Class of 1902
Ground hog day again. What of it? Nothing at all, it's merely a phrase to catch your eye, and now I've caught it, I am just persistent enough to keep you here at this column until you've read it all. Of course you say that's out, because every 1902 man reads this column anyway, and no one else would even if I fastened a dollar bill on the ground hog. Wrong again, several fellows say I'd make a better secretary if I would only let 'every one know my address (it's at the head of this column and on every letter I write), and one man addressed me as "Dear Harold," so I conclude that not every one in the class does read. And again many of the returns to my fall query indicated that the average man reads the news not only of his own class, but as well the columns for about three classes each side of his. Ergo, there is something in this eye-catching business.
By the way, coming home on the ferry the other night, a man next to me stared at me and then said "Excuse me, but didyou ever attend Dartmouth College?" And behold there was Clary Howes '03, same old Clary, a little more of him to be sure, but using my ferryboat on his way home to Glen Rock, just as if it belonged to him. So I got home that night with my heart just a bit warmer than usual, and incidentally very proud of Clary's long memory.
General Stone's comments on business generally might not please the statisticians. He seems to believe that if it is picking up, it consists of picking up rather small bits. He includes in his multifarious duties those of running errands, operating the typewriter, and smoking the pipe. Well, General, as long as they don't cut down fatally on the tobacco crop, there's something to hope for. Here's luck, and I hope your dog came back.
Charlie Dudley's summer camp for girls had another good summer, and that large family of his seems to be all busy. Just think of it, four of them have graduated from college and there's one more getting ready for college. I don't know whether this is a record or not, and it doesn't make any difference. The Dudleys have good reason to be proud of that family.
Bob Clark, that is to say R. C., writes from Bellows Falls, Vt., where he is treasurer of the Bellows Falls Trust Co., that the Clarks are well and busy. Mrs. Clark's son, Douglas Watkins, is now in his senior year at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where the electrical engineering course keeps him well occupied.
I am sure that we all appreciate the sort of letter I got from Allie Adams, manager of the Minneapolis office of the American Surety Company of New York:
"I am remote from Dartmouth Collegefor many reasons, but in my heart I havethe old college in mind, and from time totime I have used my influence in sendingsome good boys back there. No man who isborn and brought up in the great state of'little' New Hampshire woidd ever turnaway from good old Dartmouth. It hasbeen a regret that I didn't get my degreethere, but I got my real college life thereand made some great friends there whohave continued with me as friends.
"My family consisted of four daughtersand a son. The boy went to Dartmouth,and then to the engineering school atMinnesota. As you know, he was killedthree years ago, leaving a widow and threesmall children. The two older girls havegraduated from the University of Minnesota, and one of them is now married andhas two children. The youngest girls areidentical twins, 27 years old, and are nowin the high school, I hope that I shall beable to give them a college education."
We hope that Allie can sometime get away to attend a class reunion. I think he would be surprised to find how few had forgotten him. And then we can't find many fellows nowadays who are five times a grandfather.
Bob Clark, yes, this is R. 8., sends his greetings from Pittsburgh. I had to laugh when he said in reply to my query as to just what he did: "Sometimes I wonder myself, but I am supposed to be a cost accountant." The reason for laughing is because I have discovered that there are many very useful people who may be "supposed to be" this or that, and actually they cover so much ground and serve in so many ways that no short phrase will express adequately the sum of their activities.
Baker Keniston finds some relief in being no longer a public functionary, so he can give all his time to his legal practice. His son entered Roxbury Latin School last fall.
Tom Hubbard seems to have a lot of family, because evidently he counts not only the wife and children, but also the cows, dogs, and cats. "The humans are allwell as usual, had a nice summer. Oldestboy is still in El Paso as expert meteorologist for Uncle Sam. Girl started collegethis September." Some time we must get Oklahoma on our itinerary. I am sure by the time I get there, Tom, you'll have a fatted calf.
Arthur Houghton sends his best wishes from Worcester. He has a nice letterhead which indicates among other things that A. S. Houghton is a member of the firm of Thayer, Smith & Gaskill, counselors at law. Sometime I must complete a collection of the class letterheads, a portion of it is certainly very interesting.
Just finished reading Nicolson's Dwight Morrow. Not hard reading, the general picture up to the time of graduation is one very familiar to all of us. The story is that of a college man who didn't lose his ideals or his capacity to grow. Perhaps what most caught my eye was the influence exerted on this man by the friends of his college days, and by the college which he loved and served. So to each of you, no matter how far you may have withdrawn from the others of your class, belongs a share in whatever of good the world may have from 1902. Little you may know of how you have helped in the molding of more than one whose fame may be far greater than your own. And here, too, as in many other ways, your own gain seems always to be in proportion to what you have given. And I am not forgetting that our giving and gaining is still going on. May it long continue.
Secretary, 130 Woodridge Place, Leonia, N. J.
