Twenty-Three's Twenty-Fifth
THE BIG SHOW lived up to its advance billing and the expectations of every Jack, Jill and little Jack and Jill (a description which amounts to poetic license so far as the kids are concerned) who piled into Hanover. About one hundred enthusiasts were Thursday arrivals. They couldn't wait until Friday, the official opening day, but the College dealt with this housing problem in a philosophical manner and no one slept in the Bema, so far as we know.
The next thing you should know, if you weren't on deck for the Twenty-Fifth, is that the program unrolled without halts or hitches, as smooth as silk, although it was an ambitious roster of events, and 458 '23 people were on hand. Even the rain wasn't too serious a set-back, for there were no hard downpours during the one day of dubious weather, and the other three days were just what they should have beensunny and warm enough.
The smooth operation of all organized activity was, of course, no accident. CharlieRiceA chairman of the Reunion Committee, did a whale of a job, both in advance of and during the gathering of the clan, and so did his gang of committee-men and women, who were as follows: Charles B.Rice, chairman; Frederick A. Davis, treasurer; Joseph G. Pollard, buffets; FrederickH. Caswell, banquet; Sidney J. Flanigan, publicity; Alvin L. Pianca, store and beer; and John D. Booth, music.
Ladies Committee: Alice Pollard, Chairman; Marion Neidlinger, Juliette Palmer, Alice Flanigan, Elaine Stewart, Olive Caswell, Jeannette Rice, and Opal Marie Zimmerman.
The 174 men, 118 wives and 166 children took over Ripley, Woodward, Smith, Topliff, New Hampshire and Middle Fayer. A super-sized tent next to Ripley handled cocktail parties, breakfasts, a steady consumption of beer, music, singing, and Red Carbaugh's bid for the theatrical trade, a buck and wing dance with samba overtones which finally demolished the table on which it was performed.
The men and the boys were outfitted with white hats bearing '23 numerals, and the women and girls with very attractive white and green handbags. The bags were designed by Mrs. Charlie Zimmerman (Opal Marie to the Reunion gang), and Ted Shapleigh did some plain and fancy scheming in arranging the manufacture of these good-looking jobs. Everyone also received a man-size badge with his or her name in big letters. The Irishman wore two of these, one for himself and one for Elmer Satchelfanny, his good friend and ours. This same Irishman had performed so well in preceding months in tying a can to the idea of any of us being embarrassed if we failed to recognize and call a brother by his right name at first encounter, that there was a pleasant absence of fluster and red faces when old pals didn't come up fast with each other's labels.
The people who travelled the farthest to reach the party were Monk Keith from Costa Rica, Fred and Betty Fisher from Portland, Ore., and the Browns from Toreon, Mexico—Roy and Maddy and sons Jigger and Jack.
The largest family on deck were the Colin Stewarts from Hanover. Colin andElaine, and their three sons Colin IV (the Olympic skier), Andy and Bob, and daughters Nancy and Mary, were this prize crew of seven.
Lou Van Or den's two grandchildren were around and about, and Lou shared with the Sum Sollitt the pleasure of watching sons graduate.
People registered, moved in, and got organized during the morning and afternoon of Friday and showed up in very large numbers and in excellent spirits at the first event of the day at 5 p.m., a cocktail party in the tent. This was like most cocktail parties, if you know what we mean, except that it has seldom been your correspondent's privilege to see such genuine friendliness and affection shown by people of any group. The depth of our feeling of fellowship is really a striking thing. The community of interest that all the men, women, boys a;nd girls of our class share has made us all kin, and classmates and their families who would pretty much be strangers, under ordinary conditions, because of long lapses between visits, are not strangers, but good friends.
Saturday morning, the gang was due on the steps of Dartmouth Hall for the class picture, and because of the size of the crowd, the picture had to become three pictures, in order to include everyone. All three pictures may be had, bald heads, paunches, at al, from Pierce Studio, Main Street, Hanover, N. H., for $1.00 for the set, a special bargain price, by the way.
When the shooting ended, the men of the class, and some of their ladies, moved inside Dartmouth Hall for the class meeting. This was a short, snappy affair, concerned only with the election of officers. The slate presented by Ralph Duffy, in behalf of the nominating committee, whose chairman Sherm Baldwin could not be presented, was "ayed" into office by the unanimous vote common to class groups electing officers at Reunion, accompanied by gavelpounding by the Irishman and his declaration that the election was a perfect manifestation of the democratic process at its best! The worthies who thus wrested control of class destinies away from the Flanigan Gang are Truman T. Metzel, secretary-chairman; Colin Stewart, treasurer; Lee Young, class agent; and an executive committee composed of Bill Juergens, BillKimball, Dud Pope, Joe Pick, and SumSollitt, all of Chicago, Vic Cannon of Cleveland, Karl Williams of Rockford, Ill., Jim Broe of Boston, and Cap Palmer of Los Angeles. This outfit immediately went into a huddle with Irish and negogiated a contract with the Irishman under the terms of which he will continue to sparkplug the class with his Skiddoo, as long as your correspondent wants him to handle that job, which is another way of saying that Irish will keep at it until death do us part, so far as I am concerned!
Saturday afternoon there was a baseball game, and a Ross McKenney picnic for the boys and girls. Dartmouth beat Maryland 3 to 0, a one-hit victory for pitcher Amirault. The picnic was held on Oak Hill, with 166 sons and daughters there, plus another 20-odd undergraduate dates, who had moved fast to squire a flock of '23 daughters in and around the simmering bean pots.
The only serious trouble we had with the weather produced a shift in the locale of the cocktail party from the Hanover Inn lawn to the tent. This was no calamity as the tent leaked only slightly and no leaks appeared over the piano and the musicians and choirsters who were draped over it most of the time.
Charlie Rice had lined up a photographer to sashay candidly about in a sort of unbeknownst manner, so that all during the Reunion people were having their individual pictures taken, most of them without knowing it. All this snooping added up, by the time Reunion was over, to more than 100 such pictures. These are being mailed to those who were snapped, for free, and a set is being kept with the permanent class records. Additional copies may be had for $.25 from Pierce Studios, Hanover.
The Class Banquet in the Colonial Room of Thayer Hall (a new college eating place to many of us) was the top attraction of the Reunion. While the men attended this banquet, the ladies dealt with a similarly delicious lobster dinner in the D.O.C. House on Occum Pond, and again had fun and again proved to themselves, their husbands, and all observers/that being the wife of a Dartmouth '23'er is a ticket to membership in the Class, without diploma, so to speak, but membership in good standing nonetheless.
The Class Banquet, as we have said, was the top attraction. It was a tremendous success, and will remain long in the memory of every man who was there, to take its place with impressive ceremonies of our college days, as an occasion of rich fellowship and rededication to the College and its purposes.
Guests were the Deans of the College, Neidlinger, Morrison and Morse; George Colton, Secretary of the Alumni and Memorial Funds; Al Dickerson, Director of Admissions; Eddie Chamberlain, retiring Assistant Director of Admissions and new Assistant Director of Athletics (do you see any significance for future Dartmouth athletics in that shift?); Don Cameron, College Reunion Chairman and head of the Personnel-Placement Bureau; Ben Milberg, an ardent Dartmouth supporter; Father Sliney, now of Franconia; Bishop Dallas, now of Concord, N. H.; Professor Morgan, the class advisor of our college days; John Moore, Ted Caswell (capable banquet chairman); Charley Rice, and Truman Metzel. John L. Sullivan '21, a Hanover visitor who joined us, was introduced by the Irishman as "Secretary of the Navy and Assistant Mayor of Hanover." This was corrected to "Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Mayor of Hanover," to Sullivan's obvious amusement.
The speakers were Bishop Dallas, Jules Rippel, who presented our Memorial Fund Gift, President Dickey, who accepted it for the College, Pudge Neidlinger and President-Emeritus Hopkins. Bishop Dallas' invocation was an eloquent tribute to the values which are a part of the Dartmouth fellowship.
Jules Rippel arose to tell us that our class had shattered all records for Memorial Fund Gifts, had topped its own quota of $lOO,OOO (three times as large a figure as any previous gift), and was presenting to the College a gift of $109,355.40. The contributions came from 431 givers, 93% of the number of men in the Class. Jules spoke to President Dickey of our love for the College, of our faith in its future and particularly of our privilege, as alumni of Dartmouth, to have a voice in the conduct of Dartmouth affairs. We hope Jules will long remember the applause he received from his classmates, who thunderously thanked him for his marvelous leadership in making our gift the whopper it was.
President Dickey, in accepting our gift, said that demonstrations of Class solidarity and strength and affection for Dartmouth are among the most impressive of all experiences that are his as Dartmouth's President, and that the strength of the College comes from strong classes such as ours.
Pudge Neidlinger, deeply moved, as were all of us who listened to Mr. Dickey, told us of his own love for his class and for his College and said that he would not trade the future 25 years, no matter how full of satisfaction they might be, for the 25 years which had passed, and the joys of being a classmate in 1933 during that time.
Mr. Hopkins, as you know, was present in response to our very urgent appeal that he be with us. He infrequently consents to join gatherings such as this one but told us that he would have been disappointed not to have had an opportunity to join with us and talk to us. Mr. Hopkins said that ours is his favorite class because ours was the first class to enter after the period of flux which endured during the first World War and which started us with enthusiasm and purpose and which has set the pace ever since. He closed his talk by saying,
"I am proud to belong to a college which can produce a class like 1923 and proud to know a class like yours which can produce a college like Dartmouth."
It would be incomplete and dishonest reporting of an evening we will never forget if it were not reported here that when Hoppy stopped talking and Irish asked Jack Booth to lead "Men of Dartmouth," the eyes of most of the men in that room were wet with tears. And when that song had been sung and Irish had said, "I wish God's blessing on you, your families and those you love, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart," there certainly was no man there who did not feel like saying, "Thank God for my fellowship in Dartmouth College."
That is the story this correspondent has to tell you about our 25th Reunion, except for this: that all of us who were there missed all of you who were not there and hope to see you soon.
And here is the list of the record-smashing crowd of '23'ers who were there:
Adams, John P. Akin, C. Gardner Jr. Alcorn, Howard W. Bailey, Frederic S. Baker, H. Dean Baker, Harold A. Baldensperger, A. F. Baldwin, Sherman Barker, Raymond M. Billings, George M. Billings, Roger S. Bishop, Charles H. Bird, Major Bixby, Chesley T. Blake, Wilson C. Booth, John D. Bourne, Henry T. Broe, James A. Brown, James N. Brown, Leßoy T. Buckley, R. J. Bundy, C. LeGrand Burch, Thomas L. Burke, Charles F. Cannon, Victor M. Carbaugh, Eugene Carpenter, Russell P. Carson, J. Nevin Caswell, F. H. Charles, R. F. Clark, Fre'derick P. Clough, Sherman Coller, Robert Cook, Warren Coulter, C. H. Curts, Charles W. Daley, Wilbur S. Davis, Frederick A. Dixon, Ira Duffy, Ralph E. Dunton, Ralph E. Donovan, Francis B. Dodge, James W. Elliott, Glendon M. Everit, Arthur M.
Fay, C. Norman Ferguson, George W. Fisher, Frederic A. Fitz, Harold S. Flanigan, Sidney J. Forbush, Dallas H. Flindell, E. F. Freeman, L. L. Friend, Walter Fuller, George Gates, Walter Gordon, C. F. Gordon, Norman S. Granger, Carl B. Goss, Clarence E. Gray, Carl A. Grover, Louis E. Guppy, John W. Harding, Lyman C. Harmon, N. Palmer Haubrich, Bernard P. Height, R. Leßoy Hennessy, James J. Hera, Adrian A. Hopkins, Edward B. Home, Samuel P. Horan, George B. Hudson, Henry W. Jr. Hurd, Kenneth B. Jones, Charles H. Juergens, William F. Keith, Henry M.. Kelly, William P. King, Donald B. Knight, F. Stuart Landauer, James D. Laventall, Edward S. Levine, Sol C. Little, Arthur F. Lombardi, Joseph C. Lyle, Edgar R. Leach, Walker Lee, John H. Lynch, Edward B. Martin, Ivan J.
Mason, George H. Matless, Leonard I. May, Mitchell Jr. McMillan, Robert L. Meleney, George L. Merritt, Alfred I. Millar, Joseph A. S. Mills, Miles M. Miner, Theodore R. Monger, Wendell G. Moore, John E. Morgan, F. Paul Morrell, George A. Musk, George H. Metzel, Truman T. Myers, John V. Neidlinger, Lloyd K. Norton, Thomas L. O'Gara, Frank J. Osborne, James M. Palmer, C. A.
Palmer, Brooks Peters, Edward W. Perkins, Henry J. Phillips, E. I. Pick, J. R. Pollard, Joseph G. Pope, J. Dudley Pianca, A. L. Quencer, K. C. Rahmanop, W. B. Read, John M. Rice, C. B. Roe, Edward G. Robinson, C. A. Ross, Lewis H. Rippel, Julius A. Rubin, Emanuel H. Ryan, William A. Sammis, Howard D. Sargent, Leon F. Scaling, Charles W.
Scammon, George R. Schiffenhaus, Joseph W. Segal, Philip Shapleigh, T. D. Silberman, Sidney Slate, Justin R. Stewart, Colin C. Soley, Paul J. Sollitt, Sumner S. . Smith, Ruel S. Smith, J. Francis Swartzbaugh, Ted B. Taber, Rae K. Taylor, John D. Taylor, James T. Temple, W. Leßoy Truesdell, Leonard W. Turnbull, Leonard F. Udall, Richard-M. Ungar, S. F.
Van Orden, Louis J. Wadleigh, Winthrop Wagner, Philip T. Way, B. Kendall Welch, William B. Weston, George F. Whitcomb, Pemberton White, Samuel C. Whiteside, George W. Robert Wilcox, Louis Wilkinson, Ralph B. Wilkinson, Roger Williams, Karl C. Wilner, Ellis H. Wallace, William H. Yaffe, Samuel Young, L. H. Jr. Zimmerman, C. J. Zimmerman, John C.
ALL OF THE 150 MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE CLASS OF 1919 TURNED OUT EN MASSE FOR THEIR OFFICIAL REUNION PICTURE
1923 CAME BACK IN SUCH RECORD-BREAKING NUMBERS THAT IT WAS NECESSARY TO TAKE THE REUNION PICTURE IN THREE SECTIONS
1923 CAME BACK IN SUCH RECORD-BREAKING NUMBERS THAT IT WAS NECESSARY TO TAKE THE REUNION PICTURE IN THREE SECTIONS
1923 CAME BACK IN SUCH RECORD-BREAKING NUMBERS THAT IT WAS NECESSARY TO TAKE THE REUNION PICTURE IN THREE SECTIONS
ALUMNI LUNCHEON SPEAKER: John Moore, class agent for the Class of 1923, is shown presiding at the luncheon held for alumni and graduates.
CLASS SECRETARY
