1928

By the time you read these notes, the Alumni Fund will be in the final stretch. Because our performance in this campaign will provide the most significant measure of the strength of our Class, it might be well for a moment to consider one Aspect of our alumni status which has been overlooked these past few years, and that is the tendency to continue to evaluate our abilities to contribute to the College at the same level each one of us fixed some years ago. Too many of us have let our minds get into a rut where the Alumni Fund is concerned, being content to give the same amount each year. I am sure that if each of us were to measure his gift each year, not by last year's, but by his current standard of living, recognizing that his gift to the College might properly be considered in some fair proportion to his various other expenditures, his contribution to the Fund would be more intelligently determined and in most cases substantially larger.

Our classmates have a high accident rate when they get on skis. President Rupe Thompson and Bud Osborn are both hobbling about with a leg in a cast, dependent upon crutches —almost.convinced that they should stop trying to beat the 17-year-olds on a tricky slalom course. Rupe's accident happened March 13, two days after he had taken his sons Peter, 17, and David, 15, on a skiing trip. Rupe expects to shed the cast soon, but will have to use crutches until June.

The accident insurance companies are going to cancel Bud's policy—this is his second bad accident. Several years ago he broke a leg at Rutland on the third day of a skiing vacation with his family. The only difference this time was that it was Stowe, Vt., instead of Rutland, and this time he didn't have to spend even a night in the local hospital but hired an ambulance and drove to New York, where he could put up in the style to which he is accustomed at the New York Hospital.

Although neither Rape nor Bud made any reputation in College for fearless schussing, such as they have been attempting of late, accidents can happen to even the experts. Hank Buchtel, one of the best '28 skiers in College and now, broke a leg demonstrating a turn while serving as ski instructor to a class of mountain troopers at Camp Hale, Colo., in 1943. He said the embarrassment was worse than the pain. Hank is a surgeon in Denverhe and his wife Bobby are interested principally in skiing and mountain climbing.

Red Edgar was elected vice president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Boston at the annual meeting which 600 alumni attended at the Copley Plaza on March 8.

Thanks to Curley Prosser, Phil Orsi and Ernie Early '18, we have clippings about New Yorkers who continue to push ahead. ArtHassell's picture was in the leading New York newspapers May 1 on the occasion of his election to the board of directors of B. Altman & Co. Art joined Altman's in 1931 as assistant to the controller, and became assistant general merchandise manager in 1936. On May 2 Norm Nash was elected to the board of directors of the huge Kudner Agency. HowieChapin has been elected a director of the Advertising Council. Ernie hit the nail on the head when he said, "My, that class is going places!"

Dick Klinck accepted last month the position of assistant treasurer of Merck & Co. Rahway, N. J., manufacturing chemists. He had been with the First National Bank of Boston for only three months when this new op portunity presented itself and it was too good to turn down. Dick says, "While in Boston I saw a lot of Mutt Jennings and I cannot tell vou how much he aided me in a business way and also personally by having me to spend the night at his home on many occasions. ... Don has just gone back to Hanover after spring vacation. He graduates in June and has passed his exams for the Army, the Air Force air cadet school and for a Navy commission. The only thing he hasn't tried is the Foreign Legion."

Gordon Meade is now medical director of Trudeau Sanatorium.... Tom Talbot, Philadelphia insurance company attorney, has bought a house on Pemberton Road, Norristown, Pa.. . . Bill McRoberts of Detroit Lakes, Minn., is the proud owner of the finest supper club in those parts, and commodore of the local yacht club.

Virg McNeil, New Haven insurance man, replied to my letter with the following information: "Jim, our oldest, is now 19, a freshman at Hobart and doing very well. He was home last week for $50 for initiation into Kappa Sigma this coming week. Mary Lou is at Walnut Hill and rapidly turning into a prep school and freshman prom trotter. Peggy is a freshman in high school. Virginia is chairman of the Branford Branch of the New Haven Chapter of the Red Cross. She is doing a grand job but it takes a lot of time. For myself, I still plod along at the fire house, having become Fire Commissioner instead of Road Commissioner."

Jim and Helen Campion are now grandparents—Mrs. and - Mrs. James Campion Ill have announced the arrival of Constance O'Callaghan Campion on April 23.

Ted Meltzer is with the State Department information services in Frankfurt, in charge of a wire and mail feature service for the German press. He attempts to get into print a balanced picture of American life and to counteract Soviet propaganda.

Rupe Thompson's bank has merged with another Providence bank and now he is the president of the much larger Providence Union National Bank and Trust Co.

We wrote Wat Dickerman for some pictures of Hanover days. They arrived too late for this issue but will be interesting material for next fall. Wat writes,

"I thought of you last summer while I was in Austria. I had the luck to go over as head of the U. S. Delegation to UNESCO's International Seminar on Adult Education. It was held at the Mondsee a beautiful mountain lake 25 miles east of Salzburg. I stopped by Berchtesgarden for a look at the shambles of Adolph's hideout. While there I looked up the Watzman (Germany's second highest peak) with smug complacence, having climbed it 20 years ago. I did Germany's big one, the Zugspitze, that summer too, but never got up your Matte'rhorn. One summer I hung around Zermatt three days while several guides tried to talk me into trying it. I was just getting over some near east dysentery and would never have made it, not to mention being scared to try especially after a visit to the climbers' graveyard there.

I'm going over again this summer to have a look at adult education programs of German universities for the Department of State. Last summer I went on too short notice to take my wife but she's going along this time and we hope to drink up any concealed items of the German Rhine wine and beer supply I may have missed last summer."

John Flanagan's report of May 2 shows that 38% of the Fund gifts he has received are increases over last year. Let's keep up that record!

Late News Flash

Mary and I are happy to report the arrival of our fourth child James Stephen at the Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, Pa., this morning, May 7.

Secretary, Van Dyne Oil Co., Troy, Pa.

Treasurer, 2 Princeton PL, Montclair, N. J.

Class Agent, Freeland Felt Works, .4105 Treeland Ave., Philadelphia 28, Pa.