CLASS OF 1906
The Interfraternity News for February contained a history of the Interfraternity Club of Chicago, from which we quote the following passage relative to our own Nat Leverone, second president of the Club:
"Nat Leverone was easily the most gifted public speaker we had ever seen. He did things to the English language that made ordinary mortals sound futile and dumb. Hailing from Keene, N. H., and graduating from Dartmouth in the class of 1906, he came to Chicago and became president both of Phi Gamma Delta alumni and of Dartmouth College alumni. And in doing so he completely upset all of our ideas about the New England type which Mr. Coolidge exemplified so well. We had pictured New Englanders as cold and austere people, inclined to remain aloof and silent, slow to make friendships, who carried their careful dollars in pocket purses. And here was a born and bred New Englander who was none of these things, who was in fact the exact opposite of everything we had ever supposed New England to be. An idealist at heart, Nat strongly believed that college-bred men should play an active part as citizens, and he foresaw the great influence that the Interfraternity Club could wield in a community like Chicago, where poltical leadership had come largely from the lower levels of society.
"Under his direction the Thursday luncheons at the Interfraternity Club became events of importance on the calendar. He secured for speakers an outstanding array of talented men, many of international renown, so that our programs became quite famous. Gentlemen who were paid large fees to address other audiences came to us as guests, and so thoroughly did Nat mesmerize them that they considered it a rare privilege to address our growing club. For growing it was, by leaps and bounds, and no small share of the credit for that growth belongs to those Thursday meetings, and to the man who engineered and staged them.
"Yet it was not as the impresario, but as the star performer himself that we most enjoyed Nat Leverone. For it became his duty to introduce the speakers to our membership, and those introductions will live for long in our memories. Brilliant as a jewel, sharp as a whip, that man Leverone was the past master of the wise-crack unique, a speaker of such native charm and ability that as many people came to hear the introductions as to listen to the speaker of the day. And it is a rare tribute to the astounding versatility of Nat Leverone to record the fact that we listened to him each Thursday noon for one solid year, nor did we ever once become tired nor satiated. Each week brought out some new delight, some most amazing thing said in a new and different and quite astonishing way."
On April 9, Edward Sanborn French of Springfield, Vt., was elected by the directors, president of the Boston and Maine railroad, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George Hannauer last November. This is one of the most important executive positions in New England business circles, and the New England papers have carried long articles about Ned, giving details of his life from birth to date, featuring interviews in which reporters asked his opinions on all manner of subjects, and illustrating their columns with his photograph. We should like to reprint much of this material, but space allows us to quote only the conclusion of an excellent two-column article in the Boston Evening Transcript for April 10:
"In announcing its choice of a president, the board of directors said that 'in Mr. French the board believes it has secured for the railroad a president who will command the confidence of stockholders, the respect and co-operation of officers and employees and the confidence and support of the New England public and its regulatory bodies.'
"The new president's activities have included the following: vice-president and general manager, St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad since 1925; president, Montpelier and Wells River Railroad, since 1925; president, Barre and Chelsea Railroad since 1926; president, Springfield (Vt.) Terminal Railway Company, since 1920; president, Mystic Terminal Company, since 1927; director, Rock of Ages Granite Company, since 1927; vice-president and director, Woodbury Granite Company, Burlington, Vt., since 1927; and vice-president and director, John T. Slack Corporation, Springfield, Vt., since 1922. He has also served as an officer or director of national banks at Barre, Vt., and Brattleboro, Vt. He has been interested in several commercial and manufacturing enterprises and has been consultant for several railroads in Maine. In assuming the presidency of the Boston and Maine he will retire from many of these connections.
"In 1908 he was named general manager of the White River Railroad and twelve years later became the president of the company. His work in rehabilitating and reorganizing railroads in northern New England attracted wide attention."
Secretary, Hanover, N. H.
