Class of 1907
On October 7 the Class Secretary had received subscriptions and class dues from 43 classmates, a distressingly small percentage of the class. It is hoped that the report a month hence will be more gratifying. Twenty-five of the 43 indicate their intention of attending the 30th Reunion next June.
Although tentative reunion plans are under consideration by the class president, Jim O'Neill, and will presumably be submitted by him to the reunion committee, no announcement is possible at this time. Subscribe for the ALUMNI MAGAZINE if you have not already done so, and look for Reunion plans in the December issue!
In the October ALUMNI MAGAZINE these notes promised you the impressions of a classmate returning to Hanover for the first time twenty-nine years after his graduation. The quotation from Bruno Kimball's letter, written from Ogden, Utah, following his return from Commencement at Hanover last June, tells a story that cannot fail to interest others who have also been in exile for too many years. As you read keep your thoughts focused on our 30th next June!
"Martin asked me to write something for the next MAGAZINE, and this letter is for you and not to be published verbatim, as that would be too much. Isn't it funny that when I wrote Martin that letter which you were kind enough to publish, I had no more idea of seeing Hanover this year than flying around the world, and yet there I was soon after my letter appeared. Well, I had a fine time, and it was largely thanks to the fine people from Minneapolis, Dorothy and Bill Martin. Bill met me at the Junction. Just think, Hen Teague had been on the train and I did not know him. I dragged Bill and 'Pat Page' to Hoppy's reception, and a good time was had by all, especially when it came to the eats. Later they 'dragged' me around to various headquarters of class reunions, and some time before dawn we did a little sleeping in Sage Hall, in spite of the fact it was inhabitated by those pesky '06 men.
"Saturday we called on Rip Heneage, but he had gone to Exeter for one of his boys, but his wife always was better to talk with. Then a little sight-seeing. You know when you have been away from a place nearly 30 years it takes a little time to get oriented again. I had some of the strangest ideas in my head that had lain there all these years as to where some buildings were, but they all got clear before I left. We found a willing underclassman to make us a couple of cards with 1907 on them and, rather foolishly I fear, marched in the parade,—for some reason marching behind 1906 so that when they formed ranks in front of the gym we marched between them. That is the only time I ever heard of 1906 doing homage to 1907. The luncheon, with Minsch speaking and Howard elected, kept us still in the limelight. The baseball game and the ball in the evening, after a delightful supper at Lyme with the Martins and their boys, finished off a fine day for me. You who go up there now and then will never know what a thrill it all was to me, who had last laid eyes on the place in April, 1907. I had to pinch myself many times to see if I was dreaming or not.
"Sunday was a treat also, for, although it rained most of the day, we drove out along the old Etna road to Moose Mountain, where E. B. Fowler and I used to hike, and found the old farmhouse where we spent many a restful week-end. I think that was the original Moose Mountain cabin. You will laugh when I tell you that when we had dinner that noon in Lebanon, it was the first time I had ever been to Lebanon. The rest of the day I inspected the Library, heard the new Hammond organ, and that night the Glee Club and movies in Dartmouth Hall.
"Monday morning early the Martins left. The drizzling rain rather put a damper on the final exercises, but I called on my relatives, the Perkins, and found both Ned and John Bartlett back for their reunions. Later I finally found Rip Heneage, had a good visit with him and lunch with most o'f his family. I cannot remember how many sons were not there—there were three there, I know. It's going to be quite a record next year for them to have three boys in Dartmouth at one time. I wonder if anyone has ever done that before.
"One of the boys drove me to the Junction, and in a pouring rain I came down to Boston. Except for the U. P. R. R„ and its streamliner, which I rode from Los Angeles to Chicago, I found Ned French's coaches as comfortable as any Eastern Pullmans. Bishop Niles tried to get a few 1907 men together, but no luck, so after lunch with him at Thompson's Spa, one of the most entertaining places I ate in on my whole trip, I phoned Woodworth and Kenyon, and had an hour's visit with Cushman, meeting both young Cushman and young Niles. Why is it sons are so much handsomer than their fathers! I am speaking from personal experience only.
"In New York I spent a characteristic evening with Tom Perry and a bottle of sherry. I can just hear Tom say in his sarcastic way, "Now, Bruno, what do you mean by that?' Jack Clark brought me as close as I will ever get to the 'money-changers' in their temples with a delicious lunch at his club in Wall Street. I also looked up his son in the editorial rooms of the Washington Post when there a few days later, and found him as pleasant and about as handsome as his father.
"I do not know why I go on this way, but you only have to read it once. You know after you have been tied down for twenty years trying to persuade the public to buy Ford cars it's good to get away for the change and vacation this trip has given me. I drove to San Francisco, spent two week-ends with my daughter at Stanford, then two days at Carmel and a week at Los Angeles. Then, leaving my Ford, I came to Chicago, .Hanover, Boston, New York, Atlantic City (Rotary Convention), Washington, and then spent a month with my sister in Chicago. I saw Fowler once or twice, but it was too hot to get in the city much, and I saw no one else from Hanover.
'And then home, getting here just twenty years to the day I started in business for Henry Ford in 1916. I love this canyon where we have our home and where just now two boys went by my window with rods and flies and a few speckled trout they had just pulled out of our cold stream. I love parts of California, but I had forgotten how beautiful Vermont and New Hampshire are, and, if I could have my way and live where I pleased, I know I would choose at least four months of the year there, where the beauty is a little different from any other place."
The college bulletin listing honor students for 1935-36 includes the names of three '07 sons—William J. Minsch Jr. '36, William A. Martin 3d '39, and Richard P. Storrs '39. The latter is a Rufus Choate scholar with the perfect mark of 4, all A's.
Secretary, 80 Federal St., Boston
