50-Year Reunion of Class of 1890

WITH SOME MISGIVINGS we approached this half-century reunion. How could we gladly celebrate? The voices and personalities of more than half of our class, including some of our most intimate friends, are now only cherished memories, though vividly in our minds whenever '90 is mentioned.

These losses, however, actually drew the survivors more closely together; it was a happy clan of fifty-two intensely alive souls who came together in 1940, revived old friendships, or, in the case of the three grandchildren, Julia and Peter Robinson and John Canty Weston, peered a little way into the future.

We gloried in the fact that 60% of the actual classmates were back again and tried to forget that this high-sounding figure meant only 18 men out of a total of 30.

To assemble the eighteen required great zeal on the part of the Boston nucleus and a really severe effort by Dan Ruggles, who beat off his infirmities and, with the cooperation of his good wife and son, Daniel Jr., '21, sat with us at the banquet and won for us the cup, at least, we are to share it in friendly fashion with '85.

Especially honored by President and Mrs. Hopkins as the first guests at their much enjoyed garden party on Friday evening, for which lovely weather had been chosen for the occasion, we awoke on Saturday on a decidedly drizzly morning; but at Baker Library the efficient, cooperative archivist, Miss Mildred Saunders, had assembled an array of our photographs representing various eras from the high-bicycle, horse-and-buggy days onward, not neglecting the faculty. Prexie Bartlett, Johnny Lord, Dude Colby, Roots (of Greek) and Clothespins (English, the second Richardson), Bobby Bartlett, Type Hitchcock, Aunty Jesup, Chuck Emerson, Tute Worthen and so on down the line to the really youthful tutors, Georgie Lord and the two Frosts, Ed and Gil, instructors in astronomy and German.

At the alumni meeting, our own Class President, O. D. Mathewson, represented us by the witty speech, elsewhere printed in this number, which radiates the spirit of that primitive era. The class banquet that evening was preceded by a business meeting, opened by our able secretary-treasurer, Charles A. Hardy, who announced his resignation as class agent for the Alumni Fund and nominated James Burton Reynolds to be his successor. The class voted to accept his resignation and to recommend this nominee to the board of class agents for election.

Then came the dinner, served in the Hitchcock Dining Room (Thayer Hall). To Mrs. Elizabeth Woodward Hayward, Manager of the Dartmouth Dining Association, the class of '90 wishes to express its hearty appreciation of all that she did to make this a thoroughly enjoyable occasion.

As a guest of honor, we had the charming daughter of our classmate Willis McDuffee and Mrs. McDuffee, Maude Chase Wheelwright (Mrs. Philip Ellis Wheelwright), a bride who has recently joined the Dartmouth faculty circle. Dr. Wheelwright is Professor of Philosophy.

The genial toastmaster James Burton Reynolds, whose specialty (aside from national committees, tariff regulations, banking, globe-trotting, etc.) is jovial fun, did his part to keep everyone awake and smiling. President Hopkins, by request of the Secretary, did us the honor to come in during the dinner and speak briefly to the assembled guests, a memorable and inspiring talk.

Interspersed also with the courses were movies of our reunion in 1930 taken by our classmate, Fred Dutton Woods and exhibited by Peter H. Koelsch '42.

With admirable precision, eleven 5-minute speeches were sliced off one by one by the toastmaster. A twelfth, by Henry Hilton, was granted and deserved to have a more liberal allotment of time. It was an unwritten history of college presidents and their administrations which somewhere, sometime, should be recorded in detail.

Beginning with our own militant Dr. Bartlett, and his era, it paid a well-deserved tribute to Dr. Tucker, who thrice refused, but, fortunately, finally accepted the presidency. The good fortune of Dartmouth wrapped up in Dr. Tucker's personal friendship with his classmate Edwin Tuck was vividly brought out by Hilton. It meant the establishment of the first graduate school of business administration in the country.

The visit of the Earl of Dartmouth at the laying of the corner stone of the new Dartmouth Hall was dramatically and unforgetably presented. Finally Hilton dwelt upon the invaluable apprenticeship under Dr. Tucker enjoyed by Dr. Hopkins who at that time not only was trained in college administration but inspired with Dr. Tucker's high ideals of what a liberal college should accomplish and has since achieved.

One of the brief speeches was by A. H. Bacon of Columbia, So. America, who spoke particularly of Bolivar, the great liberator, whose ultimate aim was not a brace of 5 or more independent states but a democratic union of South American republics.

Inspired by various digs and puffs, each of the others began eloquent disquisitions on his own lifework and candid opinion of the universe until ruthlessly cut short by the watchful toastmaster. Moses' handling of the United States Senate, Woods' of the Wellesley College layout, Maurice Robinson's introduction of political science and the lore of corporations into Illinois. Pringle's law enforcement and international reform, Saiford's linguistic approach to problems of immigration, J. F. McDonald's bipartisan handling of Massachusetts politics. These and other topics received headline treatment quite in keeping with these busy times.

Nor was poetry neglected. In cooperation with the late William Shakespeare, the toastmaster had indited an ode suitable for the festivities, and, in view of the uncertainty of getting into touch with the lamented William, our Secretary had asked Mrs. Hardy to present in verse the Thoughts of a '90 Man, of which, by our request, two stanzas are here presented. Quote: "I've cut out cigars for many days And saved my pennies in many ways; Because at Dartmouth—the time's soon here, Famed '90 will meet for its fiftieth year.

"I'll tread the campus once I ranged And tell all comers, 'You've not changed.' No doubt they'll say the same to me, 'You're just the same's you used to be.' "

(End quote, as they say nowadays.) How full of meaning is that latter stanza! These doddering gray-haired sires, if that is the way they look to you, are really just the same in spirit, though, let us say, a bit riper than of yore.

Those present at the 50th anniversary reunion of '90 were: A. H. Bacon, P. S. Boynton, Mrs. Boynton, Carroll A. Boynton '33 and Mrs. Boynton, Jr., John P. Canty, Eleanor Canty, Ruther Canty, Catherine Canty Weston, John Canty Weston (son of Catherine), Will H. Charles and his son R. F. Charles '23, John H. Gerould, Mrs. Gerould, Elisabeth Gerould Chadwick (Mrs. T. Avery Chadwick), Charles A. Hardy, Mrs. Hardy, Charles L. Hardy '27, and Mrs. Charles L., Henry H. Hilton, Mrs. Hilton, Clifton S. Humphreys, Mrs. Humphreys, Mrs. Mabel Symonds Locke, wife of the late Arthur H. Locke '9O, O. D. Mathewson, Mrs. Mathewson, Miss Marion Mathewson, Maude McDuffee (Mrs. Philip Ellis Wheelright) daughter of Willis McDuffee '90, George H. Moses, Mrs. Moses, Henry N. Pringle, James B. Reynolds, Maurice Robinson, Mrs. Robinson, Robin Robinson '24 (son of Charles F. Robinson '90), Mrs. Robinson, Julia and Peter Robinson, Walter W. Rowe, Daniel B. Ruggles, Mrs. Ruggles, Daniel B. Ruggles '21, Victor Safford, Mrs. Safford, Fred D. Woods, Mrs. Woods.

1890, JOINT WINNER OF ATTENDANCE CUP, AFTER FIFTY YEARSBack row; Robin Robinson '24, Carroll Boynton Charles L. Hardy '27, Betty McDonald. Middle row: Mrs. Mathewson, Mrs Robin Robinson Mrs. Woods, Mrs. Locke, Mrs. H. Robinson, Mrs. C. A. Hardy, Mrs. C. L. Hardy, Mrs. Safford, Mrs. McDonald, Mrs. Humphreys, MarionMathewson, Mrs. Perry Boynton, Mrs. Carroll Boynton, Mrs. Hilton, Mrs. Moses, Mrs. Canty, Eleanor Canty, Catherine Canty Weston, RuthCanty. Front row: Hardy, Charles, H. Robinson, Moses, Woods, Reynolds, Safford, Rowe, Gerould, Humphreys, McDonald, Canty, Boynton,Hilton, Mathewson, Pringle, Bacon. Children: Peter Robinson, Julia Robinson, John Canty Weston.