1923
From Cleveland, Ohio, comes the intelligence that Al Merritt has recently been named manager of the brokerage department and employee consultation service of the Wischmeyer and Plante General Agency of the John Hancock Life Insurance Company. Al has been with John Hancock since 1937. The Merritt home, complete with Mrs. Al and three daughters, is at 1581 Arthur Avenue, Lake wood.
Frank Heep has taken leave of High Rock Mills, Philmont, N. Y., where he was general manager, and has joined the Hoover Sales Corporation, as manager of their New York office.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company has announced the promotion of Dr.Howard B. Brown from associate medical director to medical director of the company. After graduation from Penn. medical school, Howard practiced in Springfield, Mass. from 1926 to 1931, when he became associated with the Mass. Mutual. He has been most active, throughout his career, in medical association and Red Cross work.
Our old pal Tom McKnight produces the extremely amusing "THE BEULAH SHOW" on CBS 7:00-7:15 P.M. Our old pal CharleyZim, who is associate managing director of the Life Insurance Agency Management Association, is chairman of the Hartford, Conn., Red Cross drive this year.
The spy which this column maintains, at class expense, at the Stork Club, reports that six of our classmates with one bored blonde in attendance were there after the New York Alumni dinner. Our Hotel Commodore agent tells us that the weather was lousy that evening, but a fine group of our classmates turned out for the dinner anyhow. The Bostons, who like to brag that they turn out a bigger gang for their annual affair than do the New Yorks, have completely failed to file a report, and our agent there likewise let us down. We do not find this hard to understand, however. The Bostons always reserve a suite in the Statler for THE IRISHMAN, and he was joined there this year by Lee Young. So we feel sure that no one felt like writing a report the next morning.
Bill Taylor (William H. Taylor, yachting editor of the New York Herald-Tribune) is believed to be the only Dartmouth man ever to win a Pulitzer Award. Bill's prize was awarded in Journalism and Letters, in the year 1935. For more complete details we recommend page 379 in the World Almanac and the 1949 edition of the Book of Facts.
The fellow we retain in Hanover to peek over peoples' shoulders when they register at the Hanover Inn and to report his findings to us lists the following arrivals for the last quarter: Sherm Baldwin, Jim Broe, Phil Bowker the Diaper Man and bride, the Browns, the Clarks, the Freddie Davis', Frank Donovan,Emerson, Ferguson, FLANIGAN, WalterGates, Carl Gray and daughter, Dr. and Mrs.Kerch Holt, the Charley Jones', Doc Bill Kelley, Stu Knight, the Art Littles, Joe Lombardi, the George Masons, Henry Moore, the Putnams, the Rices, the Sargents, Joe Schiffenhaus, Lou Van Orden, and CLASS AGENTLEON H. YOUNG JR.
Here is a grand letter from Roy Brown: "After four years in Mexico as manager of a lead-copper smelter, 1 resigned so that I could return to the U. S. for a much needed vacation and to attend our Twenty Fifth. That is one way to get a vacation and it is infallible, I've found. Anyway, I had had enough of the "Good Neighbor country and needed a change of scenery. The rock-bound coast and pine forests of Maine were the answer and if anyone doubts it, let him live four years in the desert and then suddenly shift to Maine.
"Thanks to Julie and George Musk, who located a home for us in Bath, we are residing temporarily at 888 A Middle Street, until such time as I find something suitable in my chosen profession. We would like to settle down in the East and preferably New England. There have been several opportunities to go to the far corners of the earth, from Chile to Turkey to Australia and other way stations between, which is generally the way it works out when one wishes nothing more than a peaceful fireside in old New England. (You might put a "plug" in at this point, Metz, as they say on the radio.)
"George claims the only reason they wanted us in Bath was to take our money at bridge, which they are doing. He owns and operates the Gibbons Fuel Company here in Bath and is one of the city's prominent business men. We celebrated '23 Night with a lobster dinner at the Wiscasset Inn and then George and I went to Portland to the Dartmouth dinner in honor of Dartmouth Night.
"We have a son who is a freshman at Kimball Union Academy and who is slated for Dartmouth. Thank goodness he is a much better student than his old man. The other lad, eight, attends school in Bath. His accent, a mixture of Spanish and Down East Yankee, is something to hear."
The last we knew, Hartley Caldwell was still a master sergeant in the USAF, on temporary duty in Hermosa Beach, Calif. We suspect our dope is pretty old, and we could stand being brought up to date about you, Hartley.
Here is news of George Billings, recently come by in a letter from him: "Have lived in Greenwich for the past dozen years and recently moved to a new home we just completed at 34 Perryridge Road. Our family consists of Evelyn my wife, George Jr., age 8, and Lorrie, who is four. I have been in the real estate mortgage field for a number of years, and now have offices in Greenwich and Hartford with my brother Forrest Billings '28." By the time you read this column you should have received all the dope about the THIRD ANNUAL RUMP REUNION (which is as good a name as any, maybe) for '23's in Hanover this summer, and should have completed all your plans to be there. A '23 insitution, like '23 NIGHT and FREE SPEECH, this annual affair has proven lots of fun for the gents—and their ladies—who have done it before.
We have learned with sorrow that RogerCarlton died March 20, and that graveside services were held last January in Cleveland for Walter Kurtz, who died in Germany September 27, 1945. Further details may be found in the In Memoriam section of this issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE.
Last month and the month before this column included a nostalgic piece about the good old days, one written for us by Pudge and the other by Joe Pick. The current bit, number three in the series, was produced by the Class Lothario of 25 years ago, Len Bronner, and its a dilly! !
FLANIGAN VS. CARBAUGH
"Your request for reminiscences is a red flag warning that you or I or perhaps all of us are getting old. We are arriving at that uncomfortable age when we are apt to tell the new generation that when we were young we could lick any kid in the block, were always head of the class without studying, and had to carry a couple of axes to beat off the women Of course all that is true, but why give the kids an inferiority complex?
"The most amusing incidents at Hanover that I recall were the class elections. There were two rival parties, the woofs and the goofs. One of them was headed by that flam, boyant personality of alleged Hibernian extraction—l refer to the irrepressible Sidney ].Flanigan. He aspired to carry his party to victory under the monstrous slogan 'Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion'. The better element, consisting of such folks around the countryside as were able to emerge above the New England granite, were fervently but somewhat timidly arrayed behind that symbol of propriety, that standard bearer of sobriety, that spearhead of the forces of morality, Deacon Red Carbaugh. His banner carried the inscription: 'Peace, Prayer, and Prohibition'. There were lesser lights running on both tickets, including the undersigned who ran for Class Lothario under the Carbaugh Prohibition Ticket.
"The campaign was waged with much eclat and enthusiasm on both sides. There were chariot races across the campus to the Senior Fence. I seem to recall Halsey Mills dressed like a Roman senator, without his pants, with a sheet tied around his neck and flapping in the wind, standing on some garbage boxes, frantically whipping a vintage nag to win over a rival chariot.
"Flanigan never appeared in public without a flower in his buttonhole, which he always stoutly maintained to be a violet. All but the near-sighted, however, were able to describe the bloom as a sunflower, behind which could be distinguished the distinguished left ear of the candidate.
"Deacon Carbaugh, true to his fine ideals, never once appeared among the populace, except arrayed in the black of the cloth.
"The Carbaugh ticket won by a shade, 1 think 489 votes to 1, and milk was unanimously voted the favorite beverage of '23, which, of course, it has always remained.
"The rumor is, although to this I cannol attest, that delighted by-the fine spiritual tone that Deacon Carbaugh had in'stilled' in the College, Prexy Hopkins invited the Deacon to dine with him at Prexy's home.
"It is further rumored that when the nefarious Flanigan heard of this he spiked the unsuspecting Carbaugh's strawberry jigger with two quarts of Lebanon gin. The Deacon, never having tasted beverages with an alcoholic content, innocently, but with some gusto, betook of the same and arrived at Prexy s table in a somewhat informal mood, and the prohibition candidate was thus suspended from college until he could sober up, which 1 believe took about six months.
"Many letters from Gilda Grey to the undersigned appeared in the Daily Dartmouth, so that when he was elected he wrote Gilda that his victory was due to her charm and personality and to no merit of his own. She sent a large autographed picture which was on display at Campion's, and whoever has it will please return it to the undersigned, Len"
1923 CLASS AGENT, Lee Young of Amsterdam, N. Y., young Herbie Young, and friend sit awhile.
THE STEWART CLAN: 1923 Class Treasurer and Hanover Pediatrician, Dr. Colin Stewart 111 surrounded by most of his family. (I to r) Nancy, Mary, Andy, the Chief, wife Elaine, Colin IV '48, and Robert.
Secretary,1425 Astor St., Chicago 10, Ill.
Treasurer, 5 Tyler Rd., Hanover, N. H.
Class Agent,22 Summit Ave., Amsterdam, N. Y.
