1923
These lines are being composed in the piney woods of Mississippi, where we have some acreage devoted to the growing of tung trees. This is the time of year when the tung nuts mature and fall to the ground, to be harvested and hauled to a mill, where the tung oil is obtained from them which finds its way into the finest paints and varnishes. As a matter of fact, today is the last day of our visit here, and turning out these notes is one of a number of last-minute jobs that must be done before we head north early in the morning. Not the least fascinating of these details is the frequent inspection of OLGA, THE DISPLACED TOMATO WORM, who appears to be having pups, or something. When we first noticed her, about a week ago, hidden in a sprig of dogwood which I had fetched into the house to decorate the table, she was sleek, glossy, contented, and quite normal. Then, starting a couple of days ago, she put out little white blobs, all over, quit eating, and started to shrink. It seems a shame that we have to leave tomorrow, with OLGA just sitting there shrinking, and covered with white blobs, with no way for us to ever know what happened next.
In last month's ALMAG, in our Class column, there was a picture of Charley Akin and his wife, in old fashioned costumes they donned in connection with the premiere of "Down to the Sea in Ships." We are happy to be able to give you Charley's story, since graduation.
"After leaving Hanover in 1923 I worked for a few months in a coal yard in Providence, R. I. Then I joined a family organization here in New Bedford, the Akin-Denison Cos., a corporation es- tablished in 1850 and dealing in fuel and paint. I am now treasurer of this concern, and looking forward to celebrating our 100 th year in 1950. I am a director of the First National Bank of New Bedford and a trustee of the New Bedford Institution for Savings. In 1930 I married Amantha A. Arnold of Barrington, R. I. We had Seth K. Akin, now 16, and Helen, who is 13 now Jeanie Galloway and I were married in 1948. The Quaker costumes we wore for the "Down to the Sea in Ships" premiere were more than 100 years old .... the hat I had on belonged to my great grandfather."
This year there are 13 freshmen in Hanover whose fathers are '23 men. The lucky 13 are Hal Bishop's boy John, Hal Buell's boy Dickinson, Vic Cannon's Junior, Bob Chaloner's Junior, Dwight Haigh's George, Clary Goss' Donald C., Sylvester Parsons III, Art Little Jr., Charles Lundberg's son Karl, Paul McKown's son Ted, Leon Sargent's son John, George Weston's son George, and John Charles Zimmerman III.
1923 Executive Committee member SumnerSollitt, head of Sumner S. Sollitt Co., builders, Chicago, was Commodore of the Chicago Yacht Club for his second successful term, this past summer. Sum's son Young Sumner, who graduated in Hanover in 1948, is with his father in business. Young Young Sumner, now about 10 months, is also doing fine.
We learn that Len Marshall, whose grim smile of satisfaction you may observe in the photograph which accompanies this column, has been out in New Mexico for 15 years. In the insurance business in Silver City, Len manages to spend about a third of his time away from there, hunting and fishing in the West, and in Mexico. The Marshalls have two kids.
This past fall Professor and Mrs. ArthurE. Gordon returned from a year's stay in Italy. Art is a professor of Latin at University of California, Berkeley. His study of conditions in Italy convinced him that the two great forces keeping that country out of the Communist camp are the Catholic church and the Marshall Plan. He is sure that without American aid Italy long ago would have turned to Russia to solve her problems. Further, "many Italians, educated people among them, feel that conditions were much better under the fascists. They express the opinion that Mussolini made only one mistake: that of joining Hitler. The Italians themselves do not feel any particular guilt about the war, and since they hate war they experience no shame in accepting American aid. A number of Italians seem to feel that this aid is owed them." The Gordons worked in museums, researching paleographical material, during his sabbatical.
In a recent office appliance trade journal, heading up the copy in a column called Industry Personnel Brevities, there appears a story about Ted Caswell. Here is what they have to say:
"A career wi.h F. S. "Webster Company, Cambridge, Mass., spanning the years since 1927, has brought F. H. Caswell a wealth of experience in his particular field and the rank of vice president. His particular talents in selling were soon recognized and by 1931 he held the position of sales manager. In 1942 he was named vice president. A Dartmouth man, class of 1923, who won varsity recognition in the sports of baseball and soccer, Mr. Caswell had four years of experience selling automobiles and refrigerators before he teamed up with F. S. Webster."
Your correspondent has had word from Shiner Beggs, at some length, and the letter is so good and newsy we are pleased as punch to come up with it here in toto. Here is Shiner:
"I lived in Rockport, Mass., after the 1929 smash ended my Farm Journal space selling days. Moved back to my home territory (Glen Ridge, N.J., and N.Y.C.) in 1939, and after a few false starts I shook off the life insurance brokering business for a berth on House Beautiful magazine sales staff. Now cover N.Y. state and Canada, plus accounts in New York City. Back in the early 'forties I joined the alimony brigade, and although I think marriage is a wonderful institution I've learned to dislike regimentation, and I'm still single. As I grow older I become increasingly fastidious and less desirable!
"My trips to Syracuse are made very pleasant by my contacts there with Jim Brown of our class, who graduated from Syracuse, and who is vice president of Moser and Cotins Advertising Agency in Utica. Spare evenings are kept well occupied in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse (in winter) skating at their respective figure skating clubs. Horace Taylor is the only '23er I've met around those parts. I've now arranged my life so that I can skate several times a week 10 months in the year. I took up this hobby 2 years ago, and it has done wonders for my physical condition. By the way/ it was wonderful to see Frankie Doten and his lovely brand-new bride some months ago, both of them eager, youthful, and completely happy. They were on their way to Rio, where Frankie works for Gillette Safety Razor."
From two sources has come the intelligence that Halsey Mills has added song writing to his other and varied accomplishments. We submit the following quote from the Marblehead Messenger of June 9, re: the graduating ceremonies of Marblehead High: "A new school song, composed by Halsey H. Mills, father of Headley Hall Mills, a prominent member of the graduating class, was sung for the first time, by the high school chorus. The song is entitled, 'Cradled by the Sea.'" Re: Halsey himself, another informant advises: "Halsey hasn't one gray hair and is just as dapper as when he was in college. He has been New England Manager for Cuprinol, Ltd., manufacturers of wood preservative."
Probably a number of you noted, not without satisfaction, the press reports, a few months back, of the part our John K. Norton played in the annual meeting of the National Education Association. It was John who proposed the ban on Communist teachers, in his capacity as chairman of the commission on educational policies. In a verbal tilt with Rose Russell, legislative representative of the C.1.0. teacher's union of New York City, Commission Chairman Norton identified himself with the views of commission members Gen. Eisenhower and Harvard President Conant, which Miss Russell called "ill-conceived, ill-timed, and ill-omened."
The magazine Hospital Topics and Buyer recently featured '23's own Lester Richwagen, superintendent of the Mary Fletcher hospital in Burlington, Vt., as the "personality of the month." Richwagen took the job five years ago, resigning as state director of the War Production Board. Prior to that he worked on newspapers in Concord, Maine, Bellows Falls, and Barre, and taught in the Concord High School directly after graduation from Dartmouth. Rich has four children, a flock of hobbies operated jointly with the kids, and seems to thrive on hard work.
After two whacks at running the Annual '23 Father and Son dinner in Hanover, BillGates has retired on his laurels, with the thanks of the class, and particularly those who have attended the parties he superintended, following him into the comparative quiet of his department store business. The three Hanoverians, Neidlinger, Pollard and Stewart, have taken over, with Joe Pollard as Committee Chairman. If you have a son in college, or some boy you'd like to play Dad to for the occasion, get lined up to take in the affair. Follow Skiddoo for details.
QUESTIONNAIRE COMING
There is a job to be done, which your correspondent proposes to do, in building the Class (and the College) files re: the members of the class. We mean that we need to have a lot more dope about a lot more people, than we have, for use in such col- umns as this, for Skiddoo, for the archives. All of this calls for a questionnaire, from me to you, and it won't be long now. When it arrives, please check any temptation you may have to pitch it into the garbage can. Instead, fill it out and send it in. You'll earn and receive a thousand thanks from this scribe, we can assure you.
CRAVEN KICKS THROUGH
And thanks to Jim Landauer for the following WAY BACK WHEN story, another of the series of nostalgic episodes which we started to run last year in this column. This one's about Craven Laycock, and here it is:
"You may recall that during our senior year Roy Brown and I distinguished ourselves and confounded the local medics by contracting whooping cough. For a period of a couple of months I was checked and rechecked by sawbones in Hanover, New York, and Boston, with the result that I missed many classes. By the time Junior Prom time rolled around I had pretty well recovered, except for an occasional explosive hack. Anyhow, I had asked a gal up to the party (the present Mrs. Landauer), and in accepting the invitation her mother had stipulated that since she was coming all the way from Atlanta, Ga., for the event I would have to come down to New York and meet her, so she wouldn't have so far to travel alone in that 'strange Northern country.' This, of course, I had promised to do, without realizing that this would mean my 16th cut in my major, French. The rule read that any student who is absent more than 15 times in any course in one semester automatically loses credit for the course. When I became aware of this situation I naturally went to see Craven, in my dilemma, as I most definitely needed the hours to graduate. We had a long and detailed conversation covering my promise to the girl's mother, my scholastic needs, my pending graduation or non-graduation, my parents' reactions, the effect on my future, etc., etc. At the finish, he said, with finality, that a trustees' rule was a trustees' rule, and that he could not make an exception, even though he was sorry about it. With an exceedingly heavy heart I rose and prepared to leave his office. When I reached the threshold he called to me, 'by the way, Landauer, is the girl that goodlooking girl you introduced me to in Atlanta last fall?' When I replied that she was that same girl, he continued, 'Well, as I said, a rule is a rule, but if you can arrange with Prof. Patterson not to take a record of class attendance that day you are supposed to be in New York to meet the girl, it certainly will be all right with me.' You could have knocked me over by looking at mel The door was open to a complete solution. Thanks to Craven's humanness, I was able to meet my girl and still graduate with the rest of the gang."
LOOKINC AHEAD
It isn't too early to start laying plans to take in next summer's RUMP REUNION in Hanover. Expect startling news re: sharply reduced cost of accommodations for the occasion, to be released sometime soon in Skiddoo.
A SHORT CHEER
for the gang in and around Boston and in and around New York, for the lively goingson they have organized for '23ers. Nice going!
REMINDER
Send your check for $5.00 for class dues to Colin Stewart, 5 Tyler Road, Hanover, if you haven't done so. It costs the Class $2.80 to send you your ALUMNI MAGAZINE for a year, which is one good reason he needs your check.
A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU.
NO WONDER Len Marshall '23 is lost in admiration for his catch—Large Mouth Bass that came from the tricky depths near La Boquilla, Mexico.
Secretary, 1 1425 Astor St., Chicago 10, 111.
Treasurer, 5 Tyler Rd., Hanover, N. H.
Memorial Fund Chairman, 744 Broad St., Newark, N. J.
