Prodigy

Belying the popular belief that child prodigies peter out on maturity, Charles Henry Felker '31, who seems to have spent most of his life getting the jump on his competitors, is still doing it. On New Year's Day, at the age of 28, he was inaugurated mayor of Rochester, N. H., the youngest city chief executive in the state. Valedictorian of his class at Rochester High School at 14 and a Dartmouth graduate at 18, in 1936 he was elected treasurer of Strafford County. Being only 24, he was the youngest man to hold that office.

Mayor Felker, a Democrat, is the nephew of the late Samuel D. Felker '82, one-time Democratic governor of New Hampshire.

Advocating a policy of cash and carry in municipal finance, the youthful mayor pleaded with the Rochester City Council in his inaugural address to "curb our human urge to build, buy, or perform something big on the time payment plan."