1937*
All summer long your letters have been coming in along with wedding announcements, news of new arrivals, and so forth. Now it is autumn. Here is the harvest.
Once again the scythe of matrimony has swept through our bachelor ranks. On SepL tember 6th your good friend and mine, Don McKinlay, married Barbara Blend in Chicago. Latta McCray, beating Don by a week, was married on August goth at Mullet Lake, Michigan, to Sue Sibley. Out in Honolulu in the early spring Ensign Henry Lenning took thirteen days' leave from U. S. S. Portland and married Alice Campbell. Listen to what he says: "We had a lush and lovely Hawaiian wedding, all out-of-doorsy and to the music of an Hawaiian quartette that embarrassed me by singing serenades to us in front of the entire assembly. We spent our honeymoon on the island of Hawaii, touring the coast and stopping at the Kona Inn—one of the love- liest spots I have seen. This includes the local version of hunting, pig-sticking through the flowery but prickly underbrush." Bob Ewing of United Air Lines joined hands with Jerry O'Brien back in April at Virginia City, Nevada. Tom McIntyre and Myrtle Clement were married on May 3d at Laconia, N, H. Bob Knapp and Betty Brown took the big step May 10th at Dedham, Mass. Bud Reed had to change his wedding plans at the last minute because his furlough was shortened. He and Anne Luippold were married in Stafford, Va„ May 29th. After a three-day leave Bud had to depart with his fellow marines for Parris Island, S. C. Ah, the exactions of national defense! On the 30th of May Bill Falion and Mary Nailor were married in the Church of the Transfiguration in N. Y. C.
June, the traditional month of weddings, seems to have found only three of our classmen altar-bound. Jack Van Nostrand and Doris Seiber were married on the 21st, Rog Barney (The Reverend R. W. Barney) and Violet Lockwood on the 26th (you will find them at home at The Rectory, North Conway, N. H.), and finally out in Los Angeles on the 29th Bill Miller and Betty Lou Lacy, "a lovely girl from Oregon," each said "I do" while Bill Tongue stood by as best man.
The summer, though out-done by spring, accounted for three more marriages. Chellis French and Marion Stenholm were married in Rockford, Ill., on the sth of July. On the 25th in the Congregational Church in Colombia, Conn., Will Brown and Natale Linton became man and wife. Marsh Roper married Nancy Lapham on August gth in Worthington, Mass., which, according to my information, is in the Berkshires.
A card received in June from Bill and Patty Rotch says: "It's a BOY! Name Peter Boylston Rotch; Weight seven pounds, nine ounces; Born June 6, 1941 at 1:14 A.M. We thought you would like to know." You bet we do. Bill and Patty. In May Bob Bosworth and wife of Skaneateles, N. Y., added a second child, a boy, to their family. More recently we had a card from Johnny and Maxine Merrill announcing the arrival of Richard John on August gd. The little fellow was crowding eight pounds, the exact figure being seven pounds thirteen ounces. Are you going to give him a football instead of a rattle, Johnny?
Here's some news from the armed forces: Roily Bialla, who was previously reported to have been sent to Hawaii, is still at Fort Eustis, Va., where he writes, ".. . . some ten of us were asked to stay behind and help train the next bunch of jeeps. At first I was slated to be a 'drill Corporal'—shouting myself hoarse marching the men back and forth and teaching them to manipulate a gun without smacking their neighbor on the head at every 'right face.' But an opening was discovered in the supply room and here I am." Dana Prescott of the 101st Cavalry:_ "Spending most of my time now on the firing range firing the .30 and .50 cal., machine guns and the Tommy gun," but,"I think they're going to send me out to Cavalry officer's training school at Fort Riley, Kansas." New England Tel. & Tel., gave George Skinner quite a send-off as he was about to leave for the army; had a farewell dinner for him at which Geo. rec eived a soldier's kit and a pipe along with other felicitations. Follow-up on Bill Geraghty who was last heard of in the hospital at Fort Jackson, S. C.: Mort Berkowitz reports that Bill passed through N. Y. C., on his way home to Ticonderoga on furlough so Bill must have survived. Don Frank, having been recently drafted, is another of the '37ers now in uniform. Don Chisolm: "As the postmark on the envelope will tell you, I'm in the U. S. S. Penscicola these days out here in Hawaiian waters, and, having been out here now for over a year and a half, am about to acquire the title of kamaiiana (old timer in the islands) A number one .... let any of the '37ers who want to let me know, and I'll give them any information four years at the Academy and two years at sea has held for me."
Bill Storck of the Navy Supply Corps has some pretty sound ideas on the current national situation. Speaking of his signing up with the Navy, he says, "Now how do I feel about it all? I was discussing this subject with a brother Ensign one night after a meeting, and he confessed that his sole reason for volunteering as an Ensign was to get himself the best possible job, seeing that he would be drafted into the Army anyway. As I look back, I realize that I thought much the same way at that time, but that there was a glimmer of another thought in my mind that I just hadn't bothered to crystallize.
"It's all straightened out now. I think that our country and our way of living are in danger. The threat from the outside is made all the more dangerous by our inner dissention and indecision, the basis of which is the unwillingness on the part of certain labor groups, certain capitalists, and certain citizens to make some sacrifice be it large or small. Until the majority of us make such a contribution, and until we gently but firmly lead the rest in the right direction, we will get nowhere."
Well that's Bill's point of view. Some of us will agree with him while others will have quite different ideas. The important thing, as I see it, is to have some good solid ideas based on the facts that are by this time pretty clear and in front of us all. Whatever conclusions we may reach, it is certain that there is no time left for quibbling and floundering around.
And now down the home stretch with bits of news from scattered points. Elsom Eldridge was ordained to priesthood (Episcopal Church) in Fairbanks, Alaska, last spring. Bob Greene is now on the west coast. Dick Sawyer, after having spent another year at Harvard, now has a new teaching job in Pelham, N. Y. Jack Devlin sent the following notes on the fellows who attended the Boston '37 night meeting: Dana Johnson, teaching at Lawrence Academy, Groton, Mass.; Pat Patterson, with American Airlines, Boston; Larry Brooks, with LePage's, Inc., has one son; J. B. Leslie, you'll find him in the neighborhood of Moose Mt.; Geo. Rower, with General Motors out of Boston, has one son; Bob Sullivan, with American Oil Co., has a daughter; and Lenny Harris, dental interne, Bellevue Hospital, N. Y. C. Bob Areson and Gordon Bennett took their M.D. degrees in June so from now on it's Dr. Bennett and Dr. Areson. There are probably others of our class who took M.D. degrees in June, but I don't have word of them at the moment.
That's all for now. See you in June '42!!
1937's FOURTH REUNION Key: Bach-Nast, Fenn, Beardsley. Middle: Greniawich, his girl, Barbara Blend, (nowMrs. McKinlay, Don. Front: Ruggles, Prescott, Berkowitz. Horizontal: Devlin.
Secretary, 10314 S. Hoyne Ave., Chicago, Illinois Treasurer, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Mass. Guest Editor, GARRISON LOWE JR.
5th Reunion June 19, 20 and 21, 1942 War or No War; Draft or No Draft Wives and fiances invited Chairman Carl Ray of the ReunionCommittee is making plans now for aRecord Reunion.
