. We were driving down in front of McNutt. My mom started crying. I started crying. My sister in the back seat was probably cheering that I was leaving home. Vicki was walking down the street and my dad stopped the car and yelled out to her, “Get in the car, little girl.”

She was scared shitless. She got in the car with us.

My father asked, “What’s your name?”

She said, “Victoria Stewart.”

He said, “Okay, this is my daughter Ricki. Now go be friends.”

He put us out of the car.

She ran away from me. She was scared to death. She was from Chattanooga, Tennessee and had never been away from home. Her mother had always told her to never get in the car with a stranger. She was away from home for one day and she got in the car with a stranger. My dad was very overbearing. He was 6’6’’and he had a very deep voice.

We really didn’t see each other, probably for a couple of weeks. Then we had cheerleading tryouts and we were both there. And she was like oh my god, there’s that girl again with the crazy family. But we both made the cheerleading squad.

We were walking back to the Choates after cheerleading one day and she was complaining about how cold she was. This was probably the end of October. She was from Chattanooga. She’d never really worn heavy clothes before. I had a closet full of coats. My grandma must have bought me six coats. Back then, we didn’t have down and North Face and everything that you guys have. But I remembering thinking, I have plenty of clothes. I took her to my room and I gave her five sweaters and a coat. After that, we became best friends.

Top left to bottom right: Jan-Michelle Kearney (Lennon), Ricki Fairley, Vicki Stewart, Marva Collins, Pat Douglas, Andrea Battiste, Van (Last Name Unknown), and Carol Bowen

Ricki and Vicki were both members of a predominantly Black cheerleading squad that cheered for the Dartmouth men’s basketball team. This squad remained a support system for Ricki throughout her four years at the College.

Left to right: Celeste Kearney ’19, Jan-Michelle Kearney (Lennon), Asher Kearney, Vicki Stewart, Ricki Fairley, Hayley Brown ’14 (Ricki’s youngest daughter)

Ricki shares her Dartmouth legacy, not only with her father, but also with her two daughters, Amanda and Hayley Brown. When Ricki graduated in 1978, her father bought a Dartmouth sweatshirt at the Co-Op that he kept with the hope that one of his grandchildren would attend the College. When Amanda was accepted to the Class of 2007, her grandfather presented her with the sweatshirt; a gift Ricki never knew existed. Hayley continued the legacy when she joined the Class of 2014. Ricki hopes that a 4th generation of her family will attend the College on the hill.