The weeks surrounding this writing are certainly Dartmouth weeks around New York. The strenuous activities surrounding the opening of a new and beautiful house on East 37th St., to be known as the Dartmouth Club, have made several of the boys feel like a bit of the Old Pine itself.
The membership drive that is in full swing at the moment brings back nostalgic memories of fraternity rushing in Hanover, and the one thing that is fortunately missing is the element of competition from the other houses. However, although the Yale Club at al. can do little to cramp our act, we do have that institution called marriage to buck up against, for we find the young benedicts weighing a membership in the Club against a trip in the country with Suzy come June.
But in general the drive has been very successful. Your columnist has been a patrol leader, blowing the whistle for such stalwart scouts as Jeff Jackson, A 1 Marks, Harry Gilmore, and Mac Collins. Billy Knibbs, besides leading a tentful of young membership salesmen including Lee Elgleston and Bob Ford, is one of the associate chairmen of the whole shooting match. Then there is Long Bob Smith, who somehow or other associated himself with a third patrol.
It looks very much as though 1934 is going to be in the vanguard of the Club in point of numerical superiority. I shall leave to another time the list of members old and new, so as not to exclude those who are in the hotbox this very moment and who we confidently expect will surrender to the Good Cause within a fortnight.
A recent event which called for a meeting of the clan was the arrival in New York of Indianapolis Bup Sweeney, who announced his advent with a small cocktail party in his Hotel Roosevelt room. Knibbs reports that several days later Sweeney was successfully bundled on the last possible Sunday train to Indianapolis. To avoid misinterpretation let me add that in the several days intervening he accomplished considerable work in and about the Me tropolis. But to return to the room in the Roosevelt—chief surprise was the presence of Carl Hess, also in New York on a selling trip for the Brasco Manufacturing Company. The attendance of Wallstreeters Knibbs, Callaway, and Hedges caused no great consternation for an event of that kind, but the arrival of Steve Meigher on the scene gave proof that even medicos sometimes weaken and find it possible to leave their tomes and scalpels behind them in favor of more playful implements.
The March class dinner was, in the lan. guage of the old Romans, a triumph. It was the largest we have ever held, and I think almost everyone agreed that the meal itself was good, despite one anony. mous scribbler, who remarked that "hamband green peas" had too close an assonant relationship to the "lamb and green peas" served with clocklike regularity at the old Club. Besides the old guard we were startled and not a little pleased with the appearance of such newcomers to the fold as Bill Wyne, Howard Rosenblum, Mike Menchel, Mel Gunst, Bob Gallagher, Jack Chollar, Ray Hulsart, Hank Rigby, and Carroll Jordan.
And now for a little look beyond the horizons formed by the Hudson River mists and the lights of Triborough Bridge.
News comes of the engagement of Miss Dorothy Virginia Dever to Mr. David Loring Murphy. Miss Dever was graduated from Notre Dame Academy and Emmanuel College.
Art Eriksen announces that he is now practicing law, and is associated with Arthur U. Talmage, 56 Broad St., Bloomfield, N. J.
Most of us have undoubtedly read many accounts of the DOC triumph over the Weather Man at Carnival. The financial success of the Carnival was so great that the snow insurance which the Outing Club carries could not be collected. If that gay event had been planned for one week later, the incoming hordes would have been met by a grand melt, best expressed by the old editorial squib as it was presented to us way back when "the icicles dripped forlornly from Eleazar's nose." That sort of condition is what greeted the Alumni Carnival, which as you will remember, is conducted one week after the big week-end. At the same time, in Boston, from which many of the visiting alumni came, there was a tremendous. snowstorm. A group at the Inn was organizing a ski train to Boston!
A recently transpired matter of importance is the retirement of Spud Bray, at least temporarily, from service on account of his health. Tributes in The Dartmouth attest the degree to which he has gained the respect and friendship of the undergraduates, a real achievement in view of his duties as trouble-shooter for erring students.
My attention was recently called to the December, 1937, issue of the Brooklyn LawReview, published by the students of Brooklyn Law School and containing two very erudite studies by Ben Rippe, who is on the editorial staff of the Review. One is on the subject of executors and administrators in connection with alimony awards. The other, "Impersonation in the Law of gills and Notes" was reprinted in CurrentLegal Thought for January, 1938.
Wendy Williams, NBC censor, has been transferred from New York to the Pacific Coast studios Dick Hayes is with the Dennison Mfg. Cos Babe Shea, with Hall Systems, Inc., maintains head quarters in this city, but has of late been spending a considerable proportion of his time in New Haven Vance Kirby is with Lumbermen's Mutual in Boston.
A comparative newcomer to New York is Philadelphia's Tom Cass, who is doing sales promotion work for the Robert Gair Cos., the world's largest designer, manufacturer and distributor of commercial packaging. Tom is living at the Phi Gam Club, contemplates taking up apartment life as soon as the job has completely stabilized itself. So far he has had considerable out of-town traveling to do in connection with the creation and establishment of new designs.
With spring i-cumen in, minds are turning to thoughts of June, with its Commencement and reunions. Again this year the College will present a week of "Hanover Holiday," which was described in the March issue of the MAGAZINE. The venture was very enthusiastically received last year, and the College plans to make it better and even less expensive this time.
I expect to be present to view the reunion of the class of 1933, may even apply for pseudo-membership in '33 for the weekend. It is possible, if the signs point in the right direction, that I will stay on in Hanover for the Holiday. Whether I do or not, I would be very glad to serve as a committee of one to help organize any group of '34 men who would like to attend. More of that later, as it approaches more closely.
ENGAGEMENT: Miss Susan Corbett Steele, of Fredonia, N. Y., to Robert Utting Brown. Miss Steele attended Dana Hall, and was graduated in 1936 from Mount St. Vincent School. She is now attending French Junior College, in New York, majoring in dramatic art. Last year she played the leading role in 'The Tempest,' presented by the Princeton University Players. She has been a member of the Fair Players' Club in Dunkirk .... In this news report, which appeared in the Herald-Tribune, Bob is briefly described as associated with his father's publication, 'Editor & Publisher.' The wedding is expected to take place in June.
Another news clipping helps bring us up to date on Bob Thompson. Bob was recently elected a director of the Burlington Rapid Transit Cos. He has been traffic manager for several years, not only of the B. R. T. but also of the Vermont Transit Cos. During his Dartmouth days Bob worked for the B. R. T. each summer, which marked the beginning of his interest in the problems of transportation.
The Pacific Coast Dartmouth group reports: "Right up at Donner Summit youwill find the one and only real snow-manof our outfit—Johnny Ellis '34. We havewatched Johnny closely for two years, fromvisitor to owner of 160 acres on the slopesof Donner Mountain, where he may lookeast to Donner Lake and west to the oncoming horde of ski enthusiasts. He is getting ready for them by installing a 1200 foot ski tow on his property. Johnnythought things a little slow last fall, soalong with getting ready for the ski seasonhe got married November 16. We saluteyou, John Ellis, first of that new generationof California Pioneers, and here's admiration for San Francisco's Evelyn McGeeEllis."
"Dartmouth-in-Dixie Doings" helps fill the bin with the contribution that "Florida sunshine is being allotted during January, February and March to William P. Stowe '34, since he took up, last September, the dual job of faculty officer and athletic coach at Kentucky Military Institute. The school winters at Venice, Florida, and for the rest of the year is at Lyndon, Kentucky. Bill spent two years at Stanford's graduate school and a year as a high school teacher in Bar Harbor, Maine, before joining K. M. I.
It hardly seems possible that a chronicle of Charles E. Rolfe Jr. has never appeared in these columns, but a backward look makes it evident that I have omitted it, probably because I knew it so well myself. Chuck is a member of the Lynn clothing concern of Besse-Rolfe. He was married in April 1935 to Julia Anne McVey. One off spring has so far blessed the union, and he, born in April of last year, bears the name of Charles E. the Third.
Ed Hilton, who is a law clerk in the firm of Henry G. Hulbert, has a year-and-a-half old son known as Howard Thorndyke Hilton, whose first name, if I surmise correctly, is that of his mother, the former Charme Lee Howard Steve Briggs, who is in the export department of Evinrude Motors, has been married since June 1935 to the former Joan Nichols Jack O'Brien says that James McCreery is working the pants off him and the hair off his pate Jeff Jackson briefly reports seeing Tim Inglis and Al Jacobson at Carnival.
Let this offering conclude with an outcry from out St. Louis way. Hugh Logan wants to know "how come this Lion of St.Louis stuff? Who snitched?" All of which he claims is gross overstatement. In other words, "It ain't so." Hugh reports that Bill Rench was duly married as prophesied, and now appears as a respectable citizen among the revelers. "Which reminds meof point No. 2 of this letter," says Logan. "Rench has no business making cracksabout the boys who still pay only their ownbills. I'm not sure we like the idea.
"Phil Glazer distinguished himself the other night by being unanimously elected vice-president of the St. Louis alumni association. They say his large margin was due to his platform which called for a literal translation of the vice part. Incidentally, Tiny still bears the brunt of trade at Famous Barr & Cos., and is really doing very well. It won't be long before he is in the lingerie department. Then we would have something.
"Bob Linstedt now spends most of his time out of town since he's connected with the Carbondale, Ill., office of the Retail Credit Cos. Unfortunately we don't see as much of him, although he still reports for the Saturday luncheon.
"I'd tell you something about Logan except that there isn't anything of interest now and might be later. In about a week (that was written as January ended—Ed.) I'm leaving for a little trip on the Caribbean, and perhaps will stumble over a thing or two besides a beer bottle while I'm gone.
"See you come spring of '39."
That's the sentiment we like to hear. A little more of that at this date, and come spring of '39 we'll go rolling into Hanover like a non-stop landslide.
THE MEMORIAL TO DR. WILLIAM MANN IRVINE AT MERCERSBURG ACADEMY Dr. Irvine was for years the great Mercersburg headmaster. The bronze statue of Bob Michelet(Mercersburg '3O, Dartmouth '34) is at the extreme right of the Memorial Seat. The bronze figure atthe left is a memorial to William A. Carr (Mercersb urg '29 and Penn.). Additional bronze tablets arebeing put in the wings of the Memorial showing the 21 Academy alumni who have been on Olympicteams a?id the seven alumni who have won Rhodes Scholarships.
Secretary, ] 36 Beaufort PL, New Rochelle, N. Y.