1920
As fine a Twenty turn-out as most of us ever saw graced the hallowed halls of Boston's Algonquin Club on the mid-holiday evening of December 27. Roc Elliott sounded the alarm; George Macomber issued the summonses; and between them they gathered the following into the fold; Art Pfeiffer, Red Tillson, Charlie Crathern, Art Earle, Eb Wallace, Walk Fielding, Chet Wiley, Bing Whitaker, Paul Hutchinson, Hib Richter, Al Cate, Larry Lovejoy, Raynor Hutchinson, Scout Lee, Bun Harvey, Bung Roland, Sunny Sunergren, Art Thompson, Harry Worth, Hal Bernkopf, Horace Dalrymple, Hanover's own Al Foley (conventioning in Boston) and Dick Pearson.
Talk was of the 30th Reunion—a year late, but creeping closer all the time; of the possibility of "off-year" reunions; of the Memorial Fund, and the coming New York Alumni Dinner and all the different places here and there where Twenties could round each other up and enjoy each other's company if they got steamed up enough to do something about it. Boston, as this occasion proved, sets the pace for the Class. As Boston goes, so will the rest of us. Without the enthusiasm of the Hub, it would be hard to generate any elsewhere.
If Bung Roland was less vocal than some of the rest, it may have been because the very day before he and Mrs. Roland ("at a Yule party at their home," as the papers put it) had announced the engagement of their attractive daughter, Carol Bruce Roland, to Richard Lee Ranger, Dartmouth '44, son of Mr. and Mrs. Allen B. Ranger of 9 Faragut Road, Swampscott, Mass. Miss Roland was graduated from Beaver College and stayed on there to be an instructor in biology. Her husband-to-be took Tuck School as well as Dartmouth in his stride, joined Alpha Delt and Sphinx, served as an Army Air Force lieutenant in the Pacihc during World War 11, and is now with the Ford Company in Somerville, Mass.
The evening of December 30 saw another gathering of the Twenties, this one in Concord, N. H. Again your secretary and class agent were both present. Paul Richter and Lillian invited the folks to their nice new home at the south end of town, and three additional couples enjoyed their hospitality until past midnight: Dr. Tom and DorothyDudley, Governor Sherm. and Rachel Adams,Sam and Marion Center.
Alexander, the Richters' older child, precocious fellow that he is, entered kindergarten last fall at age got .his picture in the paper with his classmates in a brand new classroom with all the latest fixings, then was discovered to be under-age and was told to cool his heels at home until be gets to be five in the spring. Paul had a welcome word to offer from a long silent member of the Class, Ran Eddy, who went with Metcalf & Eddy in some special Army work after the War and recently spent six weeks in San Francisco opening an office for the firm. He is now, he says, in the throes of opening one of his own, to conduct a general investment business starting early in 1950. Address: 45 Milk St., Boston 9, Mass.
Governor Adams. came to the party with his broken left ankle encased in a plaster cast. Sherm had climbed Mt. Whaleback, just north of his Lincoln home, early in December. After successfully negotiating both the climb and the descent, he caught his foot in a hole and bang went the ankle. "Adams Shrugs Off Fracture," said the Concord Monitor—and the next Monday Sherm was back at his State House desk for business as usual.
Sam Center says that fate has cast him for the role of small town boy. He came back to Concord (14 Tahanto St.) August 1; likes the place, this being the fourth time the Centers have settled there since 1924. Marion keeps track of the moves, and she counts this the 57th in 25 years of married life. They never get in a rut, gather much moss or accumulate many useless possessions. That's their happy philosophy, anyhow. Sam is a supervisor for New England Tel and Tel, with special responsibility for lead cable. If you have one that gets out of order, don't let anybody else meddle with it.
The Tom Dudleys are happy to state that their son Dick, Dartmouth freshman, is as. strong for the College as his older brother who got there a year ahead of him. Much the same sentiment is found in a grand letter from Tom Davidson, whose son Thomas L. (not Thomas B. like his father), is also a member of the Class of 1953. Twenty's own Tom puts it this way, as he writes of his boy:
He is doing well and I will match his enthusiasm and devotion to the College with any other son of 1920 or any one else. I think a remark he made to me one day after being there about a month is indicative. He said, "Dad, you told me all about the College itself but you didn't tell me about the spirit that is so grand." He has been taken under the wing of our Al Foley and I know that he is in good hands.
Tom goes on, speaking for himself: I have achieved some notoriety as the dam fool who commutes between his law business in Jersey City, N. J., and a farm at York Village, Me. In eight years I have missed only seven week-ends in Maine, summer, winter, spring, and fall. The farm started out with a few chickens, a cow and a family garden with a single caretaker. Now I have about 8000 turkeys, 5000 chickens, 75 head of cattle (dairy and beef), a flock of sheep and more pigs than anybody should have. What was 100 acres has grown into nearly 1000 acres, and we are growing and combining or harvesting our own wheat, oats and corn, which is somewhat of an unusual activity in most sections of New England.
Lowell Holway of Groton, Conn., is another with a boy, Lowell Jr., in the class of 53, while Merrill Charles Johnson, who rounds out our delegation of four, is the son of the late and beloved Frank Johnson. Dartmouth, however, lost a most promising center this year when Ted Fellowes' son, Ted Jr., '52, transferred to the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
Mr. and Mrs. Francis D. Campau announced the marriage of their daughter, Jacqueline Denise, to Joseph Hillyer Brewer on Saturday, November 12, in Grand Rapids, Mich. Joe, who is Associate Librarian at Queens College, brought his bride back to the residence that they share with other congenial couples at 325 East 50th St. in New York. Mrs. Brewer, who is a descendant of one of Grand Rapids' first settlers, was educated in Switzerland and the University of Chicago. She is not a newcomer to New York, but gets around—even as Joe does— and the two of them were planning to spend Christmas in Tucson, Ariz.
Another recent wedding enlivens and enriches the annals of the Class. Mrs. John James Murdock has announced the marriage of her niece, Annette Sleeper Tuthill, to Edwin Maxim Stern on Friday, December 2. After December 18 the Sterns were to be at home on Pleasantville Road in Briarcliff Manor, N. Y.
Fourth in the series of specially commissioned covers for the Reader's Digest is Paul Sample's painting for the December issue— the Old North Church, "Shrine of America, lifting its spire in grave beauty above the busyness of modern Boston." .... Cliff Aulis came back in November from three months of travel in Europe. He writes from Wakefield, R. 1., "We have done considerable traveling during the past two years. Felt I should get that desire out of my system while yet not too old to hop out of a rocking chair!" Charlie Ashton, after roaming by trailer through Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, doubled back through Missouri to Arkansas, fell in love with the countryside, and bought a house in Rogers.
We are fast running out of 50th birthdays, but February finds three clustered close together. Spence Snedecor celebrates his on the 24 th. Hub Duffy and Ken Fender son are twins of the 25th.
HONORING AN ILLUSTRIOUS CLASSMATE, a group from the Class of 1920 gave a party for Governor Sherman Adams in Concord, N. H. Seated (I to r) are Lillian Richter, Rachel Adams, Dorothy Dudley, Marion Center. Standing: Paul Richter, Class Secretary Dick Pearson, Tom Dudley, Sam Center, Governor Adams, and Al Foley.
Secretary, Blind Brook Lodge, Rye 17, N. Y. Treasurer, 1 Windmill Lane, Arlington 74, Mass. Class Agent, Box 315, Hanover, N. H.
