| This induction of Milton Lindholm, Class
of 1935, into the Bates Scholar-Athlete Society is no more than his
second-best honor and celebration of this academic year. The best
and most important occasion, with his wife Jane Ault Lindholm
’37, was a gathering in the Mays Center last September to
celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. As half of another of
these storied Bates marriages, he has 16 Bates graduates in his
family. He also has the unique distinction of holding three degrees
from Bates: his B.A., a master’s degree in the years when
Bates had a small graduate program, and an honorary Doctorate. He
has been given virtually every award that Bates has, including the
first Alumni Distinguished Service Award. Milt played football at
Bates as the team’s center, and he played in the storied game
that resulted in a 0-0 tie with Yale. A perhaps apocryphal but
oft-repeated story is that the Bates Student sported the banner
headline, “Bates Beats Yale, 0-0.” Over seventy years
later, he still tries to make the games. Once asked why he
didn’t go to Florida for the winters instead of staying at
Bates, he answered, “Who would pick second place in the 60
yard dash at the track meets?” That Milt Lindholm has two
spaces on campus named for him -- Lindholm House and Milt’s
Place in the Commons -- is only the tip of the iceberg of
affection, trust and respect he has earned from eight decades of
Bates people. Both through their own philanthropic generosity and
the admiration and support of hundreds of alumni, Milt and Jane
also have an endowed scholarship fund, an endowed library fund, and
the leading scholar-athlete award, the Milton L. Lindholm
Scholar-Athlete Award. Since the establishment of this Bates
Scholar-Athlete Society five years ago, the winners of the Lindholm
Scholar-Athlete Award each year have been inducted into this
Society. As the Dean of Admissions for 32 years, Milt Lindholm
shaped the student and alumni body of Bates. Those who served with
or after him have praised his criteria for admission to Bates,
which never changed: “Motivation, imagination, initiative,
strong personality and character.” While running a highly
competitive admissions process, he was admired nationally for both
his sense of fairness and sympathy, and for playing calculated
hunches about people. He was very seldom wrong, and some of those
hunches, which Milt often described with a gentle smile as
“Lindholm’s mistakes,” went on to found firms,
run major corporations, become academic leaders, or earn acclaim in
the professions. In the citation for Milt’s honorary degree
from Bates, Peter Gomes, Class of 1965, University Minister at
Harvard and Bates Trustee, said, “Institutions like Bates are
measured, ultimately, by the character of their graduates.... Dean
Lindholm was the chief architect of what a Bates student is. He
looked for academic promise in the students he recruited, but he
sought much more. With uncanny intuition, he discovered
imagination, motivation, determination and decency. He worked to
build this College’s national reputation, yet he never lost
sight of the qualities that every Bates man or woman should
possess.... Milt Lindholm delighted in making connections with
young people and maintaining that connection long after they had
left Bates. He invested in each student as an individual, whether
he was a Japanese American just released from a U.S. internment
camp, the first in her family to attend college off a farm in
Aroostook County, or the son of a Bates alumna he had admitted
years before. With his wife, Jane Ault Lindholm, Milt befriended
students, faculty and staff; supported scholar-athletes, counseled
students with problems; and monitored and praised their every
success.” For his life-long service to Bates, for his
unwavering interest in our athletic efforts, and on behalf of the
thousands of men and women whose lives have been changed because of
his vision, we are honored to welcome Milton Lindholm to membership
in the Bates Scholar-Athlete Society. |
Eight decades of Lindholm's service to Bates included playing
football
|
