Tributes pour in for Earl Sweet, Dartmouth’s unsung hero
Longtime Dartmouth union president ‘touched thousands of lives’
Earl Sweet was the head of Dartmouth’s service union for over 30 years before he passed away on Monday.
The Dartmouth legend was called “one of the kindest human beings you could ever meet” as former colleagues praised him for touching “thousands of lives”.
Mr Sweet was 70 when he died of cancer this week.
Courtesy of Valley News
Other members of the union had nothing praise for Mr Sweet as he developed close ties to Dartmouth students and faculty during his time as a union leader.
Former Dartmouth Professor Russell Rickford told the Valley News:
“Earl was never quite sure what to make of the small, eclectic group of activist students and leftist professors that most visibly supported labor causes at Dartmouth … Within this circle of organizers were queer people, trans folk, international students, people of color, and Marxists from wealthy, European families.
“Earl always seemed slightly puzzled at the discussions of ‘microaggressions,’ ‘intersectionality,’ and other jargon that regularly circulated within our little activist clique. He was a throwback.
“With his tattooed arms, his oversized suspenders, and his generous belly, he evoked an earlier era of organized labor — an era in which alliance with young activists who used ‘they’ pronouns to describe themselves was unknown. Nevertheless, Earl was an organizer, through and through. I imagine that his many years in the labor struggle taught him that you don’t turn away allies, no matter how curious or esoteric they might seem.”