1908
Class Agent, ARTHUR L. LEWIS 125 Walnut St., Watertown 72, Mass.
Knowing that "Robbie" Robinson, who now holds the distinction of representing the oldest class on the Alumni Council, might need someone to hold his hand and to encourage him as the occupant of that responsible position, we packed our bag the third week of January and started for Hanover to give Robbie this support. Perhaps the Easterly fringe of the snow cap which has enveloped Nebraska, Kansas and points West for several weeks reached Des Moines and kept Robbie at home. At any rate, Robbie missed the meeting and we found ourselves there alone sans Robbie and sans any proxy or instructions from him. The train from Springfield to White River took between four and five hours, about the same time it took the B & M to negotiate this trip in September, 1904. Hanover and the countryside were snowless, but some fell the day after the arrival of the Alumni Council and many gave this group credit for the precipitation. The meetings were most interesting and unusually well attended. President Dickey and Halsey Edgerton made most interesting reports on the condition of the College, its problems and its finances. Queech Stafford, the manufacturer, legislator, banker and skier, of Springfield, Vt. was the only classmate we found. Queech was attending the basketball game and our visit with him was all too short. Dave Storrs looks the same as he did that rainy afternoon in the Fall of October. 1904, when Lord Dartmouth laid the cornerstone of Dartmouth Hall. Of our generation, Fmncis Lane Childs '06 of the English Dept. and Andy Scarlett '10 of the Chemistry Dept. were on hand with their wives. Doc Foster '10 of Portland was over with his wife for the meeting. John Pearson 'll the sage and raconteur of Norwich and his wife Mary, and Warren Agry '11 and Marion of Etna and New York were among those present. We attended the. basketball game with Penn which went to several overtime periods taxing the hearts of the younger as well as the older men present. We also saw the hockey team beat Yale in a good game. College hockey, almost as much as professional hockey rated as good, clean fun by the sports writers, contained many overt acts in the course of the three periods which might be classified as assaults with intent to murder if not to do great bodily harm in the Criminal Code of Illinois. We attended one class with Bill Jr. 49 and enjoyed it immensely. John Stearns 49 is graduating in February and plans to enter Harvard Law School this Fall. All in all, we heartily recommend a visit in Hanover, particularly when college is in session in stride.
The Gerontological (we can't find this word in our dictionary) Society, organized three years ago. held its first annual meeting in New York during the holidays, where it discussed among other things the Chinese attitude towards old age. Dr. Martin Gumpert apparently made the big speech as he made the first paragraph of the story in the New York papers. He voiced the theme that the best safeguard against the critical shock of aging was intellectual curiosity and the ability to overcome an exaggerated concept of security. Our own Albert Chandler of Ohio State University also made the story in the New York press with his suggestion that the increasing numbers of aged persons in Western nations may lead to adoption of some phases of the Chinese attitude. The traditional pattern in China, Albert told the assembled gathering, was respect for the wisdom of age and a conviction that healthy old age was the happiest phase of life. It is encouraging to note that a young man like Albert and presumably others who are his contemporaries are studying and discussing this important subject for some of the older generation. Students of the Classics like Albert, Arthur O'Shea, Paul Batchelder, MasonLewis and the Class Notes Editor, seem to recall that our old friend Marcus Tullius Cicero did not find time to contemplate on or write about this matter for the help of older generations until he was nearly eighty-five. At that time he wrote his treatise on Old Age which we Latin scholars refer to as De Senectute.
The New York dinner was held two weeks ago, but John Hinman must have entertained his classmates too royally again tor anyone to make a report. All those who attended were probably in the situation of that old, old story about the cub reporter whose first assignment was to go out and report a fire, by all odds the largest one that community had ever seen. As press time approached the city editor wired him for his story. His wire which came back, still posted in the city news room, was "All is excitement and confusion. Can report nothing.
Harry Harriman writes in from Clearwater, Fla. boasting of his fishing prowess and sending along a snapshot to prove it. He writes that he has already seen the Howard Hiltons and that he and the Hiltons hoped to see Hazel McLane Clark in the near future. In Hanover, we saw John Clark '52, Hazel's and Jack's older son who drove up from Claremont to attend the swimming meet with Penn which we also attended.
Sidney Ruggles took off for Labrador the last week of January. He does not expect to get home again until next Christmas. He reports he saw Amidon in Waterbury in January.
Arthur Wyman now reports ten grandchildren with a definite prospect of more statistics this Spring. We have not heard from Treadway or Greenwood to be advised as to whether they have any progress to report along this line.
Cogswell and his wife, Ev Marsh, HerbMitchell, Park Stickney and Lela. the Class Notes Editor and Mary, Smith '48, attended the Hanover Holiday, and the annual dinner of the Chicago Association held on Feb. 5.
NEW ADDRESSES: Harold A. Morey, Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
TO STUDY HEALTH IN NEAR EAST: Dr. Henry E. Meleney '09, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the N.Y.U.Bellevue Medical Center, sailed Feb. 8 on six months' leave to make a study of public health teaching at American University in Beirut. He is working under a Commonwealth Fund grant.
Class Notes Editor, 602 Forest City National Bank Bldg. Rockford,Ill .
Secretary, 115 Broadway, New York 6, N. Y
Treasurer, Taftville, Conn.
