1905
Under the efficient management of Ed Redman '06 and Stanley Besse the annual '05-'06 New York dinner proved as pleasant and heart-warming an affair as ever. Tub, as toastmaster, was in his usual bland style, ready with the light or keen word as the occasion required. The attendance was not as large as had been hoped. Letters of regret were read from Elsie Grover, Hills, Musgrove,Parkinson and. White, each of whom was kept away by a good reason. The flow of reminiscence was full and free, including the 62-0 defeat of Brown at Manchester and the treatment accorded Matt Bullock at Princeton in '03, with scathing comments on the moans that came from that tiger's lair over the late Dartmouth game. For serious discussion we had the matter of the date to hold the interim reunion. All agreed on having a reunion this coming year, but, by a hardly overwhelming vote, it was decided that May 30-June 2 would be most satisfactory. Those present were Besse, Conley, Emery, Fall, Ed Gilbert,Goodrich, Knibbs, Nourse and your scribe. Doc Graves, though prevented by professional duties from reaching us in time to share the dinner, was warmly welcomed to our afterdinner conviviality.
In his letter, Cy White states that he and his wife are planning a two months' visit to the West Coast the early part of this year. "My daughter Margaret," he writes, "and her husband Leroy Wilson have been ordered to Seattle, as he has been again called into service. My oldest son Richard lives in Seattle, and my brother lives in Vancouver, B. C." He adds that he had-recently brought back a nice buck from a hunting trip.
Bill Knibbs reported a pleasant visit with his son Bill '34 in California.
Mildred and I had the pleasure of entertaining Gib Fall for the night after the dinner. That was the night, by the way, of the storm which so completely crippled traffic in the vicinity of New York. However, Gib and I were lucky, for we caught a bus for New Jersey without undue delay and made reasonably good tinie home, though we had had to trudge through the storm across town from the Dartmouth Club on account of the scarcity of available taxis. For the bits of information which follow I am indebted to Gib, who left me a packet of letters that he had received from classmates.
From Orosi, Calif., Howard Billman writes that his twin boys, now 14, entered High School this fall and his 12-year-old is in the seventh grade. He has three grandchildren, offspring of his two older daughters. He has retired from teaching, but keeps busy on outdoor work on the land.
Henry Thrall is located at La Jolla, Calif., until the first of April. He mentions having seen C. C. Hills, Walter Emery and ErnestGregory on his trip East.
Out of the wilds of Canaan (18 miles from Hanover) Lou Wallis sends word that he plays tennis when he gets a chance—still quite active. He is trying to develop the 700-acre tract that he bought from the College. His wife Elizabeth is a graduate of Mt. Holyoke. They expect to spend much of the winter in her home in Westwood, Mass.
Doc MacMillan reports that he and his wife are well and enjoying life. He has given up his service at the hospital but keeps fairly busy at his office.
John Bell, from his home in Washington, N. H., writes that for the past two years he had spent most of the winter with his daughter and her husband in Alexandria, Va., but that recently the latter, a Commander in the Navy, had been transferred to the School for Naval Justice, at Newport, R. I.
Between the trusteeship of the N. Y., Susquehanna and Western R. R. Co. and the vice-presidency of the Walter Kidde Co., not to mention half a dozen other trusteeships, Henry Norton manages to keep fairly busy. One of his pleasures is visiting his two children and three grandchildren across the Golden Gate from San Francisco. He has built a small house in San Rafael which he expects to use vacations, to be near them. As-to his railroad, I quote from the Paterson EveningNews: "Working under most trying conditions both from the standpoint of inadequate equipment and limited cash resources, Mr. Norton has accomplished the impossible in converting the nearly wrecked and decadent Susquehanna lines into a modern, finely equipped high speed railroad line second to none in the country on the basis of comparative mileage and equal to the best from the standpoint of railroad efficiency and service." Congratulations, Henry.
Carroll Campbell plans to retire next June. He feels fine, he says, and finds his work pleasant, but feels the time has come to let up from the steady grind. He hopes to do a little traveling in the U. S. A. with his wife. Welcome to the ranks of the retired, Camp.
With the Hatches for good company, ElsieGrover and Marion plan to do some fishing late in March at Jensen Beach, Fla.
Shirley Cunningham, it appears, is trying toinduce various members of our class to comeand share the clear, dry atmosphere of his3900-foot elevation in Las Cruces, N. M. Hesends along a picture of himself with hisgrandson, with the note: "Rather quick workmarried only five years."
In Hanover for the fall meeting of theThayer School Board of Overseers, CharlieGoodrich and his wife attended DartmouthNight and the Dartmouth-Syracuse footballgame. He was glad to see there Henry Thrall,Walter Emery and C. C. Hills.
Who's Who in '05
JUDGE JAMES C. DONNELLY
Credit for a change in style of dress usually belongs to persons in Paris, but when the change is from football togs to the robes of a judge, it goes to the wearer.
Born in Clinton, Mass., son of a machinist and one of five brothers, Jim Donnelly went to Dartmouth from Worcester High School. There, aside from the little matter of keeping up in his studies, he played on the football squad and made the varsity team as end and halfback. A friendly and sociable fellow with a good sense of humor and a good deal of common sense, he made many friends and no enemies in the class. He pursued the middle road and avoided extremes.
While studying law at Harvard Law School, our athlete devoted the fall seasons also to coaching football, first, at his home city high school, then at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and finally at Miami University in Ohio. His interest in football, however, continued long after his coaching days. He follows the Dartmouth teams wherever they play. Indeed in 1923 he was one of those scouting other teams for the Dartmouth coaching staff.
Upon graduating from Harvard Law School in 1908, Donnelly had decided to set up his practice in the deep South. But an experimental year in Birmingham, Ala., was enough to change his mind. Then began his long career in Worcester.
For two years he practiced with the firm of Thayer, Drury and Walker—Judge Webster Thayer being the famous Dartmouth judge who handled the Sacco-Vanzetti case so firmly, while under relentless attack.
In 1911 Jim entered into partnership with Charles F. Campbell to form the law firm of Campbell and Donnelly, where he continued in successful practice for 20 years. Campbell married Jim's sister, so that, as Jim characteristically puts it, they became brothers-in-law as well as brothers in law.
He often served as master in hearings for other lawyers. Since March, 1931, he has been Judge Donnelly, an Associate Justice in the Superior Court of Massachusetts. His appointment by Governor Ely, unsolicited by Jim, received wide approval.
In this capacity he has becofne known as an able judge who can cut through complex procedures and dispense actual justice. His fairness is above question. For two decades now his decisions have been distinguished for their simple common sense and human understanding. He has kept party politics out of his court. Only recently the Attorney General of his own party failed in an attempt to browbeat a grand jury in Judge Donnelly's jurisdiction.
The city of Worcester is largely populated by people of Swedish descent. Having endured 15 years of celibacy after graduating in '05, and wishing to avoid the risk of being taken for a Swede, James Donnelly took Mary O'Reilly as his bride. Together they have reared three children, now grown up—James C. Jr. '44, a Boston attorney with Schneider, Reilly & Bean, and Elizabeth and Rosemary. James Jr. has three children, James 111 ('66?) Deirdre and Mary. Elizabeth was graduated from Smith in 1946, Rosemary, in 1947.
Judge and Mrs. Donnelly have travelled widely, having visited many points with camera and keenly observing eye. These trips include the "West Coast of America, Mexico, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, Italy and points in between, including Boston. They get to Hanover often, and the Judge attends nearly all class and alumni gatherings accessible to him. He takes his sunning on the golf links, and is in excellent health.
He is the only surviving trustee of the '05 Class Fund set apart for lending to sons of '05 who needed help in going through College,—a fund set apart in 1935, reaching $1059 in 1938, and later standing at $740. This fund, by the way, if it were built much larger, could be used at '05's 50th reunion as an endowment for the College.
Beginning in 1935, he was a member of the Class Executive Committee for something like ten years. In 1922 he was President of the Worcester County Dartmouth Alumni Association. In 1929 he was President of the "Worcester County Bar Association, and for ten years a member of its executive committee.
He is a Trustee of the Worcester Mechanics Savings Bank and he is President of the Bench & Bar Golfing Association of Massachusetts, this latter honor a just recognition of prowess and skill.
Good natured, sociable, fair and fearless, Judge Donnelly is an asset to his class, his college and his state. Fortunately he has no need to retire.
THE CLEAR, DRY ATMOSPHERE is great in Las Cruces, N. M., writes Shirley Cunningham '05, who sends along a picture of himself and grandson.
JUDGE JAMES C. DONNELLY '05
Secretary, 358 N. Fullerton Ave., Upper Montclair, N. J. Treasurer, 8027 Seminole Ave., Philadelphia 18, Pa. Bequest Chairman, 287 Hillside St., Milton 86, Mass.
