1923
Man! How the summer has flown! It seems but yesterday that your humble servant heaved a sigh of relief that his writing stint was over for a spell May to September and shook off the cares incident to his task as Class Shepherd; or, at least, most of them. (Incidentally, during this summer the Metzels have been conducting a family operation which calls for the payment to the cache behind the mantel clock of 10 cents for every cliche uttered in the household. It would seem that this exercise has done me little good; I see at least a couple of the darned things up there in the first sentence of this piece!)
For the second successive year '23 has shattered the all-time Alumni Fund record for the largest amount contributed by any class. In 1951 we came up with $20,385, $1675 more than our quota. This year we put together $20,787, $2137 over quota. This splendid achievement was the work of 403 contributors, organized, exhorted and workedover by Lee Young and his hard hitting staff. For a breakdown of our grand gift into the details of comparison with last year look to the next issue of this MAGAZINE. Our analysts are currently hard at work compiling the data.
Your correspondent doubles as Bequest Chairman for '23. We believe you will be interested in knowing that our questionnaire to the class produced the information that 16 classmates have made arrangements for gifts to the College in their estate plans, and that 65 men are currently interested in the possibility of making such arrangements. The importance of this matter of bequests is quite thoroughly understood; most of us are well aware that Dartmouth is woefully under-endowed. That a vigorous effort needs to be made to do something about this lack of capital funds is pointed up by the fact that in our class alone not one classmate in the group of more than 80 who have passed away provided for the College in his will or by insurance.
We have an item here that makes us blush. It seems that we put into print some time ago the statement that the Larry Miles' daughter Martha, aged 20, was living with her parents in Falls Church, Va. Larry has since called to our attention that he has only been married 19 years, and that, besides Martha is only 10. So, as of today, here are the facts: Virginia and Lt. Col. Larry are in Stuttgart, Germany, Hq. 7th Army, living with Larry's father and the Miles' two youngsters, John, 15, and Martha, 10, and enjoying life immensely.
Our good friend Joe Pick has mailed us a card which reads: "Joseph Richard Pick announces the opening of his own office, no South Dearborn Street, Chicago 3, personalized service in textile brokerage." We wish him lots of success; success couldn't come to a finer guy! Joe has been spending the past month in Hanover doing lots of reading.
Chuck Marden, assistant professor of Sociology at Rutgers, is author of a new textbook in sociology which is heralded as making two important contributions to the theory of minorities. Chuck won his Ph.D. in 1935 at Columbia, took post-doctoral work at the London School of Economics in 1938, and was an instructor in sociology at University of Illinois and of citizenship at Dartmouth before joining the Rutgers faculty in 1928.
Charley Zimmerman talked with the Pope and with General Eisenhower last spring in Rome. He says his 10-minute conversation with Ike "included comments on insurance, politics and Connecticut." Charley and Opal Marie returned home about June 1. Visits to the United States embassies in Paris and Rome and to the offices of the Mutual Security Agency were included in Charley's tour.
Dud Pope and Virginia, his gentle helpmeet, were in Europe earlier this fall on a pleasure trip. You will be glad to know that Dud, who was a very sick man a couple of years ago with some pesky infection picked up in Guatemala, is as rugged as ever and back in stride as a tough competitor on various squash courts around Chicago.
The class made no effort to stage a summer reunion this year. It appeared that in view of the howling success of the winter reunion in Hanover, which largely catered to the same enthusiasts who enjoy summer reunions, that the annual summer gymkana could be scratched. The organization already exists to put together another winter reunion early in 1953, with the dates already set, and details will be forthcoming a little later on this deal.
As of this minute, SKIDDOO is about to come out with the poop on TWENTY THREE NIGHT, being celebrated the latter part of September. In Chicago, the locals are gathering at Bud and Connie Freeman's Racine, Wis., establishment. In previous years we have had grand times celebrating TWENTY THREE NIGHT at the homes of the Sollitts, the Swartzbaughs, the Kimballs and the Williams'. This year Bud won the toss. As an added attraction, Bud is able to offer the presence at the party of The Irishman and his perky bride Alice, who are being lured away from their beloved Manhattan for this affair. Both of them have been West before—as far as Scranton, Pa!!—and we understand that Alice has been observed shopping at Abercrombie and Fitch for 10-gallon hats, six-guns and snake bite kits. We imagine the Irishman will rely for his snake bite protection on Old Mcßrayer or equivalent.
Ken Fortune has moved to Stratford, Conn., and still retains his shore cottage at Milford. Ken continues with the Robert Gair Cos., manufacturers of paper boxes.
Monk Keith, who sells stuff for the American Banknote Cos. in Costa Rica, invaded New York this past summer with wife Ana, where they headquartered at the Waldorf. During their stay a side trip was engineered to California in order to attend the birth of #5 grandchild.
Roy Brown has come through with an item for our REMEMBER WAY BACK WHEN Department. It runs like this:
"In 1922 another fellow and I ran a Christmas special train to New York and return. On the way down, the number of passengers in excess of the number of tickets sold wasn't too serious. But on the return trip! In those days the doors in Grand Central which lead to the train platforms were not locked. It was customary, as now, for the conductors to collect tickets as the people filed through the doors. Once through the door, you were in, it being assumed that your ticket had been collected. Well, on this deal, it turned out that there were at least 200 people on the train, although less than 100 tickets had been collected. The lads simply entered at gates remote from the one where the conductor had stationed himself to collect the tickets. All this taught the New York Central a lesson, and from that day to this ALL gates are locked which do not have a collector stationed there. This probably doesn't bother the present crop of kids at Hanover, nowadays, because the railroad doesn't do much business any more, with all the cars on hand up there at Dartmouth, handy for driving home."
Even though the old-time penny post card is a thing of the past, at it still isn't too tough to communicate one with another, and if anyone accepts this as a hint that I'd like some news, he's right!
Our final word this issue has to do with reminding you that next June is our next reunion. This will be your opportunity, incidentally, to get a new slate of class officers to replace the present lazy, no-good scoundrels who have had the wheel since our Twenty Fifth. If it turns out that the U. S. electorate ousts the present national administration in the forthcoming November balloting, we will take this as an indication that the Class of '23 may well tie the can to Metzel and Company, and replace 'em with an earnest, God-fearing crew, free of corruption and full of beans.
BACK IN THE U.S.: Roy Brown '23 who has been following his profession as mining engineer for many years in Central America has recently returned to this country.
Secretary, 1425 Astor St., Chicago 10, Ill Treasurer, 5 Tyler Rd., Hanover, N. H.
