NORTHERN CALIFORNIA'S FIFTIETH REUNION

The Dartmouth Association of Northern California meets each Monday at a luncheon in the Elks' Club, San Francisco. The average attendance is approximately twenty men. It is an old custom with us to have an annual dinner in addition to these luncheons, and true to form on April 24, 1931—

"The kid that handled the music box was hitting a jag time tune."

It was a gay reception. Many years since we have had a piano player like B. W. Robie, 'l2. He has never-ending endurance and you cannot name a song that he is unable to play. When he got restless at the big grand, he went over to the corner and unfolded a real organ from a box the size of a suitcase. He picked it up in Java and it has been with him ever since, always in tune, and a part of his "Desert Rats" studio.

"Gangway for officers!" The music must stop, Past President Stoddard called for an election. John Post, '05, was for the fifth time unanimously defeated by vote for the vice-presidency. Otherwise, the candidates gradually withdrew in favor of the "slate" shown below:

President, Alan C. Livingston '15 Vice-President, Raymond B. Collerd '17 Secretary & Treasurer, B. L. Winslow '20 Assistant Secretary, Charles K. Faye '30

This was an important event for our Association. We were founded in the year 1881 as the Dartmouth Alumni Association of the Pacific Coast. The "Pacific Coast" took in land and water west of the Rocky Mountains and the delegates were few and scattered. During these past fifty years, other associations have been formed in Washington, Oregon, and Southern California, leaving us with 175 Dartmouth men in Northern California and a new name. The man who helped in the organization of this group in 1881, ten years after graduating from Dartmouth College, was sitting at the head table. He was complimented on having the best attendance at the weekly luncheons during the year 1930. "Charlie" Ham, '7l, was elected Honorary President and he responded with a bit of history which you will find in other columns of this magazine.

Selden Smith's remarks about the Alumni Fund encouraged our greater participation in the splendid work that Dartmouth College is doing under the direction of one of the greatest of college presidents, Ernest Martin Hopkins.

The talk of the evening was presented by Fletcher Harper Swift, '9B, now a very popular professor of education at the University of California. We enjoyed the able handling of his subject, in which he emphasized the great need of an educational policy in our schools of today.

Moving pictures recently taken at Hano ver were exhibited, much to the entertainment of men who have not seen that loved spot in the hills of New Hampshire since coming west.

"As the Backs go tearing by,"—Robie was at it again and the boys all chimed in. Listen to them:

Ham '71 Hayt '78 Cleaves '87 Johnson '87 Milliken '87 Townsend '94 Smith '97 Hewes '98 Swift '98 Leavens'01 Follett '03 Matteson '03 Gibson '04 Perkins 'O4 Clark '05 Post '05 Danforth '08 Robinson '14 Washburn '14 Livingston '15 Tomfohrde '15 Stoddard '18 Townsend '19 Winslow '20 Garfein '21 Almon '22 Cravens '23 Buell '23 Townsend '23 Hewes '24 Shaneman '24 Bauman '25 Hoffman '26 Smith '26 Evans '08 Baldwin '10 Spokesfield '10 Wilkinson '10 Butler '12 Campbell '12 Frothingham '12 Robie '12 Wilson '13 Clifton '27 Howes '27 Lamson '27 Marx '29 McGibbon '29 Taylor '29 Eaye '30 Col. Clifton

They total 52—one of the largest turnouts we ever had. The class of 1912 had the most representatives, numbering four; but the class 25 years older, 1887, won the honors with Cleaves and Milliken reaching out to Cambridge, Mass., to get the third man, Prof. Johnson.

Some times you just cannot explain this Dartmouth spirit. At this dinner there were men from 29 classes, the oldest 1871 and the youngest 1930, many of them represented by only one man. Some had not seen each other for a year or more, some every week, some never! Regardless of the conditions, class, or fraternity, we are all Dartmouth men and that's why the party was a success.

Secretary.