The 60th Reunion of 1888
IT is HARDLY CORRECT to apply the word "reunion" to the sole individual who returned to Hanover for June 11-13, that the Class of '88 should have representation at its 60th anniversary. The June MAGAZINE reported our Exeter gathering, which decided the inability of other members to attend and collectively form a reunion. So the Secretary, with son Richard, Dartmouth '27 as aide and chauffeur, his good wife as chief adviser and his cane for a prop, made the journey to the town so beloved by Dartmouth men. A pleasant surprise was the appearance of son Laurence, Dartmouth '29, both boys taking pleasure seeing Father at his 60th.
Never was the country more beautiful, even if the sun had scarcely shown for three weeks. There was no ideal Commencement weather, but the only rain was timed perfectly to spoil the procession and exercises at the Bema.
At the 50-year reunion, seventeen of our Class greeted President and Mrs. Hopkins at the President's reception, and this year President and Mrs. Dickey were most cordial hosts to the alumni. The ten years' toll of our classmates seemed exceptional. Along with the lone '88 man were four members of '87 and five of '89 to greet the new President and to receive a kind word from Pres. Emeritus and Mrs. Hopkins.
The other details must be summarized. The 1948 Class Day procession of 465 men in caps and gowns made an imposing line. There were more than seven men to each one of the 64 men of '88, who were clad in Prince Albert coats and straw hats on Class Day. My personal interest centered on the short man at the end of the line where I had competed with several others for the termination in 1888. It was a temptation to the entire '88 delegation to shout to him, "Hang on, Son, and in 2008 you may be as lonesome as I am now! Don't let that big number worry you—this is the era of inflation, and you will arrive easily in six decades!"
At the library a glass case prominently displayed the '88 senior photographs of the living, men, Avery, Dunlap, Clark, Ela, Keay, Pattee, Lougee and Williams, with Paul plainly marked in the freshman picture. The fifty-six men who were not there have passed with a record of earnest work and influential lives, through which ran the warp of four years at the old Alma Mater.
The small college had its advantages. To the men of our generation it meant close friendships, leisurely training for four years under a sound faculty and expenses that now seem trivial. Added to these were the colonial village, the fencedin campus and the happiness of youth. We saw the first electric light for a short hour in the physics laboratory on the first floor of Reed Hall, never thinking that the College would sometime possess its own lighting system. The basic improvements of light, water and steam heat were scarcely dreamed of then. The rumor of one change disturbs us—that the new Wilder Dam at Olcott Falls will raise the Connecticut River twelve feet, flooding Vermont farms and much of our Vale of Tempe, and encroaching upon the Golf Course. This is sheer vandalism! Think of having to view the Vale of Tempe through a glass-bottomed boat!
REPRESENTS 1888 AT 60TH REUNION: William W. Lougee, secretary of the Class of 'BB, returned to Hanover for his 60th reunion and was accom- panied by his two sons, Laurence and Richard.
CLASS SECRETARY
