1909
Looks like we've slipped into another year. Let's hope that we as individuals and as a nation won't make too many slips in the year of 1951. We're liable to fall right on our cans if we do.
The Yuletide season brought greetings a number of classmates. Carl Butman, the Washington flash, typed his in the shape of a Christmas tree, the words forming the pattern, with asterisks and other dohickies that you find on the typewriter for tree decorations. A seal at the bottom represented the base. Carl said his one regret is that he didn't stay more than two years in Hanover, instead of trying out Cornell and George Washington—like changing courses in mid-educational stream, as he put it.
Ben Burpee's card showed a picture of a family group—l4, all told—with Ben standing up by the mantle looking as big as the whole front room. The caption was "Cheaper by the dozen." Phil Rose sent a picture of his Buckingham parsonage at Glastonbury, Conn., on a postal card. Cards were received from the Craig Thorns, Art Sporborgs, BusterBrown and his little woman, Dot Chase, the Merrill Follansbees, the Mike Farleys, the B. Matthew Scullys, the Cad Cummings, the Norm Catharins, Elsie and Clark Saville,Proc Perley, Tubby Bird, Bull Hadden, FrankSolomon. Art Stanley's card carried a picture of his yacht, with the note: "We spend most of the summer on the boat and work the rest of the year to support it. Always glad to hear about Reed Hall, because I thought the more important members of the class started in Sanborn." Time will tell. Hal Hall, who's still confined in the Veterans Hospital, wrote on his card, "Am going up to surgery on January 5 for a lobectomy operation. Nothing to do here but eat and sleep the past year. By this time, Hal, you've been through it. All of us hope it turned out jake with the levers up.
I ran across Louie Sisson 'n, of Cincinnati at a Cleveland Rotary Club lunch the other day. He gave me the sad news that Art Buxton had died on December 20 and that he had attended his funeral on the 23rd. Art was in the chemical business for himself and was doing quite well, Louie said. A few months ago he had a coronary. This was followed by a fatal stroke. 1950 has taken its toll of '09ers—Harry Floyd, DickLocke, Barney Dreyfus, Bob Burns, FrankCory and now Art. In addition, the wives of Elbert Moffatt, Ced Wellsted and HerbHawes have passed on. The Reaper hit '09 pretty hard this past year.
CAD CUMMINGS SPEAKS UP
A letter from Cad Cummings informs that he has had proof that the College is doing a good job of selling Dartmouth to its incoming freshmen, after talking to two freshmen from his Revere, Mass., section. With his son, class of 1939, the four of 'em relived their first impressions as freshmen. Cad writes:
To relieve the minds of any old-timers, let me tell you that these two boys are full-fledged Dartmouth men already. They love it. And in all these years the basic experiences of freshmen haven't changed much. They still do a certain amount of work for upper classmen, such as helping move furniture. There are students who peddle all kinds of supposed necessities. They still buy sweet cider and put it on the window ledge where boys in upper rooms lower fish hooks and steal same but what impressed me most was the delight of each of them to be in Hanover, and the feeling of good fortune that they had chosen the right college I showed them my senior cane (*), still in a state of perfect preservation, and they were properly impressed. We had a swell visit and we old-timers need not be afraid for the traditions. They are there, everlasting."
(*) If they had been girl students, Cad would have showed them his etchings, no doubt.
MORE DOPE ON YOUR CLASS AGENT iph Clement, newly appointed class, agent, had a visit last month from George coition executive secretary of the Alumni Fund committee, who visited Dayton to condition Ralph in his new job. It looks like Ralph will turn out to be the "man of the hour," for he is showing the type of enthusiasm that should get results. "I have accepted the challenge," he wrote to Cad Cummings. "Hand in hand with that good old Dartmouth spirit we shall marshal the forces of our grand class of '09 for an all-out to make a successful 1951."
Ralph has had a varied and interesting business career. Here are the highlights: plant inspector for Atlas Portland Cement Co., Northampton, Pa.; sub-master in the Randolph, Vt„ high school where he taught physics, chemistry, botany and coached the track and baseball teams; with U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, making a survey of Broad Sound in Boston Harbor; a trick with Stone & Webster on water power surveys in New Hampshire; construction and surveying work in Newport, N. H.; a year at the Uni versity of Wisconsin where he got a C E degree in hydraulics; on to Dayton, 0., where he was hydraulics engineer; architect for an oil company, then a private architect designing residences and other buildings; during World War II he went to work for the Armco Co. as architect in the design, supervision and construction of all types of plant buildings.
While in Dayton, Ralph met his wife, Harriet Kirkpatrick, who has presented him with three daughters, now all married. That's a pretty full life, and it's noteworthy that during the depth of the depression Ralph never quit. He kept plugging and he came through. I'll bet he'll come through 100% as class agent.
This is it for this trip. Let's hear from more of you guys. It's not possible to write class notes and issues of the Diddings without your cooperation.
Class Notes Editor, Pioneer Trail, Aurora, Ohio
Secretary and Treasurer, Sandwich, Mass.
