Class of 1917
At our Twentieth Reunion man after man gave clear expression to a desire for more contact with Seventeeners. Many kicked themselves for not attending previous reunions at any cost, for absenting themselves from class dinners, for not carrying the class address book and looking up old friends when visiting other cities. And we haven't forgotten the members who stepped up and offered to do their share to bring the class closer together in the future.
Last summer and during the football reunions there have been quantities of personal contacts and some exchange of views by letter. Your executive committee (the same nine old men) have asked a lot of you what kind of service you want from your officers, what kind and quantity of work is required, and what sort of organization should be built to distribute the heavy load which desires of classmates seemed to call for. During this period six members of the executive committee saw one or more of their own membership and discussed the class objective a number of times, namely Don Brooks, Curly Carr, Sumner Emerson, Spique Maclntyre, Gene Towler, and Charlie Wolff. Suggestions also came in letters from Jim Rubel and Mose Hutchins.
A number of specific ideas were reaped from all these contacts. But in general the gang want more local meetings and sociability, more personal news, and are anxious to see our performance on class dues and the Alumni Fund campaign go ahead of classes of our time. The conviction is widespread that men in various regions will have to show the interest of the class to many men of whom we have heard little. All this pointed definitely to the extension of the officers' functions through the organization of a national committee, similar to our successful Twentieth Reunion setup. Fifty men did the work on that job.
Accordingly a meeting of the executive committee was called at Cranford, N. J, Friday night, November 5. Acceptances were received from Don Brooks, Curly Carr, and Charlie Wolff. For wider representation a score of summonses were issued to the classmates at a distance, and Bob Scott, Ev Robie, and Roy Halloran, headed for the Princeton game, joined us, others being badly bent as a result of the Yale and Harvard peerades.
As the seven of us convened, a telegram of best wishes arrived from Sunny Sanborn. In the middle of the session Spique Maclntyre phoned from Boston to cheer progress. He and Ralph were together and talked to everyone in the room.
After getting Indio, Platsville, Lovington, Beverley, West Tisbury, Waseca, Keeseville, Sloatsburg, Emaus, Wilkinsburg, Spearfish, and Menomoine to lie down on the map and keep quiet in their proper states, so we could group you guys according to where you roost, the meeting discovered three or four top-notch Seventeeners in nearly every bailiwick, for every man needed. (So we gave up in dismay, wrote the names of the 178 men who had paid dues, helped the Alumni Fund, or attended reunion, on separate cards, shuffled said cards, and drew the first 49!) As a result the following were declared elected the National Committee: Hanover, N. H., Archie B. Gile; Nashua, N. H., Deering G. Smith; Brattleboro, Vt., Harold W. Mason and Laurence G. Sherman; Rutland, Vt., Robert C. Boynton; Boston, Mott D. Brown, Robert M. Chase, George C. Currier, Roy D. Halloran, Donald B. Litchard, Samuel R. MacKillop, Edwin W. McGowan, Ralph Sanborn, Howard A. Stockwell, Errol M. Thompson, and John F. Wheelock; Springfield, Mass., Warner B. Sturtevant; Providence, R. 1., Kenneth W. Holden; Hartford, Conn., John W. Saladine; New Haven, Robert D. Scott; Stamford, Everett E. Robie; New York City:— Donald B. Aldrich, Arthur O. Duhamel, Edgar C. Earle, Charles M. Gilmore, Wm. Trott King, Rudolph N. Miller, Elliot B. Mudgett, William Sewall, Leonard A. Shea, and Sylvester G. Whiton; Baffalo, N. Y., Karl L. Thielscher; Potsdam, N. Y., Walter C. Sisson; Jersey City, N. J., Leonard J. Reade; Newark, N. J., Karl Koeniger; Philadelphia, Bruce A. Lud:gate; Pittsburgh, William C. Eaton; Washington, D. C., Wayne F. Palmer; Atlanta, Ga., A. Henley Sturgess; Elizabethton, Tenn., Charles Wolff, 3d, of Executive Committee; Chicago, Harry T. Worthington; Cleveland, Daniel L. Harris, 2d; Detroit, Frederick R. Husk of Executive Committee; St. Louis, Russell L. Willis; Rochester, Minn., H. Waltman Walters; Spokane, Irving T. Atwater; San Francisco, Raymond B. Collerd; Los Angeles, James T. Durkee and Albert Shiels Jr. Territories have been assigned to each man.
All members of this National Committee objecting to their appointment are referred to Alfred M. Cheney, San Juan, Porto Rico, or John W. White, Fairbanks, Alaska. Objections not honored at those points unless made in person.
No doubt the ayes have it and all hands will look for the first opportunity to help these regional leaders support the operations of the treasurer, class agent, and secretary-chairman, in each neighborhood.
Gawge Currier has offered to set up the dinner programs and send out the notices for the Boston gang. Arch Earle is lining up the New York gatherings hereafter with the good old squeezebox as his "Charlie McCarthy." We hear Brace Ludgate is planning gatherings at Philadelphia, and hope we'll have similar news from Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
Bob Scott expects to have the Tremendous Twentieth Reunion 16 mm. movie film ready for banquets shortly, and Boston and New York have entered applications.
CLOSE-UPS
Last month's story of football reunion parties forced us to hold a couple of excellent communications on the peg until now and we hope many of you will emulate these excellent contributions. Here's Slatz Baxter, gone archaeologist, writing on October 12:
"Pop Ford and family called during the visit of the New York Yacht Club and I spent a little time with them on their wonderful ship. He is considering Tabor for his oldest boy and came over for a look at the school. I told him that you were a staunch rooter for the navigation program etc. The kids have been raised on this and are a hardy lot. Pop, as you probably know, is a real sailor and has been cruising commodore of the Club. His boat is really a marvel for seaworthiness and all the comforts. We reuned all over again and had a swell day. The Fords have the right idea about living, and I envy them.
"I had a letter from Doc Walters. He dropped in on Sam White while in Alaska and sent me some snaps which I forwarded to Bob Scott and which you might get for the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. Incidentally he gave Sam his physical examination for the Naval Reserve, which saved Sam a trip to Seattle. How these Seventeeners work together!
"I suggest that the Reunion Committee be sent to Washington. Don Brooks would balance that budget in a week. He could give those little Harvard hot dogs cards, and spades on the intricacies of finance. Maybe Basil O'Connor would let us have his office for a few days. Appoint Bunny Holden to take care of Franklin and teach him that dummy song of his. Come up and see me in Campus One!
"I wonder what became of Saladine?
"I wish I had a facile pen to write up Burglar Allison's life for the last ten years. From what I got intermittently at Reunion it would read like a story in Adventure. Prexy Hopkins hasn't gotten over his 'An- gle of Repose' story yet.
"Have just returned from Boothbay Harbor, Me., where I have a small place. I spend most of my time there looking over old Indian camp sites and digging for relics. Here in Marion there is plenty of material, and we have formed a society for the study of archaeology. We are all hams, but get a lot of fun and fresh air. It is an inexpensive hobby, and I recommend it for the t.b.m. Or maybe we country people
are just simple." Then good news came in Baxter's letter of November 19:
"Have one more item for the news. Julianna Baxter born November 15, 1937. She will never be a center, but as Fat Spears says, 'You have to be a little queer anyway to be a center.'
"Have only seen one game this year but will make up for it in 1938 I sit and suffer every Saturday on the radio. When Dartmouth fumbles I fumble for the sherry bottle and then go into a state of collapse when it is all over. It certainly is much harder to listen than to see it happen."
In reply to our letter announcing the Executive committee meeting in November, Jim Rubel gave us the following excellent picture of his work and surroundings:
"Your letter of the tenth to hand and contents noted. If it was humanly possible for me to be East on the fifth I'd be there, but after spending all my excess cash on the last trip in June, and from the way the market is going to hell in a big way, I feel poorer than some of George Allison's W P A workers, who use the angle of repose to get by. It looks like I was going to have to double my output of literary junk to even buy the kiddies shoes in 1938.
"The gents you mention in your letter have neither been seen nor heard of by me since Hector was a pup. You perhaps don't realize it, but Newport Beach is a little wayside stop on the route to San Diego, some fifty miles from civilization, which was why I picked it. Here no one drops in to disturb my efforts or to dislocate the vertebrae of the muse. (What I mean is, I can sweat and enjoy it.)
"When last seen, which was just prior to June, Jim Durkee was burning up the road hurrying to his big job with the General Petroleum. Although we aren't many miles apart, there is a short expanse of water which is deep. He sticks to his island and I stick to mine.
"At last reports, Chuck Wood was still in Indio, but what he does there I don't know. John Young is, I believe, still trying to make the market do an about face. The rest of the men you mentioned I haven't any dope on.
"As to the other information you want, I'll have to guess at it. I think my eighth book came out this spring and then there will be another this fall, all published by the Phoenix Press. If you look hard enough and know my style, you'll discover some more of my stuff appearing in most of the Western pulps under four different pseudonyms. At the present moment I am trying to whip out a scenario for that sterling adventure-loving actor, Jack Holt, and have two of my efforts in production, one atRKO and the other at Condor Pictures. Needless to say, it all takes time, and anyone who thinks a writer's life is all soup and gravy ought to try it sometime. When some of these hard-boiled editors get on your trail, they are worse than Simon Legree. And furthermore I wouldn't advise anyone to write for the movies. I thought I was crazy till I sold them a story. Now I know, I'm just a little bit on the praecox side. It's the movie producers that ought to be cluttering the insane asylums.
"Now as to the work you want done, I'll do the best I can, but won't guarantee results. I have a secretary, (at least that's what he calls himself) actually he is a sailor, and when he isn't boiled or racing around in a California gg, he does manage to get out some work for me. By way of explanation, I gave him seven shorts to copy for me along about the first of August, and he heaved anchor and went south to Mexican waters. I just got the things back last week. Just try and get somebody to work for you in this cock-eyed country."
Your scribe has asked a half dozen men for Allison's "Angle of Repose" story. They, likewise, had split their sides over it in June but could not recall it to memory. A letter to Burglar at Winnetka has brought no reply, so can someone forward the story?
Bob Scott wrote that he sees Gordon Tracy and Mel Palin occasionally around New Haven. Bob Junior was at Ev Robie's camp, Samoset, and had a fine summer (adv't).
A few weeks ago Dick Morenus dropped in to the office for a visit. He is now writing radio scripts. We joined Mrs. Morenus for luncheon; she is Nan Dorland on the radio, and broadcasts regularly in various roles on N.B.C. programs, as you know. Between programs she says she listened to the Yale and Prfhceton games, got into every play, and when we parted Dick was following a commission to find the largest Dartmouth banner in New York. He says the trouble all started when he took her to Hanover for a couple of days last summer, after broadcasting prevented reunion attendance.
At the time of the Princeton game Chuck and Mrs. Gilmore were on a fiveday trip in ten southern states, attending professional meetings, visiting Jane, who is in school in Virginia, and Marc, who attends military school in Georgia, building baseball, swimming, track, and tennis talent for Dartmouth a couple of years hence.
Hearty congratulations to Hap Mason, appointed secretary of the Republican National Committee, by Chairman John D. M. Hamilton on November so. No, Hap doesn't hail from Maine, he comes from Vermont, has been a national committeeman and a leader in his party for many years. The Boston Herald carried an excellent picture of Hap.
Harry Hawkes is now located at 35 Arnold Place, Norwich, Conn., and is with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Cos.
Nick Carter showed up at the dinner before the Harvard game, and is still representing Paine, Webber and Cos., at Springfield, Mass.
Your scribe received Volume 1, number 1, of a very good news sheet headed D D D —Dartmouth-in-Dixie Doings, published for the wide spread alumni in the sparse Southern District. The editor reports that Henley Sturgess of Atlanta has recently been elected president of the Georgia Dartmouth Club. Speaking of Charlie Wolff, the DDD says he "has been with theAmerican Bemberg Corporation at Elizabethton, Tenn., for a number of years.When we last heard of him, he was generalsuperintendent—which ought to make himjust about the Number One man of thetown." We'll remove any possible doubt about that remark. Charlie has managed the plants of American Bemberg Corporation and North American Rayon Corporation in Carter County, Tenn., near his home for eight years. He is past president, Fourth Corps Area Council, Reserve Officers' Association; past president and present member executive committee, Sequoyah Council, Boy Scouts of America; vice president of the board and chairman of the finance and executive committees of Milligan College.
Mrs. Wolff, who attended reunion with Charlie, is county chairman of Red Cross and in charge of the Women's Auxiliary of the American Legion. His daughter Ida Louise, who also reuned, is a sophomore at Vassar; Isabel Zane is at St. Anne's School, Charlottesville, Va.; Charles Wolff 4th is at home. Charlie spends about a week a month in New York at the Vanderbilt Hotel, near his office at 261 Fifth Ave. Yes, suh, you southern alumni editors! But the real low-down is that none of this hood or mantle was in evidence when our southern representative attended his first meeting with the nine old men of 1917, with Mrs. Wolff, before and after the Princeton game, and we're counting on Tennessee's first citizen to attend New York class gatherings occasionally.
The Sanborn Agency of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. has announced the appointment of Ralph Sanborn as associate general agent on November fifteenth. Congratulations! Sunny's office is 49 Federal St., Boston.
Again this fall three 1917 men have sons in the freshman class, Robert M. Chase Jr., Leon J. Cone Jr., and Linwood K. Thompson, son of Errol M. T.
Mott Brown completes the partial information on Jack Crenner in our November notes. Jack is one of the organizers and business manager of the new Kenmore Memorial Hospital, 619 Commonwealth Ave., Boston.
With sorrow we announce the passing of Dick Murphy, at his home 75 Southborne Road, Jamaica Plain, Mass., Thursday, December 2, 1937, and we'll have the details for his many old friends in time for the February issue.
CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS BOOKS
The above notes and recent issues give several changes of address. Do you keep your little green 1917 address book up to date? This is especially important for members of the National Committee. Here are some additional changes to be made, either in the alphabetical or geographical section, or both: Birtwell, business at 269 A Prospect Ave., Bayonne, N. J., and residence at 302 Belmont Ave., Colonial Terrace, Asbury Park, N. J.; Brennan, 234 Court St., Keene, N. H.; Cone, 2531 East Ist St., Duluth, Minn.; Colby, 661/2 East State St., Concord, N. H.; E. R. Dewey, business, 370 Lexington Ave.,. New York City, residence, Oval Ave., Riverside, Conn.; Doty, residence, Little's Point, Swampscott, Mass.; Eaton, residence, 451 Maple Ave., Edgewood, Pa.: Gregory, business, Graybar Electric C 0.,. 327 N. West St., Syracuse, N. Y., residence, 377 W. Onondaga St., Syracuse, N. Y.; Hawley, 156 Lovely St., Unionville, Conn.; Houghton, 1234 Madison Park, Chicago, 111.; Meredith C. Jones, 26 Clermont Ave., St. Louis, Mo.; Jopson, residence, 503 Woodbrook Road, Philadelphia, Pa.; MacIntyre, 243 Marsh St., Belmont, Mass.; Morenus, 33 West 51st St., New York City; Olds, residence, 19 Sargent Park, Newton, Mass.; Rariden, business, American Sugar & Refining Cos., 120 Wall St., New York City; residence 40-15 81st St., Jackson Heights, N. Y.; Rhoades, 718 Insurance Building, Omaha, Neb.; Richmond, 61 Main St., Brockton, Mass.; Sprague, business, 588 Worcester St., Wellesley Hills, Mass.; Charles H. Wood, 6529 Orange St., Hollywood, Calif.; Wheelock, business,. Air Express Division, Railway Express Agency, Inc., 230 Congress St., Boston, Mass.
Secretary-Chairman, 18 Madison Ave., Cranford, N. J.
