Class of 1902
The end of the academic year and that singularly appropriate, or inappropriate if your point of view is peculiar, closing called Commencement, invite us to a bit of a backward glance which we of the fifties should not too much foster, and a little of forecast if the mood is right.
It is well from one view that we pause for a time. The supply of information is completely exhausted, there are no unacknowledged letters on our desk, the sources are either dry, or as one suspects, pouring their floods down other channels, yet with the summer one knows that new experiences and more abundant life will give renewed vigor and interest. We have hardly set many marks of progress during the past twelve months, but at least it does not appear that we have lost ground. Even though many of the group have taken severe blows, there is no sign of courage and hope abandoned. If we are to go down, at any rate we'll go down fighting.
Statisticians may say with all calmness that these years are for any group those which take the largest toll, yet not with the same impersonal mind do we view the number of those who in this year have graduated from life to the Great Beyond. Their names have been given during the passing months, but perhaps only in review do we realize what these men have meant to the class. Widely different in individual characteristics and in type of achievement, they have contributed to the life of the world and to the service of the class which they were glad to call their own.
One feels proud as he pays his respects to such men that they have lived and played their part, and he also wishes to believe that those who remain are just as worthy of our esteem, and that they will carry on their share of the work to be done. It cannot be that the less worthy will remain to represent our class and our generation to the men of the next. If anything we should be inspired by the thoughts of those whose names we write over into the lengthening column to strive even more to maintain the level of total class effort for service.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge here the receipt of various class reports, those of '7B and 'O3 having recently come to hand. I note in them a recurrence of the feeling which the older secretaries all share, namely a regret that all members of the class are not regularly receiving the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Among the various class deeds of 1902 that one is not the least important which put the class as a whole on the subscription list. If your Secretary has time for words he feels definitely that in writing for this column he is speaking not only for the whole class but to the whole class. I wish it were possible for all classes to underwrite a 100 per cent subscription. Particularly at this time do I delight in the thought that whatever our varied fortunes, at least we all have this opportunity to keep together. And further I hope that the class will not abandon the plan.
This feeling for the good that the MAGAZINE does probably accounts for my difficulty in understanding why so many of my letters arouse no response. Statistically I believe that my returns are fully up to the average, but there are times when my dislike for statistics amounts to a positive hatred. Somehow I want to be an idealist and have reasonably regular replies from every man whose name we have the honor to carry on our roll. If I weren't so much occupied with matters somewhat concerned with daily bread and butter I certainly would pester the silent members of the class with letters, telegrams, and the like until I had them driven from cover. As it is I can do only what I can, and then write yearningly in these columns, baring my soul for the wide world to see.
Of course that wide world isn't so very wide; sometimes I imagine that everybody reads our letters, and again it seems to me that not even those in the class scan these lines. But at any rate this is just prelude for the look ahead, for those few months during which I lay aside my reportorial pen, and wish for all sorts of adventures for the rest of you.
There are those who say that schools and colleges will not really prepare students for life so long as they afford such long vacations. Because the young folks have been brought up to have the summer off, they therefore feel that things are going wrong if it isn't so all the rest of their lives. I doubt if many in 1902 feel that way, since I know that to most of us the summer was a time in which to get busy and collect a few shekels in order to be able to go back to college in the fall. There's many a man in the class who would say that summer never has been a vacation, in the sense of being care-free and idle.
And that's about the way of it today. We open up a bit more in the summer, but the little god Hustle is right after us all the time. Some of us get a bit of a breathing spell and some of us do not, but the chances are that we all get some new experiences of one kind or another. What those experiences will be depends much on ourselves, on our readiness to accept them and to make the most of them. And here's to the most worth-while summer for every man of you. May it give you added strength and hope, and with all a desire to share with others, not forgetting the members of your class.
And here is a last minute bit of news which I have much condensed from a Vermont paper. Governor Wilson, in accepting the resignation of Robert C. Clark as commissioner of banking and insurance, to take effect on May 1, wrote him:
"I deeply appreciate the fine service youhave rendered to the state while in chargeof the department of banking and insurance. Vermont state banks have comethrough the recent serious financial periodin fine shape when compared to the results in most other states. You have had agreat part in securing this satisfactory outcome. You will leave the office next weekwith a record of accomplishment of whichyou have a right to feel proud, and withthe friendship and esteem of the peoplewhom you have been serving. I realize thatit was a sacrifice for you to continue toserve as a state official for an additional sixmonths after your resignation was presented. The results justify the sacrifice."
Bob has accepted an attractive executive position with the Bellows Falls Trust Company. He has the right to feel proud of his record as a state official, and we do feel proud of it whether we have the right or not. The newspaper account credited Bob with the successful solution of many important problems, and gave particular praise to his work during the difficult period since March, 1933.
Secretary, 130 Woodridge Place, Leonia, N. J.
