1912
Again the time has come round when for the next ten months I have the fun as well as the work of setting down what news I can dig up from various sources of the activities of classmates and their families. Since this column last appeared you have had through The Billboard the chatty gossip concerning '122ers written in Lyme Armes' inimitable style. He does so much better a job than I that I hope at our 40th Reunion Class Meeting a grass-roots movement will be forthcoming demanding that Lyme carry on this column. In the meantime I hope that all of you will remember to keep me posted on the doings of you and your families.
The 1912 Class Memorial Fund as of June 30, 1950, totalled $16,135. As you have been advised, it is the aim of Henry Van Dyne, Chairman of the 1912 Memorial Fund Committee, to reach $25,000 by June, 1952, when we will be celebrating our 40th reunion. The current Memorial Fund Campaign runs until the end of next December and although, as T understand it, Henry does not intend to put on any formal organized drive, he is hopeful that those in the Class who have not contributed to the fund will come forth and others will increase the subscriptions that they have already made. Let's all lend a hand to raise the additional $9,000. Incidentally, the tremendous value of the Class Memorial Fund to the College is evidenced by the grand total of over $575,000.
The following good news came from BillShapleigh too late for inclusion in the last class notes but it was such a welcome report that it is given verbatim:
"Just so this bulletin from the far East will make your deadline for the June notes. At least it will be official that I'm on the upgrade here at home, maybe next week outdoors and a trip to the barber. Not until I got home here a week ago yesterday did I learn I'd been through a rough tough sumpin' which when conscious I took as being merely part of the routine l remember drains from every cranny and nook four at a time. Guess they nearly had the rug out from under me twice the count got up to 6 or 7 but round-the-clock nursing a couple of transfusions and the wonder drugs and the proverbial granite saw me through. However, that's all back of me. I'm 10 pounds lighter and feel three years younger already. My sincere and best thanks to the many who were pulling for me."
A pleasant surprise greeted me the morning of August 11, when Bob Belknap and his son Bob Jr. dropped into the office. We had lunch together and a good visit. They were in the city with Bob's wife for the marriage of their daughter Barbara to Francis Seawall which took place the next day in the chapel of St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City. The groom is getting his doctor's degree at Hunter College. Bob Jr. was married just a year ago August 13 and is in the automobile distributorship business with his father in Kansas City. After the wedding Bob and his wife took a trip to New England for a visit with Alson Edgerton '17 at Vergennes, Vt., and to see his old friend Mac Rollins '11 who retired to Vergennes from the advertising business to become a Saturday Evening Post writer.
Brigadier General Connie Snow left with Katherine for Germany on June 27 where he will serve on a special three man Clemency Board for High Commissioner J. J. McCloy, expecting to be there for about three months. Les Snow with his wife and two youngest daughters, Janet and Elizabeth, also made a summer trip abroad.
Bishop Brown, Director of the Research Bureau tor Retail Training at the University of Pittsburgh, left for England June 21 by plane for a two months' trip to England and the Continent. He attended a conference at Oxford University and one at Cambridge University, sponsored ,by the Ministry of Education, and Bishop read papers at both meetings. On his mission abroad he also sought to make arrangements for exchange of faculty members in his department at the University of Pittsburgh for professors holding comparable teaching positions abroad. He visited France, Belgium and Switzerland before returning.
After years of remote contact with the Class,Clarke Grieb brings himself up to date: "I live in rather a remote section the Eastern Shore of Maryland where for the past 30 years I have been farming some thousand acres on the Chester River, and to keep me out of unnecessary mischief, I have also been selling the larger farms and plantations in this area. May I hope that in your next edition you will publish my address and extend a most cordial invitation to all members of '12 to visit with me as often and as long as possible. I can assure them that they will have a julep in their hand within five minutes after their arrival. If there are ever any class 'get-togethers' in either New York or Baltimore, it would be a great privilege and pleasure for me to attend. For the class records I have four children, three boys and a girl. The boys are all married and I am six times a grandfather, but I don't feel it, show it, or act it. Best regards to all members of '12." (His address is R.D. 3, Chestertown, Md.)
Elizabeth, daughter o£ our new class treasurer, Fletch Clark, was married early in June to Harold Ashley Atkins, in the Church of Our Saviour, Middleboro, Mass.
At the 75th . commencement exercises of Cushing Academy, Ashburnham, Mass., ClydeCooke was one of the four veteran members of the faculty to be honored. For 35 years Clyde has been a teacher of science at the academy and is now senior master.
For a most thought-provoking and entertaining book, I recommend Henry BaileyStevens' The Recovery of Culture, published by Harper & Brothers. Henry has an interesting theory of what is the trouble with civilization. This work was the winner of the M. R. L. Freshel award of $lOOO as the best humanitarian book of the year.
After a long interval, Pat Lovell telephoned me early in August when he was in New York. He said that his younger daughter Betty was married to a Princeton man about three yearn ago, lives in Hawaii and has three children. The older daughter, Helen, is married and lives in New York City. Pat says that he is fine and looks and feels younger than ever.
As for myself, I can report that my youngest son Phill graduated from Northwestern University last June after completing his first year in the Medill School of Journalism. He had an interesting experience of a summer job in the editorial department of Life Magazine and returns to the School of Journalism this fall for his master's degree. His "twin" stepbrother, Tom Goetz, graduated from Northwestern at the same time, and honored me by being elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Secretary, 120 Broadway, New York 5, N. Y.
Treasurer, 4 Bank Building, Middleboro, Mass.
Memorial Fund Chairman Box 521, Troy, Pa.
