One hundred years ago, in 1903, Block Island resident Lester Dodge graduated from Brown University ? an even more impressive, and considerably rarer, event for a young man than it is today. He lived until 1971, at which time his will provided money to the town earmarked for the Island Free Library.

As many young islanders have done for the past three and a half centuries, after Lester?s schooling ended, he migrated to the mainland. But as few others have done, Lester returned in later years a successful man, resuming his Block Island life, and helping fellow islanders with his financial resources. Lester?s success came as an executive, and then owner, of a dredging company based in New York.

This year, as for the past half century, a scholarship provided by Lester will go to the outstanding graduate of the Block Island School, in memory of his wife, Harriet Blades Dodge, who died in 1948.

Every day, Block Island residents pass by the familiar historical monuments that Lester erected, nine granite monoliths that are so conspicuous they are seldom noticed by residents ? with the exception of one, marking the Palatine Graves, which is so remote no one can drive by it.

For a quarter century, from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, Lester Dodge sponsored Dodge Day at his family homestead on Dodge Street, the site now of the Island Free Library, built just 30 years ago.

The cover of each annual program would feature a patriarch or matriarch from a distant Dodge generation ? an uncle, aunt, or cousin of Lester. There were plenty of separate Dodge families to be remembered, but all were descended from the first Dodge couple who came to the island from Newfoundland, lured here in the 1660s to teach those earliest of white settlers the finer points of fishing.

All of the programs published during those decades bore the same wording on the cover: "Anniversary of the Landing of Trustrum Dodge and Ann Dodge, His Wife, on Block Island, R.I., 1661." Only the number of the anniversary changed, from the 275th in 1936, to the 300th in 1961. It was an impressive string of events, continuing even during the years of World War II, until by the later decades Dodge Day was an island-wide event, not just a family one.

If you were a lucky Dodge, or other islander, you would be a "Guest of Honor," such as Capt. Edwin A. Dodge in 1937.

Or you would be part of the ceremony, such as, that same year, Capt. John A. Dodge, aged 77, who hoisted the American Flag; or Capt. Robert H. Dodge, aged 78, who hoisted the flag of England; or captains William Talbot Dodge, aged 78, and Winfield S. Dodge, who together hoisted the Dodge family flag; or Leslie H. Dodge, D. Brainard Day, and William P. Lewis, who together fired a 16-gun salute; or Nicholas Ball, postmaster, who delivered the oration; or Byron Littlefield, fisherman, who performed the vocal solo; or Lester E. Dodge, himself, who presented a lecture on the Dodge Family History

And, as the years passed, if you were an unlucky Dodge, or other islander, you would be listed under "In Memoriam," a category that first appeared on programs in 1948 when Lester?s wife Harriet passed away. In subsequent years, a half-dozen or so names would be listed, also increasingly representing a cross-section of all Block Islanders. For the last Dodge Day program in 1961, under "In Memoriam," were: Rev. William B. Sharp, Lycurgus Negus, John Milliken, Sarah Ball, and Myrtis Littlefield.

Lester Dodge was as unabashed about commemorating himself as he was about his forebears. He helped create the Block Island Historical Society in 1942, and that organization?s imprint, together with a bit of historical information, is on the front of the memorials that Lester erected. On the back, with a few more tidbits of history, is his own name.

While the name Island Free Library goes back to 1875, when the first collection of books was made publicly available ? and for decades subsequently were housed in various inadequate quarters ? the actual building that now stands on Dodge Street is named for Uriah B. Dodge (1850-1907), Lester?s father. This fine structure, enlarged twice in recent years, was made possible only by tearing down Lester Dodge?s cherished homestead, which dated back to the 1700s. The decision to do so was made by Library Trustees in the early 1970s; whether Lester would have approved is another matter.

Perhaps it was an instinct for survival that made Lester attach his name to so many things and honor his family, and his island, so diligently. For, of the original 16 settlers in 1661, only two surnames survive amongst current Block Island residents: Rose and Dodge.

Lester?s impact is strongest for one particular photograph. It might be called Ocean Gothic, but whether Grant Wood?s famous painting, "American Gothic," made two decades earlier, was in mind that day, no one is likely to know.

There he stands, half of his dark-clothed body boldly contrasted against white shingles of the old shed behind the house, the other half lost against a black door. His collar, face and hair are all white, and down lower ? seemingly unnecessary for a man standing so squarely erect ? is a white cane.

Above Lester Dodge is the large word "Empress," a nameboard from a salvaged ship, suggesting unintentionally then that this man is the Emperor. And on certain days he was. To the right is the elegant shape of white sails, again silhouetted against a dark door, and supported above the model of one of Block Island?s famous double-ender sailboats ? the type of boat Lester?s forebears helped develop and on which so many had earned the right to the name "Captain." Below the hull, and in counterpoint to the plainness of the emperor, and the simple line of the New England shed, is a flag bearing the elaborate heraldry of the Dodge family?s English ancestry.

On the grass, with another hanging on the wall, is a boxy homemade reel for winding in the fathoms of line necessary to haul codfish up from a hundred feet down ? an ancient family keepsake made shabby by years of use, and dozens more of storage.

And off to the side, just nestled in the photograph?s corner, is a solid mounted cannon ? one half of the two monumental bookends in this photograph, with Lester being the other one, that sandwich the more transient cloth and wood ephemera between them.

This old life-saving cannon still exists at the Island Free Library, and Lester Dodge can still be found on his monuments.