1931*

This will be the last of the Class Notes now until we pick up the ball again in the fall, and the column is going to press after the Secretary has spent two days in Hanover for the Class Secretaries' Meeting. Our position was considerably changed over that of last year where, as you may or may not recall, we were put on the spot for having the lowest percentage of subscribers to the ALUMNI MAGAZINE of any of the graduated classes. This time the Class of '31 came in for more than its share of praise because of the fact that we have done an outstanding job in rounding out the 100% Class Subscription Plan, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the cooperation that all of you men showed in supporting the program which we set up last fall.

One of the most stimulating talks to which we listened was delivered by President Hopkins and because I believe a summary of his talk will appear somewhere else in the MAGAZINE, I shall not take the space to outline it to you. However, in this day of swift and upsetting action on the part of our neighbors in Europe, some of the thoughts which President Hopkins expressed will, I know, strike home in the minds of all of you, and again I suggest if it does appear in this issue or some other form of print, that all of you take the time to read it over. It is well worth your while.

We have been favored with a wealth of material for the last issue. So here we go. "Squeaks from the Golden Gate," the monthly periodical of the Dartmouth Association of Northern California, lists Brant McCullough with the Pacific Coast Aggregates, 85 Second Street, San Francisco. A memorandum from the Alumni Office tells us that Chuck Briggs has just been made Vice President of the Fiduciary Counsel, Inc., 40 Wall Street, New York City. Hart Gilchrest, who recently completed his bar examinations, has changed his address from Cleveland, Ohio, to 1021 Dempster Street, Evanston, Illinois. Bill Hayden's friends in New York will be glad to see him again now that he has returned as the Manager of Macy's Affiliated Stores. Bill has been with Macy's ever since he got out of school in one capacity or another and this is in the nature of a splendid promotion for him. We are glad to see . that Charlie Parmalee has become associated with the Pratt-Whitney Aircraft Company in Hartford. This is something that I know Charlie has been angling for for some time and we are glad to see him get it. We have a new change for Ed Morris who is now with the Engineering Projects, Inc., 228 E. First Street, Dayton, Ohio; and one for Parker Pierce who is the Inspector for the Food and Drug Administration at 408 Atlantic Avenue in Boston. Al Torras, who up until now has always been associated with the Dannemiller Coffee people, reports a change and he is now with the Consolidated Cork Corp., at 4012 Second Avenue in Brooklyn. And the final change shows Bill Marsh, now as the Assistant Sales Manager for General Mills, Inc., at Atlanta, Georgia.

Our marriages and births column seems to have fallen off this month despite the spring season and we have only two items to report. One is of Charlie Sullivan—Dr. Sullivan to the good folk of Boston—who is to be married in the fall. The BostonHerald reports the engagement of Miss Catherine ("Cappy") Ryan, daughter of Mrs. Mary O'Connell Ryan of Chestnut Hill, to Dr. Charles L. Sullivan Jr. "Cappy" is a grandniece of William Cardinal O'Connell. Congratulations, Charlie, and we will all be waiting for the wedding.

The birth of Peter Greene Holbrook on April 13 to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Greene Holbrook has already been announced in Beany's column, and brings to mind the fact that while the writer Was recently doing some college recruiting work at Columbia, he came across a folder outlining some advisory conferences for the Columbia seniors in which Dick was listed on the committee of advertising men for this conference. Dick is with Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, and the report from Bob Moore, the Columbia placement man, was that Dick did a perfectly splendid job in that particular conference.

Here's an item from the Cincinnati TIMES-STAR of some months ago and yet it brings us word of Irv Bettman about whom we have heard nothing for some time. The item reads, "An advanced course in banking devoted to the interpretation of current developments in banking and business, will be inaugurated by the Cincinnati Chapter, American Institute of Banking. Irvin M. Bettman Jr., statistician of the First National Bank of Cincinnati, will instruct the group."

Another item from the Bristol (N. H.) ENTERPRISE says that Art O'Brien, vice-principal of the Lincoln Junior High School of Bristol, has received his degree of Master of Education from Harvard University. Art is an active member of the Civic League Players, treasurer and one of the organizers of the Village Hall Players, past president of the Community Chorus, a member of the Massachusetts School-master's Club and the Harvard Teachers Association. By the way, Art, when do you have time to be principal? That looks like a pretty full schedule you keep for yourself.

We received a grand letter from Cliff Power of Indianapolis about whom we have reported but from whom we have not heard in many a moon. Cliff says that he hasn't seen many of the boys lately although he did see Joe Gathright and his lovely wife, Jane, two or three times last summer in Louisville. Joe is well situated there in the legal department of the bank. Last fall Cliff visited Bill Minehan in Milwaukee, and while he was there went out with Ernie Moore whom he has since seen two or three times in Indianapolis. On New Year's he spent the day with Ned and Alice Campbell. Only recently the Campbells had a second youngster and if, as Cliff says, "he turns out to be as much of a buster as Carey, the first, the Campbells are going to have their hands full." Ned is rejuvenating his father's cement block company from a sales standpoint and is going great guns. Cliff, himself, is doing sales supervision and correspondence for Kingan & Company where he has been located since leaving Eastern Air Lines 21/2 years ago. He still has not been able to "trick any-sweet young thing into middleaisling it with me....damn it, they get smarter every year!" Thanks, Cliff, for your letter and I think if the boys knew you were having that much trouble and were really serious about it, we could start a campaign for you. Just give us the word.

And finally we have two more stories for you about fellows in the Class who have done unusual and interesting things. One is Bill Hayes about whom none of us has heard since he left his Dad's elevator repair business in New York some three years ago. We had heard vague rumors about hie having bought a trailer and embarking on a free-lance photography career but we couldn't seem to pin it down. Finally after a letter to Bill we received an account of his doings from 297 South James Road, Columbus, Ohio, and here it is: "Gloria, Peggy and I left New York in the Fall of '37 with a car, a house-trailer, a camera and little else but a desire to see the world and make a living doing free-lance photography. This first desire was admirably fulfilled; the second only to the extent that we managed to continue the gypsy life for over two years.

"This phase was brought to a conclusion last Fall when Peggy arrived at the age when she had to begin school and when I arrived at the age when I figured I had better start amounting to something. Ah, the curse of a conscience! Charlie, most of us crucify ourselves on the cross of responsibility. But we can't avoid it—take it from a guy who's tried.

"Since settling down I have been engaged in building up a microfilming service for government agencies, business houses, industrial plants and institutions. Microfilming is the copying of important documents and records on the equivalent of movie film thus offering the advantages of permanence and space-saving.

"There will come a day when I will either wish that I had never seen a camera or will find that photography has been an interesting and remunerative vocation. Your guess is as good as mine right now.

"But, Charlie, let me tell you that when you retire at the early age of fifty on one of those wonderful Phoenix Mutual Retirement Income plans (this is not a paid advertisement—ed. note) which you have always tried to sell me—but the premiums of which I could only have handled by going on WPA—let me advise that you should get a trailer and have a time for yourself. The most interesting aspect of this life is the people you meet. In entertaining in our trailer we have run the gamut from Lord and Lady Astor (no kidding) to John Steinbeck's Joad family—but not at the same time and place.

"Mr. Neef's Placement Bureau might be interested in the fact that I didn't come across a single migrant on the roads (myself excluded) who would admit to a Dartmouth education. In contrast, the country-side was lousy with Harvard men—and it wouldn't have been at all lousy without them."

Thanks, Bill, for your letter and we are looking forward to another one from you some day telling us a little more about some of those people whom you entertained in your trailer.

The other story is about Blondie Carlson. At our last New York Dinner we had a chance to talk to Blondie about his work and we think you will probably find his story as interesting as we did. Since that discussion with him I have had a chance to look over newspaper articles written about him in the Long Island DAILY PRESS in which he was the subject of a feature series for six days. The following is from the first of the special articles: "He matriculated at Dartmouth and it was on the campus that he first heard of the New York Telephone Company. He was a scholar and the company wanted scholars.... so he quit his studies and went to work in the company's traffic division. He was promptly inoculated with the company's principles and philosophies, but the inoc- ulation didn't take. He was allergic to the company's doctrines and was laid off. He came away from the phone company, how- ever, with some definite ideas about the business and he was quite surprised at the frequency of the company's mistakes. He was equally struck by the subscriber's ignorance of or indifference to these mistakes.... so he decided to become a trouble-shooter for phone company's customers and sold his idea to Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., where he reshaped the picture company's whole system. Doing this he saved them approximately twenty times his salary and finally decided to leave Warner Brothers and strike out for himself by setting himself up in his present business of the Telephone Advisory Service, R. D. Carlson, originator and owner." Blondie operates his business from his home at Hollis, Long Island, New York. His job is that of checking people's telephone bills with the idea of advising them in such a way that he may save money for his clients and from this savings he in turn collects his fee. He has discovered errors that have saved people from a few dollars up to $6,000. One of the most interesting cases was when he walked into a broker's office to sell his service. He was greeted with the reply that the phone company had just completed the service for him and had returned a rebate of $1.37 to the broker. After reams of conversation, Blondie finally asked the man for permission to check back over the Telephone company's offer of a rebate. In doing so, he traced the error back eight years and found that the overcharge exceeded $175.00. Upon Blondie's suggestion the broker asked for a new settlement and ultimately ended up by collecting $185.00 which was the overcharge plus interest for the eight-year period. As a sequence to this story, the broker paid Blondie his fee and then hired him to set up a new telephone system for his entire office. This is typical of the cases he is working on and they provide him with plenty of work and an interesting livelihood through his slogan of "Thar's Gold in them thar Bills."

As I said before, this is the final column until fall and I would like to express my thanks to all of you who from time to time have taken the trouble to sit down and write me about yourself and any suggestions that you have. Have a good summer, everybody, and we will see you in the fall when we will start making our plans for the Tenth.

Secretary-Chairman, Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, N. Y.

Class Agent, 443 Warren St., Hudson, N. Y.