1912
The first month of the year was tragic for the Class of 1912. Within an hour of each other, in the early morning of January 4 BillButler and Ried Stone both died from heart attacks. Four days later January 8 JohnHolden was similarly stricken. Then on February 1 Andy Anderson also died the same way.
Bill had entered San Jose Community Service Hospital of which he was administrator and had so faithfully and successfully served for nearly 20 years on Christmas Day to undergo surgery for a hernia, a comparatively minor operation; was recovering normally and had expected to leave the hospital the following day when he succumbed to a coronary occlusion. As all classmates well know, Bill was one of my most faithful correspondents as well as that of The Billboard and was enthusiastically active as a Dartmouth Twelver on the Pacific Coast. Only two months ago there appeared in this column a long letter from him telling of visits during the summer and fall with various classmates. How much I now regret that he and I missed each other at Atlantic City last September at the time of the meeting of the American Hospital Association. He will be sorely missed by his hospital and his community as well as by his classmates.
Ried's unexpected death occurred at his home near Oswego, Ore. Ried was one of the quieter members of our class but was well known and liked by the dozen other classmates who with him received their degrees from the Thayer School the year following our graduation.
From his old friend and roommate during seminary and college days, Harry Lowd, came the news of John Holden's death. Harry conducted the funeral and burial services. Two hours after he had been shoveling snow and while driving his car in Watertown, Mass., Andy Anderson collapsed from a heart attack, which apparently he realized was coming on because he directed his car toward the sidewalk curb, and struck a parked automobile before coming to a halt. He had been rector of the Watertown Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd for 27 years. The sincere sympathy of every member of the class is extended to the families of these four classmates. Their obituaries appear in the necrology column. Memorial books were purchased for them by the class for the Dartmouth Library.
Through the courtesy of the editor of the Hartford Courant, there is reproduced here with the picture of Lloyd Bugbee at the unveiling of his portrait in conjunction with the dedication of the school named in his honor at West Hartford, Conn. Lloyd retired recently after having been associated with the West Hartford schools for more than 33 years. The last position he held there was that of Superintendent of Schools. He sold his West Hartford home, which received nationwide attention after its construction in 1940, moving to his newly completed home on the Connecticut River, Eel Pot Ledges, Bradford, Vt.
The Springfield Union of January 11 carried the following item in a column written by its editor: "We never knew what a racket you could make just by pouring a glass of water out of a pitcher until Tuesday night at the March of Dimes dinner at the Kimball when one guest decided to get himself a drink. He reached for the pitcher at a time when everybody else was silently concentrated on the address by Basil O'Connor, the speaker. Believe it or not, that water made gurgles which you could hear all over the place and caused people to turn their heads and stare from distant parts of the big ballroom. There wasn't much the guest could do but keep on pouring, but the chances are the incident will remain long in his memory and signify an experiment that he will not try again under similar circumstances. We know, at least, we learned something." Who do you think the victim was? None other than Queechie French who, with Bertha, was attending the March of Dimes dinner at which Doc spoke. Cap Allen missed the dinner but wrote Doc his regrets. Louie Ekstrom had a visit with Doc at the March of Dimes luncheon in Allentown, Pa., on January 18. At similar functions Doc saw Harry Barnett at Lansing, Mich., and MarkAllen at Seattle, Wash. Pictures of them will appear in the future. Jim Worton writes:
"I try to keep young by playing golf whenever possible and bowling quite regularly during the winter months. Expect to make a trip to Florida again in February and plan to get in some golf and swimming. The family is growing up. Only the oldest, Jimmy, is married (no grandchildren yet). Barbara is teaching in our local high school and is quite active as girls' basketball coach, referee, cheer leader, etc. Jack, a graduate of MIT, is now at the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Conn., leaving only Dick, the youngest, who is a senior in high school. My son Robert, Dartmouth '46, lost his life flying at Iwojima during the last war and never will be forgotten by us. My wife is fine and manages to keep busy. Inasmuch as we recently celebrated our 30th anniversary, I guess our marriage will stick."
Taylor Weil has a grandson, Mark Horner Snelling, born July 5, 1950. The mother, Taylor's daughter Barbara, graduated from Radcliffe as a Phi Beta Kappa the month before the birth of her son." She also has a daughter, Jacqueline Taylor Snelling, born April 22, 1948. Taylor's son Russell graduated cumlaude from Harvard in 1949 and is now in his second year at Harvard Law School. Taylor says "the children take after their mother."
Late in September Dutch Waterbury made a hurried trip to the United States from his sugar plantation in Puerto Rico "to get some stimulant for the Puerto Rican sugar cane growth. You know that is the stuff that makes it possible for your American housewives to have so much fun giving the grocers a run." Dutch had a rumor from the West Coast that Sam Hobbs & Co. is giving the Puerto Rico citrus growers plenty of competition and is making "mucho pesos neto" doing so.
Joe Doe reports that his second grandchild, Bernard Nelson Lavelle, arrived on September 12, 1950, in Huntington Station, Long Island, N. Y.
Last fall Andy Anderson wrote FletcherClark a letter from which I quote: "Not much news. All the gals are married and Bill, Yale '50 is on a Fullbright scholarship at Kings College, Cambridge, England. He hopes to be there for two years and then return to Yale or Harvard for a Ph.D. We will be looking forward to a glimpse of you at the Diocesan Conventions."
Cap Allen's son Dick (who was in the Class of '44 with my son Kim they were good friends) is teaching in the Physics Department at Amherst.
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