1920*
A letter from Dick Pearson is always a good starter and here it is:
"I took a trip down to Washington a while ago, as all of us are bound to do sooner or later these days; and I thought of John Moore hidden away somewhere in the mazes of what was then OPM. In case somebody else may have the same hankering to see what our John has developed into—grayer, but considerably trimmer of figure—here's the way it is done. You look for Temporary E. The "temporary" part is a joke. It was thought of as temporary in the last war, but it's still doing business on a non-temporary basis, just that much shabbier and dirtier than it was twenty years ago. Once you locate the building (and Sam Stratton must be in it too, because he's John's boss), you'll find the Moore on the third floor at about the eighth aisle, labelled Electrical Appliances division of Consumer Durable Goods. His heart is in the work and he's doing a swell job. He was supposed to have dinner with me that night, but it was some time after nine before he could break away from his desk.
"Speaking of John Moore would bring anybody's thoughts around to Ray McPartlin, Twenty's only honest-to-God newspaper man. I saw Mac late last fall. You get to his place in Cambridge by following one of those circuitous arteries that Boston calls parkways—or maybe it's a parkway that they call an artery—and if you duck off it at exactly the right spot, you're plumb in front of the McPartlin residence. Mac was great. He's as much of a night-owl as ever, carries the conversational ball on any line you want to open up, and keeps the same interest and the same attitude toward almost anything that's going on in the world. Mac has three lively daughters of assorted ages. I'll let him decide how much emphasis belongs on the "lively," but anyhow, the quite small youngest looks like an angel when she's asleep.
"I suppose everybody in the class has read the January Esquire. If not, one guess as to who is "The Master of Vermont." That's the title of an article by Harry Salpeter, and the subject of the same is Paul Sample. The story is all there of Paul's life and works, and the illustration is one of those two-page fold-out jobs in full color —an across-the-river view down White River Junction way that will give you the creeps of nostalgia. I forget what's on the back, but as likely as not, it's a Petty girl. My own theme song for Esquire used to be "A Petty girl is like a melody."
"Coming across the river, did somebody ask who is the Master of New Hampshire? The answer would be bellowed by 400,000 voices that we Granite Staters serve no masters. None the less, there are strong auguries back home that Sherm Adams is to be a politico magnifico of the future. Sherm made a great name at the last session of the legislature. As Jim Langley's Concord Monitor-Patriot put it, 'He won wide legislative approval for his tact and abilities demonstrated as chairman of the house labor committee.' And at the end, 'as he took over the speaker's, gavel for the day, he was being boomed for speaker of the 1943 house.' Latest word of Sherm had him (on January 15) leading a rescue party in the Franconia Mountains, which broke its way through five miles of snow-covered woodland and brought to safety five of the seven-man crew of an Army bomber that had crashed on a mountainside.
"Prowling around in what I like to call my files, I discover just a few more tidbits. Irv Blaine gets his picture in the paper as the 'advertising executive of Knight 8c Gilbert Agency, Inc., who has left for Washington to organize the research section for the industrial and office machinery branch of OPM. He was formerly for 13 years manager of the Livermore 8c Knight Agency.' Dick Goddard stands at the extreme right in a picture which appeared on the Education page of the Sunday Times January 25. Dartmouth students are busily 'studying navigation at observatory' and Dick is watching over them to keep them straight. He ought to know how, considering the training he had as navigator with the MacMillan expedition to the North Pole.
"Finally, here's a note on Bob Dow, who is doing a bang-up job as Chairman of Student Affairs at Washington Square College, New York University. And that is no push-over, says the Voice of Experience. Bob has been a long-distance commuter, going all the way to Princeton daily, but he has moved back toward The City lately and now calls Englewood home. His latest textbook, Reading and Thinking, was published by the Odyssey Press.
"On the subject of the Memorial Fund, I won't go into the verbal song-and-dance you assigned me in the February issue, but I will gladly make public retraction of sentiments I had expressed privately to Stan Newcomer. I had a feeling of my own that President Hopkins and the Trustees of Dartmouth College would all vote on my side for tossing any spare pennies into the war effort and letting the Memorial Fund bide its time. I made no bones about saying so to Stan. But the Defense Bond idea, as a form of contribution, hadn't occurred to me and that hit me right between the eyes. I'll get busy on that one right away, and I'll plug for anybody else who will do the same. So, Stan, you can count me in."
The more I think of Stan's suggestion that Defense Bonds be used as a basis for our contributions, the bdtter I like the idea. Here, for example, is how it might work out in my case. The Telephone Company, along with most industrial organizations, has a payroll allotment plan whereby any designated amount may be deducted from the pay check each month, and when enough is accumulated a bond is purchased, registered in the name of whomever the employee desires. A small deduction each month will do double duty, help win the war and also give the College much needed aid. I for one am going to make my contribution in this manner.
Pete Potter, Kodak tycoon, reports that Dick Charlock has sent him for safe-keeping the official movies of '2o's 20th, to which he has given the title, "Dr. Stickney Goes to Hanover." Evidently the cameraman and our famous doctor roomed together, if the footage devoted to various personalities means anything.
In a more serious vein, Peter points out that something ought to be done about a class history in movies. He writes as follows: "If you will put a note in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, asking the members of the class to send their films, I shall be glad to act as a clearing house and to edit and title a composite reel or reels of the most interesting material. Duplicates can then be made which would be available to anyone who wishes to borrow them, and, of course, we could have a showing at our next reunion. Either black-and-white or Kodachrome can be used but, as a start, let's confine the job to 16 mm. width. Everyone should understand that any film that they send will be cut but that all scenes will be carefully respliced in their correct positions."
All right, Gang, that's a real offer because it involves quite a bit of work. Incidentally Pete has quite a bit of footage of his own, starting with our sth Reunion and, if Doc Miller, Ken Spalding, Rog Pope and all the other fellows who have '2O libraries will shell out, we ought to get a film that's very interesting and amusing. Direct all film to W. B. Potter, Eastman Kodak Company, 343 State Street, Rochester, N. Y.
Secretary, New York Telephone Co., 29 E. Main St., Amsterdam, N. Y
