1926
A new month rolls around, and with it comes good news of another stalwart member of the class of 1926. We call on TomMurdough to arise and take his bow while the following release on the letterhead of American Hospital Supply Corporation of Evanston, Ill., is duly inscribed in the record: "Foster G. McGaw, President of American Hospital Supply Corporation, announces that Thomas G. Murdough, General Sales Manager, was elected a Vice President of the Corporation at a recent meeting of the Board. American, which does the largest business volume in its industry, serves all the hospitals of the nation through four decentralized divisions with headquarters in Evanston, New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. Executive Offices are in Evanston." With 1946 hospital sales 60% above 1945 and net earnings considerably more than double it is clear that Tom has been in there pitching as General Sales Manager.
Paul Allen writes that his work on acquisitions for the United Nations Library is proving to be an extremely interesting experience and a great opportunity despite the long hours and difficulties of carrying on at present in seriously inadequate facilities at Lake Success and with an undermanned staff. A year ago the United Nations owned one book, a Bible donated for use at- the San Francisco Conference. They now own 25,000 volumes and are acquiring additional material at the rate of 50,000 volumes a year in addition to subscriptions to 1000 newspapers and periodicals. Starting from scratch to build what will become one of the world's important libraries is indeed a monumental undertaking. Our accolade to Paul for this opportunity to have a part in history in the making and for the job he is doing under difficult conditions. Imagine our surprise to pick up the telephone of a recent Saturday morning and hear the voice of Monty Colladay calling from nearby Cambridge. The last we had heard from our Foreign Service officer he was still on duty at the American Legation in Dublin, but it seems that orders to a new assignment had come through, including a long-awaited
"home leave," so he and Nina and the three girls had themselves a skiing holiday in Switzerland and then proceeded home on the America. Some years ago, as we recall it, Monty wrote an account for the 1926 Bulletin of the experience of moving his family in the midst of war from Estonia across Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Southern France, Spain and Portugal and thence across the Atlantic. To this stodgy old suburbanite the sequel is equally impressive. Until 1943 the Colladays were stationed in the relative peace of Winnipeg, with the family all under one roof. Then came Monty's assignment to the U. S. group maintaining diplomatic relations with the half-dozen Governments-In-Exile in London. Those were no days to be taking a family to London so Monty went on alone and Nina moved the girls out to Santa Barbara to wait it out. By the fall of 1944 enough of that was enough; the twins, Jean and Joan, went off to boarding school in New York and Nina wangled passage for herself and Diana on a small, ancient and decrepit Portuguese freighter which gave them an 18-day nightmare from Philadelphia to Lisbon. After recuperating in Lisbon for a week they flew on to London and their worries were over, except of course for the buzz bombs and V-2S, none of which landed closer than half a mile.
As the war in Europe came to an end Monty's assignment in London was completed and the next move was to Dublin as secretary to the U. S. Legation. They were lucky enough to find one of the few houses with central heating in Dublin but even so they shivered the year around in austerity and heavy woolens. In the summer of '45 arrangements were made for the twins, then 14, to sail over from New York on an army transp ort; the only hitch in this plan developed when the twins arrived unexpectedly at our embassy in London shortly before the cable announcing their departure from New York reached Dublin. It was only a matter of a few hours flying, however, to get them all under one roof again, and all was well.
Monty's new assignment will take him to our consular office at Sao Paulo, Brazil, to which the whole family will proceed later this spring. Sao Paulo is large, modern and industrial, and reported to be the fastestgrowing city in the world. Our consular office there is one of our largest and most active. With a sizeable American colony resident in the city, excellent living conditions and a sub-tropical climate it will be a welcome change after the war years in London and Dublin. In the meantime the U.S.A. looks mighty good to the Colladays and it is likewise good to have them here.
By the time this column reaches you the Alumni Fund for 1947 will be in full swing. Our personal hope is that 1926 may again this year hit the peak of over 400 contributions which we had before the war. Dollar-wise we did a superlative job in recent years to help the college through the stress of war conditions. Over the same period, however, our number of contributors has gradually declined, probably an inevitable result of the many individual dislocations of one kind and another which the war brought about. Now we are pretty well back to normal again. Let's all pitch in our share this year and do the really 100% job past records show are our normal standard. It's up to each one of us.
NOTES AND COMMENTS DEPT.: The Big Green's post-season victory over Yale to settle the league championship was the best college hockey game we ever saw. The game was played on neutral ice here in Boston, a break for those of us who missed the Harvard game the night of the Boston Alumni dinner Changes of address reported through the Alumni Records Office: Charlie Countryman, 415 North Central Avenue, Rockford, Ill.; Charlie Elliott, 16 Francis Avenue, Wakefield, Mass.; Everett Leyser, 4909 Chamberlayne Avenue, Richmond, Va.; Jim Somenille, 6439 Melita Road, Santa Rosa, Cal.; Roland Eaton, 2614 Hanover Avenue, Richmond, Va
Both Paul Allen and Ed Hanlon spotted and forwarded a N. Y. newspaper item stating that Chuck Hornburg has announced his resignation as advertising and public relations director for Hunt Foods, Inc., of Los Angeles. This was our first news of Chuck in a long time. In fact we need thorough and up-todate coverage on a lot of you Californians. Won't somebody be a nice guy and write a letter?
Tubber Weymouth reports the addition of Dr. Bob Lowe to our Up-State New York delegation. Bob was recently appointed assistant medical director of the Rochester General Hospital following some t±y2 years of service in the army The weekly class luncheons in Boston continue to be well attended and we hope any visiting firemen who happen to be in town of a Wednesday will make a point of joining us (Thompson's Spa on Washington St., at t o'clock). Recent meetings were enlivened by Monty Colladay's description of the political situation in Ireland to Jim Sullivan, Hal Trefethen's graphic picture of the sanitary conditions of an eating establishment in China which he patronized through force of circumstances, and by the quips of Bill Barclay who had brought his teeth up from Providence to see a local dentist
The week-end of June 21 looks like a good one for our annual informal get-together in Hanover. Better plan to be there!
NICE WORK AND GOOD COMPANY: Louis Jean (Bus) Heydt '26 and his distinguished partner, Helen Hayes, play the leads in the stage comedy "Happy Birthday/' A Hollywood veteran, Bus has shifted to Broadway.
Secretary, 140 Federal Street, Boston 10, Mass Treasurer, 131 California Drive, Williamsville, N. Y. Memorial Fund Chairman c/o Lord and Taylor, 424 Fifth Ave. New York 18, N. Y.
