1908
As we figuratively take our Boston Safety Fountain Pen (adv.) in hand to compile the class notes for the next month, the new report comes through that there has been an unconditional surrender in Europe, awaiting the official confirmation from the White House, Moscow and London. We think of Ralph Currier's and of Rosie Hinman's sons who have been German prisoners, and of Van Ostrand Perkins and others, and hope that by this time they and any other sons and relatives who are prisoners are on their way back and that in less time than any of us can really hope, all of the sons and daughters of 1908 will be on their way home.
Paul Batchelder came to college from Portsmouth, N. H., and roomed freshmen year in Hallgarten, better known as Hellgate, along with several other Spartans in the Class. He early established a reputation as a math shark and we believe the records show that he led the class each year scholastically. At any rate he led us all at the end of four years, clearly demonstrating that he was other things besides a mathematician. He began teaching math upon his graduation. Ever since 1916 he has been teaching pure mathematics and giving courses in Einstein's theory of relativity at the U. of Texas in Austin. Paul has never married. He is the sole member of the class in Texas. Nearly every one we ever met from Texas talked in superlatives about the size, the accomplishments and the products of that great state and never was impressed by simple figures. For a Yankee mathematician to possess such a record is something. Paul, we salute you.
George Baine's older son, Dartmouth '4l, enlisted shortly after his graduation in the Signal Corps, went through Crypt School and Signal Corps OCS and has been stationed in Arlington, Va., for a long time. He is now a first lieutenant; was married last fall. George's younger boy enlisted in April 1942 while a junior at Temple, taking a pre-dental course. He worked thirteen months in the dental lab at Fort Monmouth and was then sent to ASTP. He had six months at Syracuse U., six months at the U. of 111., and three months in Chicago, then was sent to camps in Texas and Pennsylvania and shipped to Italy in December 1944. He is now attached as a dental assistant to a mobile dental unit which has a dentist's office on a truck. He has found time to see Pompeii and Vesuvius, to attend the opera in Naples, to spend two days each in Rome and in Florence and has climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa. George and his wife are looking forward to spending the summer on the beach at Sea Bright, which is only five miles from their home in Red Bank. George is with the Borregaard Company, 21 E. 40th Street, New York, Mill representatives for Scandinavian pulps;
Bob Blanpied has been on the same job at the St. Paul Academy, St. Paul, Minn., for nearly eighteen years, teaching French and Latin and giving the smaller boys the rudiments of Italian, Spanish and German. He coaches the tennis team in the Fall and Spring, and the hockey squad in the Winter. In part of his spare time for the past two years, he has been putting in two or three evenings a week looking after a bunch of teen-age boys at a community settlement. Bob's family has not been able to go to their cabin in the woods on Lake Superior for two years, which is located in Poplar Township, Wis., now famous as the home of Dick Bong. Two summers ago, Bob went to Idaho on a brushclearing project and lived the life of a lumberjack for ten weeks. Last summer, he taught in their Summer school for boys who wished to graduate before they entered, the service. His daughter, Nancy, is graduating this June from St. Mary's Hall in Faribault, Minn. She will enter Macalester College next year. His daughter, Abilgail, is entering high school next Fall. Bob no longer gets to New York each June for College Board Exam week, so his visits to New England are now infrequent. Bob and his family live at 191 Macalester St., St. Paul.
Jack Clark's older son, John '32, who went overseas a long time ago, has a new mission almost every time he is heard from. In March he wrote from Switzerland where he had been several times, but he has flown back to London frequently and has then turned up in Paris. John, of course, cannot report just what he has been doing, but he has had some unusual experiences. Alec '3B who was commissioned at Fort Benning in 1944, sailed from this country early in January. Although he is attached to the he has been working on classification work in the re-organization of the Philippine Army _ and expects to go to many of the islands. He is enthusiastic about the Filipinos. About holiday time, John's wife, Rhoda, and her three children, Alec and his wife, and Hazel were together in New Boston, N. H., and then in Manchester with Judge McLane, where they had some skiing in spite of fifteen below zero weather, and then they spent two days together in Hanover. Hazel rented her house in the Fall and took an apartment. She has been putting in four full days a week at Red Cross Home Service.
One of our Bay State correspondents, a Harvard man, reported seeing Howard Cowee at lunch at the University Club in Worcester late in April.
Dick Danforth's son, Bill, went to work for Danforth Anchors in the production end after the Navy, Coast Guard and Army turned him down on account of one of his eyes, and at one time was traveling 6,000 miles a month, visiting various foundries over the country. Dick, whose anchors have been playing a very important part in the last three years, has seen Jack Corcoran in Boston rather frequently and spent several days visiting Jim Norton in Los Angeles in April when he was on a trip testing anchors on the lower Colorado River with the army engineers.
Count Donahue recently addressed the Men's Club of Parson Bill English's church in Norwood.
Arthur Hopkins, Assistant Director of Lands and Forests in the New York State Conservation Department was the speaker at the annual meeting of Officers Forum, Group 3 Savings Bank Association of New York State at the Ten Eyck Hotel, Albany in April, telling of some of his experiences as budget director for the Red Cross in the Mediterranean zone.
Parson Bill English has been in Norwood, Mass., for 12 or 13 years. Several months ago, Dick Danforth sought him out and a few days ago, Honker Joyce traveled all the way from West Newton to Norwood for advice, solace or inspiration. As the years roll on, more need seems to be felt for conferences with Parson Bill. We did not learn whether Honker has been filling inside straights so regularly that he thought something was wrong or whether he hadn't been doing so, and that he had better consult the Class Parson, or just what prompted Honker's visit to the peace, calm and quiet of the Congregational parsonage in Norwood. Parson Bill presented Honker with a Bible.
Chet Melville spent March at Fort Myers Beach, Fla., in a cottage on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
Alec Miller's son, Bill, graduated at Hanover with the class of '42, taking his senior year in Tuck School. He attended Vermont Academy for one year. He entered the Army in December 1942, was sent to the Quartermaster camp at Camp Lee, Va., where he took his basic training and attended OCS, receiving his commission five and one-half months from the day of his induction. After further training at Camp Lee he was sent to Harvard Business School for a specialized two months course and was in the class which received its diplomas from General Somervell. He was sent to England in the summer of 1943 and is still in the Quartermaster service there. He was promoted to first lieutenant in January 1945 and is in command at one of the depots. Alec's second son, Dana Ewing, is now a senior in high school. Like some other 1908 sons, he had been scheduled for Dartmouth. He was- eighteen last October, was called up for his physical which he passed. He passed the Eddy test for radio technician training in the Navy. He is still in high school awaiting his call to start his radio technician training in the Navy. Alec and his family live at Grantwood, N. J., and he has been with the advertising department of Good Housekeeping for a long time. For about twenty summers he commuted week-ends to his 200-acre farm just _ north of Brattleboro, which is one of the original farms in Vermont, and which has been in the family since before the Revolution: The restrictions of the past two years have confined Alec's activities as a farmer pretty largely to his yard and garden at home, although he has managed to get to the farm for about two weeks each summer.
Jack Greetings Norton continues to fulfill his role as one of the highly respected and leading citizens of St. Paul, where in addition to his work as Principal of Monroe High School, he is very active in civic work and he has established a reputation as a public speaker, so is called upon frequently. The boys and girls who attended Monroe School report that Jack "is a swell guy" as well as a leading citizen.
We met Park Stickney on La Salle Street, Chicago, a few days ago when we were in town for a hearing before the Commerce Commission. He had completely recovered from the Dartmouth dinner in March and looked more than ever like the western representative of Brooks Brothers.
Early returns show the class off to a pretty good start in contributions to the Alumni Fund. It is very earnestly to be hoped that the number of contributors and the amounts given reflect our appreciation of the tremendous need of the college at this time. Let's make a new record this year.
New Addresses: Arthur K. Blood, Hidden Fields Farm, Essex St., Middleton, Mass.; and James J. Norton, 2880 Lorain Rd., San Marino 8, Calif.
AN UNUSUAL DISTINCTION was enjoyed by Lt. Richard H. Hinman '45 when his uncle. Col. B. H. Hinman 'O4 pinned on his wings. The two relatives are shaking hands after the ceremony at Turner Field, Ga.
ELECTED COUNCILLOR, Francis A. Robinson 'OB will represent District IV on the Alumni Council, which meets in Hanover on June 8-9.
Secretary, 115 Broadway, New York 6, N. Y. Class Notes Editor, 602 Forest City National Bank Bldg. Rockford, 111. Treasurer, Taftville, Conn.
