1928
For months I have been begging for letters from you fellows, and persistence finally paid off. Recent.mail has been heavy and includes two excellent letters from China and Germany, for all of which I am duly grateful.
George Bell's airmail letter from Hankow had the local postman's eyes bulging at the $30,500 (Chinese) worth of stamps on the envelope. It was written October 31 and arrived November 7.
"None of the literature for this year's Fund campaign caught up with me until a month ago, so you can see how slow the non-airmail service is.
"My connections with Washington were severed in October 1945. Arrived in Shanghai in November and was assigned as manager of the Hankow Territory, which covers the Yangtze River Valley like a blanket: everything west of Wuhu to Tibet.
"Arrived in Hankow on December first. Found about half the town a monument to AAF bombing skill. No water, no lights, no heat, no whiskey soda, no office. I was lucky to find some floor space in a mission on which to lay my _ weary head. Found one former member of our Chinese staff.
"Since then it has been a matter of building up from scratch. The American Army boys who came in as soon as the war ended to take over from the Japs had placed a guard in our former bulk terminal for which I am thankful. However, the Japs had left little to guard. They had removed some 17 storage "tanks and seven G.I. godowns (warehouses) and turned the place into a pig farm for which it was, by then, admirably suited.
"In the past two years things have changed somewhat. In addition to the main office here, branch offices have been set up in Kiukiang, Changsha and Chungking plus some with a staff of a couple of hundred Chinese and nine 'foreigners' like myself. Most of the foreign staff have wives with them and not the least of my problems was the housing one.
"You may be able to understand that all this has kept me hopping. For the first eight months I didn't have any help, and what with generally chaotic conditions both civil and governmental, I nearly went off my rocker. When Paula and the kids arrived in September 1946 I was a lot more dead than alive. I had lost 20 pounds since the days of feeding in O'Donnel's Hogate's and the Interior Department cafeteria with you, and I seemed to be a sucker for any kind of hungry germ, of which there are several here. Paula took me in hand, the Company finally crashed through with some assistance, and now I'm about back to normal, and the office is more or less organized.
"Funny part of it is that we have actually been doing some business, too. Every known obstacle is thrown in the path of trade, but the biggest is, of course, foreign exchange. However, no matter how hard they try, they just can't seem to keep cars and other machinery moving without gas and oil. And, no exchange, no oil. Very Keeping things going in terms of local currency isn t so simple though. The exchange just prior to the war was about 20 Chinese dollars to one of ours. When I arrived back two years ago it was about 1500 to one. The exchange when I last looked a couple of hours ago was about 100,000 to one. What it is now I have no idea. This is the first time I've been a millionaire in any kind of currency and it's a funny feeling. Hell, I'm a billionaire, and with no feeling of security. Don't let it happen at home!
"Paula and the kids are in good shape. Just now our home is a shambles and that's why I'm in the office writing you a letter. The kids are throwing a Halloween party and the place is crawling with hobgobblins, witches and boobytraps for unwary parents. I'm scheduled to produce a ghost story in an hour, and damned if I can think of anything that the modern youngster won't say stinks.
"Did I tell you that Paula produced David in Washington in March, 1946, so now we have two sons for dear old Dartmouth in addition to a prospective Carnival Queen. David is doing very nicely and is up there raising hell with the rest."
For George's friends (and '2B philatelsts) his address is: Standard-Vacuum Oil Cos., Hankow (6), China.
Writing from Munich on October 21, BillMonaco says:
"I have had three very tough months. From July to September, I tried 20 SS men who were connected with Mauthausen Concentration Camp attrocities—three got death, one life and the others intermediate sentences with the exception of three who were acquitted. 1 was so intense that I was fighting the court more than the defense counsel. My disposition undoubtedly was due to the news of my father's death which came in the middle of the trial, when I was unable to get home for the funeral.
"On September 16, I was assigned to continue a trial because the prosecutor had to leave. That, too, was an ordeal—working every night trying to read through the entire record of what had gone on before I took over. All three accused were convicted —one receiving the death penalty.
"But after two years I am fed up with War Crimes and next week will transfer to Military Government as my contract with the War Crimes Commission has expired. I was promoted from a P-5 to a P-6, carrying with it a $1500 increase per year. I will sit as a judge in General and Intermediate Military Government Courts, and will also do some reviewing and prosecuting."
From President Red Edgar in Boston: "Here is the round-up of who was seen at the Harvard game by John Nixon or myself: WinTaylor, wife and daughter, up from New York; Rupe Thompson, wife and two sons; EdLyman and wife; Don Solis and wife; BobMacPhail (didn't get near enough to talk to, so don't know about Mrs.); Topper Robinson and daughter; Bert Stern and wife; Ed Sawyer; Nixon was there with his wife, I had mine, and my son and daughter."
Last month an F.8.1, agent called on me and asked a lot of questions about HarryJewett. Harry was hired by the Atomic Energy Commission in September as Patent Engineer at the Brookhaven National Laboratory at Upton, Long Island, but until he was thoroughly investigated he wasn't allowed to do anything.
Hank Leach and Jean have announced the adoption of Julia Margaret, aged two months, on October 29. They have a son, Paul, two years old.
Cal Billings reports seeing Sonny Middlebrook in Hartford, and furnishes the news that Sonny is president of the Connecticut Real Estate Board and a big realtor, specializing in property management and leasing.
Our first classmate to "make" Fortune is Win Taylor. In an article on the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, Win's office is pictured with a caption "Idea Man," and a couple pages later his face again shows as one of the high level planners on the Ford-Mercury-Lincoln account.
I.arry Miter is personnel manager of the Chicago office of The Austin Co., engineers and builders.
Al Fusonie, personnel manager of the Collins & Aikman Corp. in Bristol, R. 1., was elected a member of the school committee by the Bristol Town Council last month.
Bud Osborn's company, Economics Laboratory Inc., opened a new plant at Lyndhurst, N. J., October 17, which will increase their output of Soilax and other home and industrial cleaning compounds by 40%.
Jack Herpel's great work during the telephone strike caused the New Jersey Bell Telephone Co. to put "General" in front of his title of Commercial Methods Supervisor. He says, "Although I can't join the parade of '28's vice-presidents, I can start a fairly exclusive one for 'generals.' You ask why we movedwe sold our dream house that we built in '37 for a dream price and bought some old 125-year-old farm house."
Wayne Sturdevant, assistant manager of the mid-west region of the National Association of Manufacturers, has moved his office to St. Louis.
Readers of the Saturday Evening Post see '28ers staring out at them from every issue. The November 8 issue has two pictures of JudWhitehead, "America's Largest Exclusive Water Heater Manufacturer," announcing his new table-top water heater. A fire destroyed one of his three plants sometime ago. A little further along is a full-page picture of TedBaehr in an ad for Ansco photographic materials.
Bob Grey, superintendent of the Shirley Industrial School for Boys, rated a long interview in the Boston Sunday Herald for November 2, the lead paragraph of which was: "We're not doing right by our boys and girls who go wrong, according to a veteran Massachusetts educator and social worker."
Mail your check for your class dues to RupeThompson today, and send me some news.
EARNS PROMOTION: L. Paul Ahlers '28 has been promoted to the post of assistant to the general manager of Ranger Aircraft Division of Fairchild Engine and Aircraft Corporation, Farmingdale, N. Y.
Secretary, Van Dyne Oil Co., Troy, Pa. Treasurer, Providence National Bank Providence, R. I.
