1933

A special courier from Editor Widmayer informed us a few hours ago that we had finally won the unenviable distinction of being the only one of the class secretaries who had not yet delivered his notes for the December issue. We're crushed. Furthermore we're hurt to think that such hitherto reliable laggards as Dave Austin, Jim Farley and Sonny Drury have left us in the lurch this way. What's the matter with these guys, do they all want to be conformists or something, like Alex McFarland, and have to take up figure skating to relieve their tensions?

So we have no choice now but get off the hook as best we can. Fortunately, the frosty silence we reported last month having settled over '33 has been followed by a mild thaw, and we have a thing, or two to pass on.

Via Sam Black a letter from Jim Walker. Jim is a specialist in neurological surgery at the Scott & White Clinic in Temple, Texas. He wrote:

My time since graduation has been pretty much occupied with training in a rather specialized branch of surgery which was interrupted for a few years by the war. I was in the Southwest Pacific nearly three years where I commanded a Portable Surgical Hospital and managed to get back safely with nothing more than a few attacks of malaria. I have been married for 10 years and have two small boys at this writing with what seems like an excellent possibility of a third offspring in the very near future. It has been a long time since I have seen anyone from the Class, altho' in the years when I was around Boston I occasionally saw Art Connelly. Time and fortune seem to move me further from Hanover as the years go on. but perhaps some day I may be able to make a Reunion.

Among miscellaneous items: John Blumenthal and frau were in town briefly in October but steered clear of yr. sec'y. so we have no further details to report. Among the Dartmouths who received advanced degrees from Harvard last summer was Ted Purcell, who received an M.A. George Farrand is treasurer of the Dartmouth Club of New York. The Dartmouth Club News (N. Y.) reported recently that Gobin Stair was combining his interest in art with the printing business in N. Y. C.

Came a good letter a week or so ago from Gene Merkt reporting the birth of a son and sundry matters which we will let him post you on:

A couple of months ago, to be precise on July 30, my second son, one Richard Alan, entered this vale of tears and laughter, and since it seems fitting I hereby announce the advent of another candidate (I hope) for about the Class of 1969 or 1970. He's a husky little guy who at this age looks like he might come in handy as an end or fullback—but he has the lungs of a cheerleader, even if inclined to use them at unseemly nocturnal hours As for the rest of us, Dougy is now four, Nona still tolerates me and I continue to spend most of my days at the Pennsylvania Co. for Banking and Trusts (until recently the Pa. Co. for Insurances on Lives and Granting Annuities, though it hadn't insured a life or granted an annuity in the memory of the oldest inhabitant). Anyway, I still worry about the market, and since last January I have done my worrying under cover of the lowest grade of brass—having at that time been elected Assistant Trust Investment Officer—which has the dubious distinction of being the longest title in the shop, and consequently is the despair of all the poor typists, who have to worry about fitting it all into one line So there it is, hardly exciting, but at least you know I'm still among the living.

Thanks, Gene, and we offer up a prayer that others will shortly follow your good example. They could all be daid, or isolated on some seven-storied mountain, for all they've let us hear of them.

The weekend of the Colgate game brought quite a number to the Plain, most of whom we managed to at least catch a glimpse of. Had a word or two with Ev Shineman at the Outing Club Friday night. Ev had managed to tear himself away from his New York milk business for a couple of days. Same evening, same place, said hello to Jus Stanley, in from Chicago on Alumni Council business. This ain't official and we haven't got any inside dope, but we have reason to believe that Jus is serving, at his own expense, on a Special Alumni Committee on Professors' English, the counterpart, on a higher level, of the Faculty Committee on Student English. Calling on the Jack Wrights up on Pill Hill on Sunday afternoon we found Dave andDeedee Russell, up from New Jersey and Wall Street.

After the game on Saturday Bedlam Manor staged a small celebration, which shortly developed into a pint-size reunion. Among the ringleaders: Sam and Jean Black, Don andMuggs D'Arcy. Manny Sprague and son Danny dropped in for a while, just long enough for us to learn that Manny's career in politics in Connecticut and his law practise have both built up to the point where, shortly, something will have to give. The reports we've received from our scouts in Connecticut on the good work Manny has done in the Legislature lead us to hope that some way out other than dropping political office will be found. Manny reported that he saw something of Ster Wheeler from time to time. Last we'd heard Ster was in Mexico for Young & Rubicam. Still with the same firm he is now working in New York and making his home in New Canaan, Conn. There's a new baby, too, but the statistics haven't reached us yet.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

LIBERTY MUTUAL EXECUTIVE: Robert C. Mattox '32 of Millis, Mass., former sales promotion man- ager, is now assistant vice-president of the Boston Insurance Company.

Secretary, 20 Valley Rd., Hanover, N. H.

Treasurer, 2812 Grant Bldg., Pittsburgh 19, Pa.