Learning to Lead Well: Investing in Values-Based Leadership
Henry "Hank" Sorett '68 poses with President John E. Jones '77, P'11, following a ceremony in Sorett's honor. Photo by Dan Loh
As a student, he learned to be a change-maker—Now he helps others do the same
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
As a Dickinson student, Henry “Hank” Sorett ’68 learned how to better the world through independent thought, values-based leadership and activism. After decades of accomplishment, and during a challenging moment in national and global history, he’s working to ensure that current and future Dickinson students are further empowered to do the same.
Through his estate, Sorett will provide for an endowed faculty chair and fellowship in civil rights, civil disobedience and civil liberties and values-driven scholarship. Students will be encouraged to ask questions such as What is the character of the United States? What is its place in the world? and What is the best way to encourage change? And in the meantime, Sorett provided an additional $100,000 gift to jumpstart related programming, such as public symposia and curriculum development.
“This is an important moment in our nation’s history,” Sorett says of the timing of his second gift. “The more you get people to think for themselves, the more you give students a diverse background in intellectual history as well as factual history, the more stable and free society becomes.”
Learning to lead
Entering Dickinson during the also turbulent 1960s, Sorett took pre-med courses, as well as extra classes in physics and history. An early mentor, President Howard Rubendall, encouraged him to ask hard questions, think for himself and learn to lead with principle and pragmatism. Conversations about social justice with Chaplain Joseph Washington and Professor of History Flint Kellogg inspired him to join engage in activism against the Vietnam War and in favor of civil rights.
Sorett carried those values into law school at Boston University, where he was an editor of the Law Review. After several years as a public defender, he entered a Boston law firm, where his knowledge of science enabled him to advocate for fairness in cases where scientific validity and reliability were paramount to uncovering the truth. Holding that invalid and unreliable expert testimony was tantamount to fraud, he led judges to exclude fake science and allow fact finding based solely on truth.
Over decades, Sorett has presented more than 100 appellate cases and more than a dozen major, complex cases, primarily in energy-related litigation, often involving fires and explosions. He’s known as a “lawyer’s lawyer” and a fierce advocate for clients. He’s also recognized for giving back as a mentor and through extensive pro bono work, serving as a moot court judge at Boston University and Harvard. This year he will serve as a delegate to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention—his 48th consecutive year in this role—and he's participating in writing the party’s platform.
Preparing the next generation
Sorett has long asserted that a liberal-arts background, combined with the values-rooted guidance he received from mentors, were essential to his successes. And so he’s creating opportunities for the next generations of Dickinsonians to succeed and lead professionally and in civic life. Efforts are already underway to develop related initiatives and programs, says Provost and Dean of the College Renée Cramer P'28, and the first of them will be visible at the college within the year.
A new paver outside the Paz Alumni & Family Center celebrates the man who makes those initiatives possible (the Old West Society Walk was formally dedicated during Alumni Weekend, and more names will be added to the walkway in the coming weeks and months). Significantly, it was installed outside the very building where Sorett once attended dinners at the Historic President’s House with his late mentor, Howard Rubendall.
On the day of the paver's unveiling, Sorett reflected on the timeliness and importance of the work ahead. “I believe our democracy is imperiled in this country in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War,” he told the Dickinson community members who’d gathered in his honor. “The students of today will be leading our nation in coming years, and we need future leaders who are trained not only in leadership but also in core values—and students who’ve incorporated those values into their own thinking and philosophy.”
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Published June 23, 2025