1925*
You will read of Frank Hershey's passing in the Necrology Section. My first memory of Frank was on the morning we formally entered Dartmouth and were making out a series of forms in the Administration Building. I can still see him in my mind's eye, a slim chap with precision- combed hair, immaculate linen, a fine-fit- ting tweed suit and a heavy gold bracelet carrying his wrist watch. His splendid ap- pearance was matched by his very real abil- ity and fine personality. There isn't much you can say when a man like that dies long before his time. As we grow older we learn that it is not for us to understand many things that happen in this life.
Lt. Dick Holden has got himself engaged to an attractive Greater Boston female, one Margaret Cronin, according to Joe Leavitt, who is running quite a few departments at R. H. Stearns. Right now, romance is by remote control, for Dick is in Caracas, Venezuela, where he is a Naval Attache in Consular Service. It is rumored that he has to turn out with a plumed hat for dress wear with all the fixings.
Ken Hill heads the Finance Committee of the Republicans in Hingham. When votes are bought better and neater, Hill will buy them.
The ever faithful answerer of letters, Rog Wy- coff, reports no news from Louisville.
Bennie Werntz of Cleveland, the Executive Sec- retary of the National Screw Products Association, is spending most of his time riding the B & O be- tween Cleveland and Washington. Bennie says the roadbed has been hammered so rough that they are going to have to put stirrups on the berths.
Paul Hexter has been grabbed by the Army and had a commission put in his hand, reading "Cap- tain." He is doing camouflage work, having devel- oped an infra-red reflecting camouflage paint. Paul is a crack photographer and has written one book on the subject. Hexter is a whole tree-full of owls when it comes to paint and photos. The Army was smart to get him.
Dick Colton is now Motor Traffic Manager of the Western Electric Cos., with headquarters in Chi- cago. That is very nice going.
Captain Paul Hommeyer, Army Finance, is now on overseas duty.
Lt. Carl Elmquist is now on active duty, with the Air Corps Intelligence. He says that his train- ing was the most interesting six weeks he ever spent.
Drennie Slater has been named General Attorney for the Chicago and North West- ern Railway Cos. Short cheer Slater! Tubby Washburn has also gone Navy and has been commissioned as a Lieut.
The Navy put the finger on Dick Gratz and gave him two full stripes. He will be in communications, for at the time he en- tered the service, he was City Manager of Boston for Postal Telegraph.
Six '2sers were in the same Air Force Training School in Miami Beach, at the same time—Lt. Ross Pearl, Capt. Ken Montgomery, Lt. Freddy Kaufman, Capt. Hank Bjorkman, Lt. Charlie Graydon and Lt. Len Larson. Quite a reunion.
Paul Jerman "somewhere in Africa" has been promoted to the post of Area Engi- neer. He has also had a nice attack of en- teric poisoning. Look the enclosed picture over and decide, "Which is Jerman." George Scott has a first Lieutenancy in the Air Corps Intelligence and is in train- ing at Miami.
Bob McKennan is there too, with a Cap- tain's rating. When in Hanover early in October I saw his wife, Kay Laycock Mc- Kennan, who, as you all know, is an ex- tremely nice person.
Thay aint much happened here sence the last writing. I rid my motorsickle to Hanover wun Saddy early in October. I guess they aint a much nicer feeling any- wheres than to gun a high-powered motor- bike up onto the plain by the ski jump on a Warm October afternoon and twist your wrist and feel the wind in your face and see Baker's Tower come up into view. We is very busy getting out oak for the Navy and it is giving genuwine satisfackshun. I hev solid grounds to believe it will help blow a few Nazis loose from their pants. Hunting this Fall aint going to be for fun. It will be for meat. I hev got me a good deer located and calculate to shuck him out of his mortal husk the minnit it is le- gal. Yore humble correspondent has ben named to the local tire and gas rationing board and is getting so cordially hated, that little children pause in their play to hiss his passing. Howsomenever, any '2ser coming into taown with a dry tank prob- ably-wouldn't hev to push his car home.
WHEN KEN SIMMONDS left Hanover in 1925 he went down to Florida where he did some architectural work. Then the boom broke and he filled in with odd jobs until he secured a position with Florida Power and Light early in 1926. He stayed with them until the spring of 1929 doing drafting, acting as a junior engineer on distribution design and layout, estimating plant costs and inspecting. In 1929 he came up to New York, having severed his Flor- ida connections and helped design the first steel tower line in Vermont, running from Montpelier to Burlington.
In 1930 Ken became associated with Jackson and Moreland of Boston. They loaned him to the Lackawanna for two or three months to help electrify a railroad. He was with them for almost a year. Since that time, tracing his comings and goings over the map of the United States makes one of the weirdest jig saw puzzles on rec- ord. In brief, he and his wife have called twenty-eight places home, since their mar- riage in 1928. In that year he married Blanche Elizabeth Sullivan of Macon, Georgia. Ken now is a public utility engi- neer. This includes research leading to ac- tual contribution; design, supervision and construction of transmission lines and dis- tribution systems and appraisals that must hit within ten per cent of itemized inven- tory.
So much for his professional life. After working hours Ken is intensely interested in dry fly fishing and ties his own flies. This is one of the best of avocations from both a recreational and an esthetic view. Blanche is fast becoming rated as one of the best women archers in the country. This sport demands tops in physical and mental co-ordination.
In 1941 they enjoyed their first real va- cation and made a long motor trip, visit- ing every state east of the Mississippi ex- cept Kentucky. From this trip they wrote an excellent log, profusely illustrated with drawings and photos, for Ken has a clever pencil.
Every class reunion to date has found him on a job that demanded extra pres- sure during those days he wished to be in Hanover, so he has never been able to at- tend a reunion.
One of the real compensations of being a Class Secretary is to do these thumb nail biographies, for it gives one an intense feeling of pride in our Class. Ken Simonds is a case in point. You say good-by to a man in June 1925. You meet him again in Sep- tember 1942. You said good-by to a youth. You meet a competent engineer who speaks only after due consideration, who is a keen observer, a man who feels each day should be a well-ordered chain of hours with proper allotment of time for vocation, avocation and service to commu- nity.
This country could use a great many more Ken Simonds'.
DUTCH JERMAN '25
KEN SIMMONDS '25
Secretary, Center Ossipee, N. H. Treasurer, P. O. Box 428, Bristol, R. I.
