1917
There is a certain feeling of success and pride in accomplishment on the part of your humble servant which attaches to the picture of Don and Helen Brooks with Betty and Bill. With all his long period of service for the best gang of guys in the world, now going on twenty years, Don is still the modest gentleman you knew in Hanover, and on the shy side when it comes to being mentioned, let alone pictured, in this column. He works while you play at Reunions. He it is who keeps the records straight making sure that we as a gang stay solvent. He duns you goodnaturedly each fall for the class honorarium which then falls due, and is pleased and proud when we hang up another record in paid-up members. He it is who gets the biggest kick out of meetings with other Seventeeners, and who keeps your secretary continually posted on '17 goings-on in the great metropolis. He and Helen are the nucleus of the 'l7 reception committee for visiting members from the hinterland. And no summer at Chatham will be complete without a visit from them, with Betty and Bill. Helen, in addition to being one of the strongest rooters and hardest workers for the gang, still does her regular bit as a Grey Lady at a nearby northern New Jersey veterans hospital. Betty is a senior at Duke, and Bill a senior at Montclair High looking forward to Dartmouth next fall. We salute Don for his long and consistent service to the gang, and wish him all the pleasure and satisfaction which comes from continuing efforts on behalf of such a class. May he and Helen remain as young as they are in body and spirit, and gain even increasing joy in life and pleasure from their friends as they go along.
The November issue of the MAGAZINE listed eleven sons o£ 1917 who entered Dartmouth last fall with the Class of 1950. These are: Robert William Cone, John Leon Dutton, Edgar Champlin Earle Jr., Robert Hartshorn, Robert Sebring Karnan, Hugh McKenna Lynch, Neil Pohlson McCulloch, Norman Estes McCulloch Jr., Richard Allen Robie, William Sidney Stone, son of Roger and Carol, and George Masters Woodmell. In addition there are fifteen other sons of the Class at present at Dartmouth finishing work interrupted by the war and as upperclassmen. Those who left for the services and are now back finishing up are: John Roberts Englehorn and Harold John Weeks Jr. '44, William McCutcheon Hartshorn, Victor Collins Smith Jr., and Gregory Howard Stillman, son of Hunk and Anita '45, and Robert Ames Barrows, Lawrence Gove Doty, Robert Sawyer Gerrish, Bradford Lattimer Jones, John Crawford Koeniger, and William Hiram Wyeth Jr. '46. Now in Hanover as upperclassmen are: David Wentworth Emmons '47, Richard Sidney Ruggles '48, and Thomas Towler and Richard Woodworth McFalls '49. Altogether there were twenty-six sons on the campus in mid-December; and, as a result, twenty-four '17 homes being kept currently in touch with campus affairs, Creeper Hartshorn and Norm McCulloch being represented by two sons each.
A letter from Slatz Baxter, forwarded by Gene Towler, tells us that the old country doctor is again practicing in his beloved Marion, Mass. He writes:
To start off, I got out of the Navy in March after three and a half years of it and in retrospect it wasn't as bad as it might have been. My last thirteen months were in Boston which gave me a chance to get home and get in a little practice. I started off in March with a bang and have done well for an old codger ever since. Tabor keeps me busy with over 200 boys this year. We have a new boat which is a beauty and a wonderful selling point. The old Tabor Boy is now junk. Hobey Ford is a trustee now and is having a new ship built for himself, the Jane Dore IV or V. What a hard life! My son Bob is still in Germany with the 9th Division and is planning to transfer to the Constabulary. He just returned from a trip to Poland with a hospital train through Russian territory that took three weeks. .... They put the whole division on skis in the Alps for a solid month Of course we are planing now for Hanover in June.
A letter from Sam White comments interestingly on our new rear-admiral and we present it in full even though already thoroughly sold on Ted:
By way of news, I saw a squib in some Navy publication that one Ted Lonnquest had recently made Rear-Admiral. I was shipmates during the war with a number of regular Navy "zoomies" who had served with Ted here and there, and they invariably rated him "four-o"; so we can well be proud of our 'l7 flag rank. We enjoyed a visit from President Dickey here in Seattle in November. Mac McCarthy '15 and Porter Blaney '16 lined up with me for a '15-'16-'17 delegation. It is a real privilege for those of us so far from Hanover to receive first- hand news from Dartmouth. Lou and I spent many hours this fall wishing we were back again enjoying the swell reunions we had at the games in 1945. Do you suppose there will be a bottle of beer for the '17er who comes the longest distance for the 30th?
There will be a bottle of beer, Sam. That's for sure. And in addition there should be the best reunion yet, as a reward. In fact, we will look forward especially to welcoming you and Lou from the great northwest.
On the stationery of his own Bathrick Pontiac, Inc., 5317 York Boulevard, Los Angeles 42, Jack Bathrick sends "a news item from a modest '17er." He says:
You can see from above I am now president of above corporation which is a large Pontiac dealership in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles. After having been with General Motors Corp., Pontiac Division zone manager in southern California, for approx 14 years, and with plenty of pressure from wife and son "Keller" 21 who just returned from service after 2l/2 years in Navy as Flag Staff Signalman 2/c in Jap war with 9 island invasions to his credit, I decided to now quit traveling and start to build my own business with son who is also interested in automobile business and southern California. I am sold 101% on southern Cal also, and my wife is sold about 201%. Business is good and at this writing it is a coincidence that we are preparing a Pontiac 8 deluxe station wagon for Gene Markey '18 and his wife Myrna Loy Markey. Hope all Dartmouth men don't ask me for station wagons at once because it isn't that easy yet,—but now and then one comes through. Attached is a picture from Automotive News from Detroit.
Although we have not seen Jack since Hanover days, the picture shows him as we remember him,—Plenty of hair, none of it grey, and not stout. Word from Jack is altogether too infrequent, so we welcome his letter particularly and congratulate him wholeheartedly on stepping out on his own with "Keller." The best of success to both. We will admire to see him in Hanover next June, with Mrs. Bathrick and "Keller."
Elmer Berry says he has had his ups and downs over the past year or two and that among the ups is a new house. "It is kind of a nice house, and the address is 42 Guion St., Pleasantville, N. Y." Knowing Elmer, we are confident of your warm reception if you can go that way. Wallace, 7, and Marion, 5, are in third and first grades, respectively. "I find life constantly more interesting as I go along. Perhaps that is what college is for."
Ray Collerd says he has not seen anything of the gang for a long time, but recalls a Boston meeting during the war when he literally dropped in from England and was welcomed by a large delegation. Ray's plant has been beset with strikes during the past year, but his new home at 265 San Mateo Drive, Menlo Park, Calif., has apparently been his inspiration and recreation. "We have a grand location, only a real stone's throw from the Stanford campus which is separated from us by San Francisquito Creek." He has been a "Grandfather to a very swell young lady" for a year and a half now. "Nancy married a Lt. (j.g.) Schrader while she was in the service. As soon as she knew that Penny was coming, she got her discharge. Her husband was in the Persian Gulf at that time but got back in time for the arrival."
Creeper Hartshorn mentions his two sons, Bill and Bob, being at Dartmouth and says:
My second boy, Elden, has come back from overseas and is taking a refresher course at Exeter hoping to enter Dartmouth in September. So I hope to hear a lot more from Hanover in the next few years. I'm mighty thankful to get them back from the war and I'm also extremely pleased to have them all headed for Dartmouth. One of these days I hope to get up north when some of the gang are getting together. Maybe it will be next June.
It better be, Creeper. There will never be a better time.
Phil and Jo Evans tell us that Phil Jr. is engaged to Joan Moore, Jackson '44, of West Medford. Phil Jr. is studying engineering at Northeastern, having been discharged from the Navy last summer. They also report having seen Al and Maude Edgerton at the Harvard game in Hanover last fall The Boston Herald of December 1 carried a very attractive picture of Ann Gerrish and the news that Barney and Mrs. Gerrish announce her engagement to Mr. John Winthrop Gordon of Bahama Beach, Fla. Ann is a graduate of Walnut Hill School and currently a junior at Pembroke College. Mr. Gordon attended Lawrenceville Academy and is an alumnus of Brown. He served as a naval officer aboard the cruiser Macon during his wartime service. .... The announcement of the marriage of Jane Margaret to Mr. Parker Wood Perkins has been received from Fred and Mrs. Hager. The wedding took place December 5 in Johnstown, Pa., where the bride and groom are now making their home.
A holiday issue of the Boston Herald printed a picture of a "Christmas Scene In Miniature," a complete village, parts of which are replicas of Belmont buildings, which Howie Stockwell and his family set up each Christmas in the playroom of their lovely Belmont home. Over a period of twenty-eight years the Stockwells have done this, adding to the scene each year, until the display has become known far beyond the family circle. It includes electric trains, ponds, tunnels, bridges, automobiles, stores, and houses, their lights reflected on the surrounding snow, and it might be noted that the chairman of our 30th Reunion committee gets about the same kick from its set-up and operation as he did twenty-eight years ago.
A POPULAR AND LOYAL '17 FAMILY, the Brookses, pose for posterity last summer. Left to right, Bill, Betty, Helen and Treasurer Don.
Secretary, P. O. Box 533, Huntington, Indiana
Treasurer, 9 Park Terrace, Upper Montclair, N. J.
