1938
Reunion was a great success, and over a hundred Thirty-Eighters and some forty wives will all testify to the wonderful job that Johnny Emerson did in making it such. Always leading the field, '38 again came through with a beer tent with beer in it, while most of the other classes were strictly in arid zones.
Chronologically, it was something like this: on Friday afternoon, there were soft ball games on the campus, '38, '39, '40 and '41 competing. We won the first game and then met '41 in the final event. It was a close game, and under Coach Charley Tesreau's expert guidance, '38 fielded a flashy team. The last time anyone bothered to mention the score, it was 28 to 11, in the third inning, and we weren't ahead. That evening a lot of people strolled over to the President's garden for the annual reception. It was the first chance most of us had had to meet President Dickey and his wife. The feature event of the reception was the entrance of the class of '15 in a column of twos; I don't- know who the two fellows from our class were who were with them.
Saturday morning the class picture was taken and the class met in Carpenter Hall for the business meeting. The Executive Committee was reelected to serve for two more years—until the Tenth Reunion in 1948—and a secretary and treasurer were also elected for the next two years, Bob Reno and Bud Walls, respectively. Art Soule and Earl Ward were selected as a Tenth Reunion Committee. Clarke Mattimore delivered a treasurer's report which out-Benchlied Benchley; the conclusion was that we have some money (around fifteen hundred dollars) in a bank somewhere and that the bank is taking pretty good care of it. The retiring treasurer also recalled that he had bought a thousand dollar bond for the class in Times Square one night, and the class voted to make that bond our initial contribution to our 25 Year Gift to the College.
Votes of appreciation were registered for the fine jobs that Baron von Pechmann as secretary, Clarke Mattimore as treasurer, Bud Walls and Bob Carson as class agents, and Johnny Emerson as Reunion Chairman have done for the class in these past years. We all owe them a lot for the time and effort that they have expended on our behalf and on behalf of the college.
The meeting closed with a showing of the class movies. By far the outstanding shot was Johnny Mercer's death-defying dive from the roof of the Deke House into the waiting arms of his loyal brethern. The rest of the day was pleasantly unorganized, except for a picnic in the late -afternoon at the Canoe Club. Ross McKenny put out a good feed, after which the scene again shifted to the tent on the lawn near Russell Sage. There was a good, gay group there that night, and our supply of beer attracted people from far and near. I was awakened about daylight Sunday morning, by a couple of diehards who were still at the piano in our tent: their voices were still in pretty good shape and their spirits were at peace with the world. Their identities, unfortunately, are lost to posterity. By noon Sunday most everyone had shoved off, and so ended our first reunion, three years late.
I think everyone enjoyed it. It was most pleasant to sit around and see and talk with people that you hadn't seen for five or six or seven years. Those of us who were there regretted that more of you who weren't there couldn't make it. Maybe in two years we'll have a larger group. The list of fellows and wives who attended appears somewhere else in the magazine, I think.
On the more serious side, there was a memorial service at ten o'clock Sunday morning for those of our classmates, as well as men of '39, '40 and '41, who have died since we entered Hanover in the fall of 1934. A goodly number of them gave their lives during the war, and as Roy Chamberlin pointed out in his simple and impressive address of tribute, each of us owes a good deal to each of them. Programs of the memorial services have been sent, on behalf of the class, to the widows and families of these men, that they might know that we have paused to pay tribute to those who they and we have lost.
Before another column rolls around, I hope to be able to pass on some news of various people. If none is forthcoming, I can probably fabricate some, which might be fatal. So let's have some letters. With some help, I hope to be able to do half as good a job as Baron has done.
The following members of the class attended reunion with their wives: John Smillie, Bill Stead, Ken Howard, Parrin Dawkins, Bod Deery, Al Hawkes, Ted Hunter, Tige Chamberlin, Bob Feineman, Jack Hull, Bob Reeve, Earl Ward, Jim McKeon, John Rand, Fran Mooney, Herb Bayer, Bob Jones, Fran Reilly, Dick Holt, Phil Leach, Bill Wischmann, Dan Quilty, Harry Ham, Jack Griffith, John McLane, Bill Ganter, Paul Thorpe, Bill Lyle, Jim Chandler, George Porter, Win Mayo, Dick Woodman, Dick Francis, Walt Averill, Jim Miller, Wendell Lake, Cy Perkins, Frank Doane, Dick Farrington, Ed White, Jim McGovern, Jack Graham, Bud Hanley, Art King, Bob Hallock, Art French, Gil Small, Fud Mather and Dick Heneage. Bill Ganter's sons Billy and Frank were present as was a young Smillie lad.
Attending alone were Frank Frey, Charles Hitchcock, Howie Rea, Ed Grace, Oman Cook, Walt Dunlap, Bill Watson, Charley Tesrau, Hook Schneider, Lou Parker, Bob Reno, Julie Westheimer, Bob Tomlinson, John Hall, Dick Tisdale, Jim Leighton, Bob Egelhoff, Coke Barton, Frank Brett, Bill Watson, Dan Marshall, George Kingsbury, Whitey Mays, Alex Jones, Larry Hull, Joe Schaeffer, Luke Nims, Dave Brinkmann, Charley Main, John Adams, Ed Grethe, Fred Baker, Parker Brownell, Charley Wiggin, Jim Golden, Paul McLaughlin, Vic Johnson, Warren Flynn, Art Soule, Brad Jenkins, Rog Buffington, Charley Mann, Ted Thorne, Bud Walls, Charley Keyes, Clarke Mattimore, Baron von Pechmann, Sandy McLeod, Stearns McNutt, Gil Tanis, Don Boyle, Val Cravens and Phil Harty.
SIX ROWS DEEP on the bleachers alongside McNutt Hall, the Class of 1938 arranges itself for a picture of their Delayed Fifth Reunion.
Secretary, 4 School St., Concord, N. H.
Treasurer, Connecticut Mutual Life Ins. Co., Hartford, Conn.
