The Reunion Weekend
HERALDED by the mushrooming of reunion tents, the Reunion Weekend of June 16-18 was off to an early and gala start by Friday noon. The custom of bringing along wives and children has had a continued popularity among alumni since the war, and was stepped up this year, with an official registration for the second Reunion Weekend of 798 returning alumni, and a total count of 1500 alumni, wives and children. There were 1331 in dormitories, the remainder having accommodations elsewhere.
The Robinson Plan for class reunions again proved a welcome means for contemporaries to be together. The reuning classes of '14, '15, '16, and '34, '35, '36 found an added congeniality in meeting friends and acquaintances from the same college generation. The classes of '10 and '40 were the two groups which did not follow the Robinson Plan, but claimed very enjoyable gatherings, nonetheless.
Although plenty of events were planned to keep the most schedule-minded alumnus busy, informal visiting in the tents and dormitories proved to be the keynote of reunion activities. Classes were assigned to dormitories with a regard for neighborliness; there was much going to and fro between tents along Tuck Mall, where most of the recent classes were billeted.
Massachusetts Row was assigned to 1910; Ripley, Woodward and Smith to 1914; the Fayerweathers to 1915; and Richardson and Wheeler to 1916. The Class of 1934 had North Massachusetts and Hitchcock, and nearby, 1935 was in Butterfield and Russell Sage and 1936 in Streeter and Lord. Topliff and New Hampshire were the 194° dorms.
Each class had its own reunion program, but also joined in a number of weekend events arranged by the College. These included the outdoor reception given Friday evening by President and Mrs. Dickey, and the dance held later in College Hall. On Saturday the buffet luncheon at the gym, followed by the annual meeting of the General Alumni Association, was well attended. Saturday night featured the Dartmouth Players' popular production of Light Up the Sky in Webster Hall.
Special reunion touches observed were: the newly placed stands for class pictures set up on the campus, with the library in the background; the Flanders Scotch Kiltie Band imported by 1914; the heat turned on in the dormitory radiators when the great north cold arrived unscheduled on Saturday night; baby sitters provided by the really enterprising classes; and the domestic sight of reuning wives shopping in the morning for midnight suppers. If there had been a prize for the man who went through the most to get to a reunion, it would surely have gone to the member of '16 who traveled by motorcycle from Indiana. The Class of 1940 won the Class of 1930 Cup awarded for having the largest number of men back, with a total of 144 reuning alumni; while the Class of 1894 Cup for the highest percentage of returning alumni went to 1910, with 40 per cent attendance.
The annual June meeting of the Dartmouth Alumni Council was also held during reunion weekend, starting with a morning session in Sanborn House at 9:45 a.m. Friday, and followed by a luncheon with the Council members and College officers at the D.O.C. House.
With the real influx of alumni occurring early Friday afternoon, softball games, reception, cocktail parties, buffets, banquets for men, banquets for ladies, picnics for children, "frolic and fun" in tents, class movies, and other activities were in full swing. Class costumes varied from bizarre to practical—sometimes both—as, for instance, the 1936 apron which consisted of an assortment of labeled pockets, one large enough to hold a can of beer.
As with all successful reunions, the real happenings, never described by a bare chronicle of events, were the renewal of friendships,, and the strengthened tie of memories and associations. In all respects this yearns reunion weekend was rated as one of the best on record.
At the Saturday meeting of the General Alumni Association, speakers included President Dickey; Sidney C. Hayward '26, Secretary of the College; and Sigurd S. Larmon '14 for the Classes of 1914-15-16. Herbert L. Shuttleworth '35, vice president of the Association, presided.
Alumni Association officers elected for 1950-51 are: Carleton Blunt '26, President; Robert P. Burroughs '21 and Stanley J. Newcomer '20, Vice Presidents; Sidney C. Hayward '26, Secretary-Treasurer; John L. Sullivan '21, chairman, Nathaniel G. Burleigh '11, Wilbur W. Bullen '22, Donald H. Stillman '41, Rex Felton '45, Philip A. Stedfast '46, and H. Jesse Chadwell '47, Executive Committee. A. P.
A SCOTCH KILTIE BAND from Manchester, N. H., added the strains of bagpipes to the festivities as it paraded across the campus during the Second Reunion Week End. It was imported by the Class of 1914.
ALUMNI LUNCHEON, which was held in the Gym June 17 for eight reunion classes. More than 1,500 alumni and members of their families returned to Hanover for reunions the weekend after Commencement.
