1917
I must admit it is awfully nice to get back from California even though I spent three very enjoyable weeks out there and had perfect warm sunshine every day. I had lunch with Jim Durkee and A L Shields on one occasion and called in to see Tubby Tefjt. Tubby seems to be in fine health and we spent just about one whole afternoon talking over the old days at Hanover. I fully intended to see the other '17-ers on the Coast but instead of remaining in the Los Angeles district, Elsie and I spent most of the time at Palm Springs and the O'Jai and around Coronado Beach. You men who have not spent any time in California should certainly work it out some way so you can spend a few weeks there while you are still young and active. The countryside was certainly beautiful, the sun warm and the mountains covered with snow. You could go from outdoor swimming and in half an hour dash down the mountains on skis. The above is a common occurrence. Seriously, you should all figure on going to California at one time or other as it is a beautiful area and the boys out there certainly bend over backwards to give you a good time.
Thanks very much, Gene, for the following fine letter which gives us so much information about some of the boys.
"Al Shields wrote March 17 the Los Angeles chapter of 1917 are enjoying your presence thoroughly and I envy your being able to get to the Coast. Al says on his next trip up the Coast he expects to contact Jack Baer, Ty Woodruff, PorterPerrin, Ray Collin, Nase Young, Carp Atwater and Sam White. As Al was in New York and had lunch with Don Brooks and me not so very long ago, I just want to comment, Moon Face, that you are the second best long distance traveler in our wigwam.
"During your absence I have this to report: Lucile and I were rejuvenated a few weeks ago by a dinner visit with our former multiple Class Officer (Franky to me) Sewall of Akron, who dropped in for his usual five days' work in two, and looks better than ever.
"March 6, our perennial fall reunion host drove down from New Haven for the day. Anita was in Florida, to our sorrow but envy, but we had a good visit with Bob. He says no more Florida winter vacations for him for a while. He has been advanced from Vice-President in charge of production of Dye Mrg. Division of L. E. Waterman Co. to Vice-President and Director of the parent company, in charge of manufacture at all four plants, which gets him down to ordinary workmen's vacation period, like mine, but not yours, Moon Face.
"Last week I had my first trip to Atlanta and my first visit with Hen Sturgess in twenty-seven years, and I don't know when anything has done me so much good. The President of the Atlanta Realty Board has been there almost twenty years (except for the sacrifice he made to Uncle Sam during the war) during the marked growth of his city in which he has taken an important part. He drove me all around the gracious residential district beyond the city line (out beyond old Peachtree Street) with its rolling hills, groves of pines, and studied plantings around many stately modern homes. Later .he took me to the post-war G. I. Housing, the product of his work on the Housing Commission. Before I left, he and Mrs. Sturgess (Sarah) drove me way out to the Officers' Club at the U. S. Naval Air Station, where the cooking and interior decorations beggar descriptions. "Several business leaders told me how much Henley Sturgess means to his thriving city, and anyone from Yankee-land could not help feel how much Atlanta means to him. But put this down: in our southeastern capital, where Dartmouth population is sparse, there's a Seventeener who carries the Big Green Banner high.
"I was sorry Henley Jr. was out of the office when I dropped in there, so I did not meet him. Since returning from the Navy, he has taken to real estate like his old man and Hen says he has been doing a big sales job. Bill, the younger son, came back from Signal Corps Paratroop work in the Battle of the Bulge, and last year entered a leading stage school in New York at which time I had lunch with this good-looking vet. He completed the course, got stock company experience, and is now going through the usual throes—trying to get an "in" around Broadway—which most young actors face at the start.
"Hen sent his best to everybody, ana promised to give the New York brass band a chance to welcome him and Sarah whenever they get to New York—plus a Connecticut stop on his way to Bridgeport to visit his brother Tom '18.
"He gave me the bad news that George Currier had telephoned a week or two before from Florida where he was summoned to a sad duty. A car full of his relatives, some elderly, had been forced off a road into deep water, with all lost.
"Lucille and I were over at the Dartmouth Club for cocktails with Jane on the 18th, and Art andEmily Stout were there for a little while. Art is going to move back to Stanfordville, N. Y., and his farm "Uplands" about the first of April. Among other interests, he is going to be a manufacturer's representative on two lines of electrical supplies— in eastern New York state as far as Utica.
"The New York crowd has been very quiet, don't you think?
"We tried out the Darien outing idea in April '47—ahead of the 30th reunion—as a reunion booster party. So many people seemed to like this kind of informal community party, we held it again last May, in spite of the shivery day. You remember 32 of us had a lot of fun, some leaving at midnight for distant points. Two or three guests have said they'll be back a third time if we have it again this year. We would be glad to have a gathering on the same "old clothes" basis every year, even if only six showed up! What do you think about it? I haven't had a chance to see Don lately, have been so swamped with work.
"Please phone me at Murray Hill 6-5521 and tell me what you think about having this outing again. Lucile and I don't want to press this gathering on anyone—we just like to have the gang here if they care to come, and if it will keep the boys and girls together a bit. Let me have your frank advice.
Whats your reaction—men?
Gene Towler"
Also, thanks to Hunk Stillman for his letter.Hunk also sent in a newspaper clipping concerning Moe Hutchins as follows:
"At the age of 53, Mosher S. (Moe) Hutchins will retire as chairman of the board of Hutchins Advertising Agency, which he founded, as of next July, and devote the next two years to the acquirement of a master's degree, probably at the University of Rochester. During these two years of study he will write a thesis on cooperative advertising, a subject with which he already is thoroughly familiar, which he hopes to publish as a book.
"Mr. Hutchins is the exact antithesis of the rampageous hero in Frederic Wakeman's novel about the advertising business, "The Hucksters." Engaged for many years in a high-pressure business and the possessor of several high-pressure accounts, he is a slow moving, quiet spoken man who, at first meeting, seems almost shy. His clothes are in the mode, probably by Brooks. He smokes a pipe and his aspect is more than vaguely professorial.
"One of the Hutchins' clients was a manufacturer of small airplanes. Moe Hutchins decided that to handle this account with authority he ought to learn how to operate his client's planes. He did this and became a competent amateur pilot, though then well into his 40s.
"When the second war broke out the airplane company's output went entirely and directly to the Army and it needed no advertising agency to help promote its sales. Mr. Hutchins followed along. He enlisted and was assigned to the Air Forces. In time he was transferred to Army Public Relations, with the rank of major."
Nice going, Moe.
Another newspaper clipping concerns MaryGile as follows:
" 'Mrs. Archie Gile and Mrs. John Mecklinof Hanover won the New Hampshire Duplicate Bridge Championship at The Carpenterhotel here last night.' "
More power to you, Mary!
Mr. and Mrs. John Walter Saladine announce the marriage of their daughter Andrea to Mr. Robert Perkins Knight on Saturday the twelfth of March, 1949, Trinity Church Hartford, Conn. Congratulations to you both" and thanks for sending us the announcement
The Dartmouth Club of Northern New Jersey had their annual dinner March 28. The following Seventeeners were there: Frank Lagay, Gil Swett, Don Brooks and the writer Don is taking a little extra vacation from business at the present time as his doctor believes he has been doing too much. Nothing very serious apparently, so we hope Don will be back on the job very shortly.
Hanover Inn reports that Fred Spearin was in Hanover for a few days at the end of February.
Note the following two changes of address: Howard M. Shaffer—4808 Beaumont Drive —La Mesa, Calif.
Russell S. Fisher—409 Equitable Bldg.- Wilmington, Del.
INTRODUCING SUPERINTENDENT McBRIDE: On hand at the dedication of a new school stadium in Dawson, N. M., is George C. Mcßride '18 (left of the mike).
Secretary, 408 Frelinghuysen Ave., Newark 5, N. J.
Treasurer, 9 Park Terrace, Upper Montclair, N. J.
Class Agent, Barbour-Stockwell Co., 205 Broadway Cambridge 39, Mass.
