The Fifty Year Class: Class of 1881

Considering the number of years since they left college, it was a vigorous looking group which presented itself at the table of the Fifty Year Class at the alumni dinner on Monday. They were happily introduced by their president, Dr. Edward H. Trowbridge, and each one rose for a moment as his work was briefly characterized by the speaker.

The class of 1881 has had on its roster the names of eighty-nine men, of whom sixtythree were rated as Dartmouth 1881 graduates. Of those who did not graduate with us, William A. Dunning graduated at Columbia in 1881, and spent practically all his Jife since that date, until his death in 1922, as the brilliant scholar, professor and author. His official connection during these years was with Columbia. Another, John W. Manson, who graduated at Bowdoin in 1881, has been for several years, and still is, one of the Board of Overseers of that college.

Of the sixty-three graduates thirty-one are still living, and possibly a thirty-second, Charles S. Wells, a brilliant but somewhat erratic man, about whom nothing has been heard for a number of years. It was Wells who discovered a comet before he had been out of college a year, while on the staff of the Dudley Observatory.

Eighteen of the class, two non-graduates being included, were present for the Fiftieth. Their president is Dr. Edward H. Trowbridge, a distinguished physician and surgeon whose whole active professional life has been spent in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has ever been an enthusiastic Dartmouth man, and the chief factor in making the 1881 reunions interesting. For several years he was a member of the Alumni Council, and was elected class president to succeed the late Judge L. Roger Wentworth of- Somerville, Massachusetts. The secretary is Myron W. Adams, who spent forty years of his life in the service of Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia, the last ten as acting president and president. He is now "retired," as are most of the educators of the class. Adams has been secretary of the class during the entire fifty years since graduation, and as such has recently issued a history of the class during its fifty-four years of existence, brief historically but quite full biographically. His present home is in West Townsend, Massachusetts.

Another who responded to his name was Francis Hobart Herrick, who was actively with Western Reserve University for fortyone years. Dr. Herrick has been not only a teacher, but an eminent scientific investigator and author. More than any other living man he is an authority on the lobster and the eagle, and his life of Audubon is a remarkable book in the field of biography.

The "Duke" of baseball fame, Louis J. Rundlett, was another who rose at the call of his name. He was the first Dartmouth pitcher who brought defeat to Yale, a feat which was not duplicated for twenty years. Resisting the allurements of professional baseball which were temptingly held out to him, he entered the educational field, and has there made another record, probably not surpassed in the United States, having served for forty-six years as superintendent of schools in Concord, N. H., in which position he is still "going strong."

The response of Clarence B. Little was not from the floor, but from the dignified seat of a trustee. When the Alumni Council was organized, in 1913, he was one of the original members. For five years he was the president of that body. With an interval of only six months between the two forms of service, he has been either on the Council or on the Board of Trustees since 1913, and has never missed a single meeting. He is a banker of Bismarck, North Dakota.

Four lawyers were at the reunion, one of whom, Warren W. Foster of New York, has for several years had the honor of being senior judge of the oldest and highest criminal court in the United States. Since his retirement from the bench in 1914 his interests have been chiefly in the development of various corporation activities, in which form of activity he has been eminently successful. Another New York lawyer, William B. Greeley, has had the unique experience of wearing the same Psi Upsilon pin as his father of '45, his brothers of '76 and 'BS, and his son of 'l9. The other two lawyers present were Charles A. Castle of Boston, who added to the mementoes of the college an ink stand used by Daniel Webster; and Charles F. King of Glens Falls, N. Y., a skilled stenographer in addition to his strictly legal practice.

Five physicians were in the group, one of whom, Trowbridge, has been already mentioned. Dr. Herbert B. Mclntire of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been in practice in that city the whole time since his medical graduation. Dr. Charles G. Dewey of Boston has rendered especially valuable service in the field of mental and nervous diseases. Dr. Walter J. Richardson of Amherst 1881, who was with us for a season, has practised in Fairmont, Minnesota, since 1885. His son Ralph J. Richardson, Dartmouth 1909, is remembered by many as for six years the secretary of the Dartmouth Christian Association. Dr. Byron G. Leavitt, for a time in Denver, Colorado, is now retired and living in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

Adams and Herrick and Rundlett, already mentioned, were not the only educators in the group. Two others were Gardner P. Balch of West Roxbury, Mass., and Ephraim G. Kimball of Washington, D. C. The former taught in all, before his retirement, for a period of forty-six years, the last twentyseven as sub-master and then as principal of the Robert Gould Shaw district of Boston. Kimball was in the Washington System fortyseven years, the last twenty-nine of them as supervising principal.

Three engineers were in the company, all of whom have been eminently successful in their chosen profession. Edward H. Kitfield, now retired in Swampscott, Mass., gave special attention to electrical engineering. Herbert B. Maynard, non-graduate, also now retired, spent ten years in the South, and since then has been connected with public utilities in lowa, living now in Waterloo. William P. Snow of Auburndale, Mass., is still active, having been associated with Lockwood, Green and Company for over forty years, being one of their most valuable superintendents.

Had they not been in Europe, we could have told of Dr. Owen Copp and Reverend Oscar S. Michael as others in our company. And the temptation is strong to speak of others, both living and gone before. But to do so is not within the scope of this account.

In the picture which appears in this issue, the following is the key to the personnel: Seated, left to right: Herrick, King, Kitfield, Snow, Leavitt, Adams, Trowbridge, Little, Rundlett, Castle.

Standing, left to right: Balch, Richardson, Mclntire, Greeley,Maynard, Kimball, Dewey. Poster was not in town when the picture was. taken.

For the enjoyable time spent in Hanover the class owes much to the interest and thoughtfulness of Dr. and Mrs. Trowbridge. At the very outset, Saturday afternoon, a reception and tea was tendered by them to the members of the class and their families at the Outing Club, from four to five o'clock. With the social life thus happily begun, the living together at the Hanover Inn, the reception given to the alumni by President Hopkins, and the more formal class banquet and presentation at the dinner, the reunion brought to us general enjoyment. Eleven of the eighteen were accompanied by their wives, and there were seven children and one grandchild.