Dartmouth alumni, trustees, faculty, and staff on Oct. 30 celebrated the unveiling of the official portrait of , applauding a work that reflects his abiding passion for Dartmouth, its academic mission, and his area of expertise, mathematics.
The painting depicts Hanlon standing at his desk in a suit and Dartmouth green tie, holding both a slide rule and a copy of Richard Stanley’s Enumerative Combinatorics, the leading textbook in Hanlon’s field. The inaugural Dartmouth Trustee Professor of Mathematics, Hanlon has returned to the classroom and is teaching two courses this term.
The slide rule had been given to Hanlon by the family of —the Dartmouth president and mathematics professor when Hanlon was a student, and the . Its presence in the portrait symbolizes the connections of the present to the past, and also Hanlon’s belief in building on the legacy of his predecessors.
, who presided over the unveiling in the Jack 1953 and Mac 2011 Morris Recital Hall during a gathering of the President’s Leadership Council, noted that the painting also includes a photo of Gail Gentes, Hanlon’s wife and active partner during his time as president, and a globe, highlighting Dartmouth’s global impact.
The painting also has a Lone Pine on a cross section of timber from a Woodsmen competition, representing the role that the North Woods and the outdoors play in shaping the Dartmouth experience. And a campus map nods to major Hanlon oversaw, including construction in the West End of the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society and the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center.
President Beilock cited the achievements during Hanlon’s 10-year tenure between 2013 and 2023—eliminating loans from financial aid packages, returning Dartmouth to R1 status as a research university and joining the Association of American Universities, creating interdisciplinary academic clusters—and also commended his scholarship and the empathy he showed as a humble, down-to-earth educator.
“Those qualities have made him a great scholar, a great teacher, and a great son and leader of Dartmouth,” Beilock said.
That echoed remarks by Board of Trustees Chair , who worked closely with Hanlon and also recounted his achievements.
“His impact was felt everywhere,” Lempres said.
The oil-on-linen work, which was commissioned by the ĚěĂŔ´«Ă˝, will hang in Baker Library by the end of the year and was painted by Alexandra Tyng, a Philadelphia-area artist.
Tyng said she tried to integrate several elements in the work.
“I wanted his portrait to reflect his approach to work and life, and to bring together student days, teaching years, and administrative work, focusing of course on his role as president of Dartmouth,” Tyng said.
After the unveiling, Hanlon and Gentes greeted well-wishers who admired the portrait.
“I think it’s wonderful. She did a great job. It captures his friendliness and openness,” Gentes said.
And Hanlon also said he was pleased.
“It’s a beautiful portrait. I’m so touched and proud, and proud of all we accomplished, and I think it captured that so beautifully,” he said.
