The FHS Alumni Association is pleased to announce that a fully endowed scholarship has been established to honor the life of 1958 FHS graduate David L. Dalrymple who became a role model in multiple fields including college professor, author, inventor, and community leader.
David, with his younger brother Richard, grew up on the Dalrymple family farm in Fredericktown. In high school, David excelled in the classroom, as a member of the school’s academic competition teams, and played the clarinet in the high school band.
After high school, David attended The College of Wooster, where he graduated in 1962 with a major in Chemistry. He was an outstanding student at Wooster and a leader of Phi Delta Sigma, which was known as the “athletic fraternity”. David, the academic, who decided to affiliate with the athletes, provided early insights into David’s ability to lead, enjoy and earn the respect of a broad range of people and organizations.
David received his master’s degree from MIT, started his PhD studies in organic chemistry at The Ohio State University and transferred with his research professor’s group to the University of Vermont where he received his PhD. David then did his postdoctoral research with Nobel Laureate R. B. Woodward at Harvard.
As a professor at the University of Delaware, David authored a college chemistry textbook before deciding to help lead the revolution in scientific instrumentation at Nicolet Instrument Corporation.
David’s work on the then nascent MRI technology provided a breakthrough in non-invasive soft tissue diagnostics. Nicolet loaned David to General Electric for a 3-year stint to help them successfully bring the MRI technology to the mass medical market before returning to Nicolete to work on new groundbreaking challenges across many technologies. Through various corporate consolidations, Nicolete eventually became a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, with David remaining with the company throughout his career. Thermo Fisher Scientific continues as a world leader in analytical instruments and is still benefiting from David’s patented work relating to MRI and Hearing Aid technologies.
After retirement, David returned to Fredericktown to be close to family and enjoy their traditions. David immediately became involved in the local activities, including optimizing the process for producing the superb “Dalrymple Family Maple Syrup”, making frequent blood donations to the Red Cross, and preparing pro-bono income tax returns for retirees.
Perhaps David’s most lasting local contributions will be as the President of the FHS Alumni Association. Under David’s leadership the Alumni Association established a bigger vision for the alumni’s “Freddies Helping Freddies” scholarship fund. In eight years, under David’s leadership the scholarship fund corpus grew from under $10,000 with zero endowed scholarships to a corpus of over $750,000 with 28 fully endowed scholarships available for award or renewal every year.
This 29th endowed scholarship is sponsored by David’s brother, Richard, and will be first awarded in 2024. When Richard was asked what motivated his donation he said, “David accomplished so much in his life without fanfare, he shunned recognition and credit for anything he did. It is important that future generations of Freddies be inspired by David’s life and realize that they can start at FHS and impact the whole world”.
