1927

Nineteen years is a long time to have been pounding out this monthly blurb, and much of the time it has been a somewhat discouraging job. Each month you try to figure out some new way o£ pulling news out o£ some four hundred guys who seem to have a progressively bad case of galloping writer's cramp. You begin to wonder if anybody ever reads the column for you never even get a letter telling vou what a lousy column it is. Every once in a while, however, a ray of sunshine seems to burst on to our dreary world. The other day we received the following: "First news I've ever sent to you, Doane, for your column, but it's our biggest news yet, so here it is—Richard Ernest Hood, born April 6, 1946. Parents, Dick and Helen Hood, weight, 8 lbs., 7 oz. Best regards, Dick Hood. P.S. Still teaching English at Waltham High School where I've been for 12 years."

It onl.y took Dick nineteen years and the arrival of his first-born son to break silence so we figure there is still hope of hearing from the 75% of youse guys who have never written, that is if your new secretary who will take over at the 20th Reunion, lives long enough.

In the news from Hanover Department we report that Monty Montgomery was at the Inn for a couple of days late in March, and that Bill North spent his spring vacation at the Inn from March 25 to April 7. Last we heard Bill Montgomery had left for Honolulu where he was to be Regional Director for the Red Cross. But then, in this atomic age we must learn to think nothing of week-ending in Hanover from Hawaii.

From the N. Y. Dartmouth Club News we learn that they have welcomed home from service the following '27 men: Mortimer Phillips, J. N. Staubach and Sam Wormser. When we knew Monty last the first name was Montague, but maybe the atomic bomb has changed that too. The aforementioned estimable sheet, also lists as new members of the Club: Ross Nichols, Pat Partridge and Lloyd Eno.

A swell letter from Steve Osborn informs us that his older son Merritt has been accepted for admission to Dartmouth this fall in the Class of 1950. He will be 18 in June when he graduates from St. Paul Academy. Merritt is a 6 foot 1 inch football aspirant who did a good job in his prep school league. He is also an out-door enthusiast, having spent many enjoyable hours fishing and hunting with his dad in the past few years. He is a fine looking lad as is attested by his picture which we hope will appear with this column since he will be the first son of a '27 man to enter Dartmouth.

As for father, Steve, we quote the following from his letter:

I'm still spending most of my time trying to make a living as a Director and V.P. in charge of Advertising and Sales Promotion for this company. (Economics Laboratory, Inc., manufacturers of Soilax, among other products. Adv. Ed.) With the help of my family, which also includes a horse and a couple of bird dogs, and a small lake home near here, I manage to live very pleasantly when I'm not peddling cleaning compounds.

What is probably of more interest, yours truly just finished a year as president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of the Northwest. Our Association includes approximately 475 alumni in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana and western Wisconsin. The active group is better indicated by an attendance of 128 at our Annual Banquet last month, a swell meeting, in spite of the discomfiture of the presiding officer, thanks to John Dickey who came out with A1 Dickerson. We were strongly impressed with him and feel the College made a very happy choice in Hoppy's successor.

Steve has a younger son, Tom, age 14, who will be heading for Hanover in a few years. For the benefit of any '27 men who are travelling to the Twin Cities, Steve reports there are bi-monthly Dartmouth luncheons held in Minneapolis at Donaldson's Tea Room on the first and third Mondays of each month, and in St. Paul at the St. Paul Athletic Club on the second and fourth Fridays of each month.

After painting such a dismal picture in the opening paragraphs of this opus we are positively embarrassed and extremely delighted to find upon arriving home this evening a long and very well , done report of the recent Class Dinner held in New York, written and sent to us by Ken Meyercord to whom we are eternally indebted. May we have many encores, Ken! The report follows:

Tuesday night, May 7, the New York contingent had a dinner at the Club. Hilarity and_ general boisterousness was, as A1 Chabot says, "a happy augury for the twentieth." Crowded conditions at the bar seemed to bring out all the glee club talent apparently frustrated during the years since college days. John Shaw and Herb Howe were in the best voice of the group, quantitively and qualitively respectively.

You may be interested in some of the gossip gathered during the evening. In this corner were Herb Rubin and Ed Frey comparing notes on the glass business. Herb claims to handle over a million a year, but gave no statistics on whether they were filled, empty, or what have you. Herb reports the finest kerosene lamp collection in the country and also a very complete collection of books on glass. Ed is designing glassware and china and having his designs produced for a group of jobbers supplied by him. Jack Draper recently had the squeeze put on him and is now. the owner of some New York real estate. It seems that even doctors have to go cooperative these days in the big city in order to have offices. Don McCall has solved the white shirt problem by insisting on tiein sales. Before he will sell paper to a customer dealing with department stores, he insists on receiving white shirts with the order (what do you fellows in the insurance game do, Doane?). (We stay home 'til the laundry comes. Ed.)

Jack Roe, Garden City neighbor of John Shaw, was able to get away from his "say it with flowers" accounting long enough to be present. Now -that the war is over Jack Jones is looking forward to doing more customer contact work for the Radio City Branch of the Irving Trust Co. Shortage of help during the war, together with knowledge of bank procedures gained from ten years' auditing work, combined to keep Jack indoors during the last few years. Joe Russakoff is still running an advertising agency with three or four other fellows. Did you know that Tom Gillespie, in addition to being a tax expert for the General Baking Co., is a part-time farmer? He digs and plants his father's 35-foot plot in Brooklyn each spring. Orrie Herwitz got out of uniform in December and has opened his own law office in Manhattan. Our wayfarer from Riverhead, Long Island, Guy Bostwick, reported he tried to get into uniform, offering his specialized knowledge of customer telephone requirements, but the Navy proved uncooperative. Fritz Kortlucke, by his own admission, is still "Not-a-day-older-looking." Fritz assures us, however, that it is as Dr. K, obstetrician, that he takes care of 'em. Ken Anderson and McCall were heard debating the merits of driving to New York versus to White Plains in the event the coal strike forced cancellation of commuting service to inbetween suburbia. Paul Pierson, real estate and insurance broker of Briarcliff Manor, was on hand. And so were others concerning whom I didn't garner any data, viz. Sam Wormser (sporting military discharge button), Ed Webb of the Wall Street firm that has a name like a law office, and Don O'Hara of Cannon Mills.

After dinner our own "grass-doesn't-grow-on-a- busy-street" Davis gave us a report on affairs at the College, emphasizing particularly the need for means to increase faculty salaries. The means he termed "loaves of bread" to avoid getting the reputation of always talking about money. Later in the evening while Bostwick was trying to shut off Rudy Preuss so he could arrive in Riverhead before breakfast, Davis was intent on sending a telegram to Art Kelleher, last reported somewhere in Rhode Island.

Josh was followed by Bob Stevens who, having recently returned from a winter in Europe, gave us a quick survey of conditions there, pointing out the extensive moral and spiritual breakdown; the conflicts of "systems" in which the Americans through their lack of policy are losing status to the Russians. At one point Bob commented, with deft demonstration, that a French woman wrapping herself in a piece of burlap in lieu of dress material still looked "chick," whereupon Herwitz let out a mighty "Yeah, man!"

Bob was followed on the program by Nick Zaro on tour from Chicago. Nick enlivened' the session by recounting early post-college days in Belgium when he and Bob were with General Motors Export. Some fun, oh boy! And followed this up with an outline of his tour of duty with the Export Company in other parts of Europe, Egypt, and the Antipodes, where he was busy seeing that plenty of tanks were produced. He concluded his resume of world conditions today with his forecast of war upon war, spheres of influence, and clash of ideologies. He sounded pretty pessimistic (or should I say realistic) to the father of four children.

Just as Jack Jones and I were leaving, Rudy Preuss was making a lawyer's presentation of Nick's "commercial" to give a new ball point Eversharp pen to everyone who raised his contribution to the Alumni Fund by at least $15.

Chabot was unanimously reelected to run more class dinners before the Twentieth next year. Official excuses were granted to Doc Greener who has office hours Tuesday evening, and to Agent Provost, who having lost about 35 pounds in the last few months (not good!) is on sick leave.

What happened after we left I can't report, but judging by the enthusiasm still rampant, there may be plenty more to tell you about.

With respect to the Twentieth, "Old Baldy" Davis was agitating for no wives to be on hand. He accused the Boston contingent of being aprontied to the extent of being unable to attend without their wives.

Phooey on two-hair Davis and his brave talk about no wives at Reunion. It's on the record that we have advocated the same thing for the last fifteen years and have had our ears pinned back regularly each five years because we were a bachelor. Now we are not single and the answer is still the same. We wouldn't go back to our bride's reunion at Vassar even if she went to Vassar and even if we Were invited.

Last call for the Alumni Fund. Let's get it in before June 30, and make it good.

FIRST SON OF 1927 to enter Dartmouth will be Merritt Osborn, son of Steve Osborn '27.

Secretary, 501 Boylston St., Boston, Mass. Treasurer, Box 101, Westfield, N. J.