CLASS OF 1902

The Fifteenth Reunion of the class of 1902, although attended by a smaller number than anticipated even up to within a few days of Commencement, proved to be the most enjoyable reunion the class has ever held. The added years, the evident desire for closer comradeship and better acquaintance one with another, the solemnity of college affairs under the war cloud, and last but not least, the presence of so many wives, combined to make the gathering intensely human and deeply affecting. Saturday night found twenty-five men of the class gathered in Hitchcock Hall, one of the newest and best of the college dormitories, admirably arranged for class reunions with its big lounging room, fireplace, and easy chairs in the center of the first floor of the hall. The men who gathered about the fire Saturday night, burning briskly as a result of plenty of firewood gathered from "somewhere in Hanover" by "Cuckoo" Holmes, were Dorr, Drake, Keniston, Hill (W. C.), Tozzer, Easson, Briggs, Holmes, Parker ("Beezle"), "Ben" Stevens, Homer Leach, R. B. Clark, Farr, Edson, Harris, Parry, George Hubbard, Ailing, Sewall Newman, Dudley, Murray, Chivers, and Griggs. Easson, Briggs, Drake, Dorr, Parker, Studwell, Edson, Hubbard, and Newman were accompanied by their wives, and George Hubbard brought along two handsome and lively boys.

Briggs, Dorr, Parker, Studwell, Hubbard, and Newman had come overland in their cars, and these proved useful during the reunion for various pleasant parties.

The ladies were very considerate Saturday evening and retired early, which allowed opportunity for various sporting members of the class to indulge in cards about the round table of the lounging room, chaperoned by Professor Wicker, who stuck it out until the wee sma' hours.

Sunday the party was augmented by the arrival of George Elderkin, who had not expected to attend, having just enlisted in the Princeton ambulance unit. He had .secured forty-eight hours leave, however, and came in on an early train. "Mose" Perkins and wife, Field and son Robert, the "class baby," also showed up early Sunday, and later "Bob" Leach and "Fat" Sawyer rode in from the south. During the day Newman and a party drove to Woodstock for dinner. It rained frightfully throughout the day, so that most of the party remained in Hitchcock. At six supper was served in the lounging room, and proved most enjoyable.

The feature of Monday was the class dinner in the Grill Room at College Hall at 7 p. m. Taylor, Pember, Arthur Ruggles, Cofran, Gilman, "Fat" Archibald, Ballou, and Kimball had been added to the reunion numbers, Ruggles, Pember, Cofran, and Ballou bringing their wives. The ladies dined together at the hotel, and later attended the College movies. President Dorr presided at the class meeting and Keniston over the postprandial exercises. There were memorial resolutions for "Fat" Newman and "Eddie" Cregg, the two members of the class who had died during the previous five years, an amendment to the class constitution calling for an assistant class secretary, to which office Roy W. Hatch' was elected, and the old board of officers was reelected. The dinner was informal, each man being called upon to tell the story of his own life since college. At the close of the evening some seventy lantern slides were shown, Griggs handling the stereopticon.

Through the endeavors of George Hubbard and the generosity of the owners of automobiles, the entire reunion party was given a delightful trip on Tuesday to the White Mountains. The trip was to Franconia, to Pecket's on Sugar Hill, where dinner was served at 2.30 p. m. The tenth wedding anniversaries of Mr. and Mrs. Edson and Mr. and Mrs. Studwell falling on the same day gave opportunity for a tin shower during the dinner, which much enlivened the occasion. The country and the mountains were never more beautiful, and the ride up through Lisbon and back through Littleton was glorious.

"Phil" Thompson showed up late Tuesday, and was the last arrival of the thirty-eight men, seventeen wives, and thirteen children who graced the reunion. Wednesday the men dropped off one by one, but few remaining for the Commencement exercises or the Commencement dinner.

"Fat" Archibald, from St. Paul, came the longest distance, Field from Washington, Elderkin from Princeton, Easson from Delaware, and five from New York being the only others to come from outside New England, so that the reunion was somewhat distinctly a New England affair.