Class of 1908
Recent reference in the 1908 notes to
"Who's Who" drew forth the following observations from a classmate who prefers to remain anonymous. "Your reference to'Who's Who,'" explains the classmate, guardedly, "might provoke much interest.Long ago, I began watching Dartmouthreferences in 'Who's Who'. The averageman has about one chance in 46,100 to getin it. One has to make a preceptible dentin business, education, clergy, law, editorial work, public office, engineering, authorship, medicine, science, architecture,or Army and Navy. Much depends on thesize or depth of the dent and the groupwatching your efforts. Since six men (bymy count) in 180 in 1908 are recorded, wecan say that being in '08 gives a man onechance in thirty to get in W. W. (not Walter Winchell, the figures are enormouslymore forbidding for the latter Ed.) in 26years. This means an 'OB man has 1,537times as much chance as Mr. Doe. Of courseI am not comparing '09 with '09 or '07, orany other class.
"Only one of the six 'OB men in W. W.,was Phi Beta Kappa. Two of the six werenon-fraternity. Not one was a senior societyman. A study of this kind might open theeyes of the present majority, as it bespeaksvolumes re the puerile distinctions, values,and estimates of a student body, and putsit in irrefutable, mathematical form instead of oratory. Incidentally, as far as Iknow, not one of the six has ever receivedany recognition from the College! Although abundant from other sources, foreign and domestic."
Elizabeth Munkelt, daughter of Freddie of '08, recently had a hand in the initiation of Molly Soule, daughter of Art '08, when a sorority took in a new delegation at Packer Institute, Brooklyn.
James J. Norton 'OB, the treasurer of the Mortgage Guarantee Cos., Los Angeles, Calif., and an old Tri Kap of our generation, has been heard from. His daughter, Martha, is a senior at U. C. L. A., Jane is a senior in the South Pasadena High School and hopes to enter a nurses' training school next year, Carol is a junior in P. H. S., having just turned 16; Dick is 14. Jimmy writes he has been able to hang on through the depression, did considerable work with the legislature at Sacramento.
Theodore Ira Dunn 'OB has a son who is a sophomore at Williams College. T. I. Jr. was desperately ill at the college in January, but was reported, later by Larry Treadway, as slowly regaining his health. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn spent most of their time in Williamstown during young Ira's illness, making their headquarters at Tread's Williams Inn.
Ev Marsh's son, George, had a part in a Shubert show in New York this season, just what his father sayeth not. George is also getting radio experience in the big city.
Dolly Hilton is said to be quietly preparing a swell prospect for Dartmouth athletic endeavors, and he is slated to enter the Class of 1939.
Mars John M. Tatterson, suh, of No. Lao Exchange St., Portland, Me., sent along a big clipping from the Boston Post. The article, by Bill Cunningham, was entitled "A Real Mother Even Till Death," and was based upon the tragic ending of Freddie Priest, whose 1908 diploma was found in a brief case beside his body in the wilderness near Winchester, N. H. Wrote Tat: "I have no other news of interest tothe class, as I seldom see or hear from anyof them and my own life is free from excitement outside of eluding and deludingcreditors."
The speaking trip of Coach Earl Blaik through the Western New York area in late winter was conducive of spot pictures and stories of generous proportions in the Buffalo, Syracuse, and what-have-you newspapers. The Dartmouth Club of Western New York, headquarters in Bufistering falo, apparently is cultivating the newspapers a bit, something which doesn't do any college any harm.
Enclosing a clipping from Time which starts like this: "At Dartmouth, in 1908,the groups huddled around fraternityhouse fireplaces had two- subjects for disgruntled conversation: the cold weatherand an eccentric sophomore named FredHarris, who went outdoors every afternoonto slide down the New Hampshire hills ontwo long sticks " Well, the Timeclipping classmate, who, alas, is one of the shrinking violets who asks his name be eliminated, comments upon the Timelander as follows: "Perhaps you saw theenclosed rather scurrilous reference to 1908in a recent number of Time. We probablyweren't as winter-sports minded back inour day as they are at present, but I forone have memories of winter sunsets, walking back from the hills with skis over myshoulder. It is true that my skis merelystrapped over my toes and were usedprimarily for coasting downhill. Neitherdid a set of skis and poles cost $21 as atpresent."
Snowshoeing, of course, was common in our day, and skiing, in a rough-shod way, was far from being unknown. But, as many of us gaffers now realize only too keenly, there was no convenient method of transporting a cool thousand of the pick of femininity to Norwich & Hanover in midwinter. Judging from the pictures, the 1908ers, in their day, could jump as far for one of those dolls, to say nothing of a thousand, as most of the boys can today. Steady, young men, there's no way to prove it.
Allan Moore Perkins 'OB, the senior year bond and brokerage expert, recently mushed down from the frigidity of Water-town, N. Y., and with his helpmeet, Kate Van Ostrand Perkins (the best golfer in the class, in all probability, men included) and has set up his domestic shop in an igloo named "The Blackstone," No. 50 East 58th St., New York. It may be the domicile of the magician, who knows? Meanwhile, Perk's elder son, Van Ostrand is a second classman at Annapolis, junior to the civilians. And Woodbury, the younger Perkins young man, is a freshman at Yale. We said Harvard in a recent issue, should have known better.
Charlie McKendree, whose middle name is Alphonso and who went to Dartmouth from Manchester, N. H., and here we are slipping over into a neighboring class, because Charlie was '07. But all is fair in war and trying to make up a column for the magazine, so hear ye that Charlie is one of the leading psychiatrists in New York. He has a daughter who is a junior at Smith and a son who is a freshman at Princeton. A psychiatrist is about the only profession, these days, which could support two students of such class, seems if. Also, a clipping was received from the New York society pages of weeks ago which announced, with a nice photo alongside, that one of Charlie's daughters was making her debut at the Park Lane, Pierre's, or something.
Old Uncle Ned Oakford, who finally hit the sawdust to a diploma and glory with 1908, unless memory again goes flat, was spied about New York this season writing and producing plays, just which plays deponent omitted, as most deponents do.
Anson McLoud 'O9, that husky from Richardson Hall of the old days, is now village treasurer of Scarsdale, N. Y., muchrestricted community on the Hudson where reside one. Larry Symmes, Eberle, and others of 'OB. Well, do you know, sirs, Anson turned his old Hanover experiences in Richardson Hall, at least we assume so, to good account by getting up a thriller for boys entitled "Westchester Cowboys." There wasn't any character named "Zing McGrail" in it, but the piece went over the N. B. C. network big as an approved ozone production for juveniles. This we know, because the Tribune told us so, with a nice picture of Mac. The date of the paper, February 25, '35.
Mr. and Mrs. John Alexander Clark are in from Canaan, Conn., for a New York winter. Jack has been keeping right on with his water color and oil and charcoal business. He took a night course at Rockefeller Center in painting, drawing, and composition. Jean Chariot, a Frenchman who spent most of his artistic life in Mexico and is more or less associated with Rivera and Orozco, was Jack's tutor. Harold Rugg 'OB is one of the sponsors of the art school.
And Harold Rugg has been all over the front pages of the major newspapers of the land in recent weeks. The Christian ScienceMonitor of February 25 printed an excellent picture of Harold on page one. It was run in connection with a special story from Atlantic City, telling of the doings of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association. Harold is professor of education at Columbia University. There was an attendance of a thousand at the Atlantic City meeting when the call came to organize a Society for the Study of Educational and Social Relationships, and Dr. Rugg was selected to head the new organization. It sounds promising, because its aim, take the words of the Monitor for it is "to consider the highlycontroversial report of the social sciencecommission to the American Historical Society last May." Wonder what our old brother in 'OB, Paul Batchelder of the pure mathematics department of the University of Texas, would, think of that one, eh Paul?
Bob Marsden, the former dean of the Thayer School, is now acting director of the works division of the New Hampshire Emergency Relief Administration. His headquarters are Concord, itinerant '08ers should note.
Several inquiries out here in the Cornell country center about the idea as to whyDartmouth uses the term "Big Green" in connection with its football team. At Ithaca, years ago, somebody dubbed the Cornell squad the "Big Red Team," and, for almost as long a time, the Cornellians have been trying to rid themselves of the appellation.
"Sweet Music," the Rudy Vallee movie, had at least one distinctive feature. A scene intended to be collegiate in atmosphere included an out-sized Dartmouth banner among the decorations, in place of the more orthodox Harvard and Yale pennant broadsides.
Usually, the current issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE is employed to check the consignment of forthcoming notes. This time, such procedure is precluded by the fact that the old March issue has failed entirely to penetrate the Western N. Y. wilderness.
Little Sid Whipple '10, the former denizen of Richardson Hall who is now the star reporter of the United Press, was featured in these notes recently. A few days before this was written, Lewis Gannett, book columnist of the New York Herald Tribune, had this to say about Sidney: "Sidney B. Whipple was the star reporter of the United Press who covered theLindberg case from the night of the kidnaping to the death sentence. He musthave written a half million words on thestory,' and now he has dashed off another30,000 to make a book The LindbergCrime' (Blue Ribbon Books, $1). Old stuff,I thought; and, picking it up, read, absorbed, to the last page. It is a brilliant jobof summary reporting—lively but restrained, with a keen sense of dramaticnews values, a decent human attitude, anda sharp eye to pick out the essential fromthe masses of details, which, a few weeksago, were filling so many pages of thepapers every day."
Editor, Batavia, N. Y.
