1915

The following important announcement comes from Charley Griffith who has served with distinction as Chairman of the 1915 Class Memorial Fund since its inception:

"In October, 1951, all alumni received a letter from the Dartmouth Development Council announcing plans for insuring the continuing financial stability of the College. Among several important suggestions was the expressed hope that all classes, subsequent to their 25th Reunion, would cease all 'organized' solicitation for their Memorial Funds. A new emphasis, called the Dartmouth Plan, includes a Regional Organization for Capital Gifts and Class Organization for Bequests as a means of securing larger endowment funds.

"The Alumni Fund, in which 1915 has made such a brilliant record, will continue its indispensable function in meeting current fi- nancial needs.

"Art Nichols has canvassed the 1915 Executive Committee which has unanimously endorsed the suggestion of the Development Council that our Memorial Committee initiate no further organized campaign. The 1915 Memorial Fund still remains as an agency for receiving voluntary gifts.

"Let us take a brief look at the record. Our Committee was first set up in 1938 in anticipation o£ our 25th Reunion in 1940. The results o£ that campaign, coming at the end of the 'depression' were creditable. The campaign plans for 1946 and 1950 were changed to suit changing conditions. Today the total stands at $23,371.13 which is the largest amount up through the ten classes including 1917. Only nine classes from 1918 through 1926, where organized solicitation has also ceased, surpass our total.

"Since 1950, the value of our Memorial Fund can best be noted by the generous additions that have been made in memory of BillHuntress by our own men and those from other classes, and of Willard D. Robinson by his widow. By December 31, 1951, other known gifts will have been received in memory of those whom we have 'loved long since and lost awhile.' Each of us can deplore the occasions which prompt this spontaneous giving, while rejoicing that one's memory can be perpetuated in the growing endowment of the College. The new bequest program under Kel Rose's able direction, will insure that each of us can have a part in his own token of remembrance.

"Before signing oft for our Committee's active operations, I want to express my personal thanks for the able and devoted cooperation of the many men who served with me on the committee prior to our three reunions and to the many men in the class who generously responded to this opportunity of serving Dartmouth."

Ben Slade, an émigré from Arlington, Mass., who has been located in Fayetteville, N. C., for some three years, urges the plutocratic '15ers who go to Florida for the winter to be sure to look him up on their way to and from the South.

Joe Comstock writes that he acquired a new chief interest in life around 14 months ago, namely and to wit, one granddaughter Jane Mildred, daughter of his elder son Joe Jr.

During our undergraduate years many of us were fortunate in studying under the late Professor John Poor. He was a great teacher and a noted scientist. One of his outstanding gifts was his sense of humor. Any Fifteener who has any anecdotes or other memoir material about "Johnny" Poor is urged to send it to his daughter, Mrs. S. C. Middleton, Box 359, Lenox, Mass., so that it may be included in his biography.

The North Shore Dartmouth Club shindig held at the Oxford Club in Lynn on December 29 was attended by Eben Clough, StringDowning, Chan Foster and Walt Meader.

Betty (Mrs. Willis) Putney has acquired a little old farm house with two and one half acres complete with flower gardens and grape vines just south of Burlington, Vt. Her son Dick '5O was back from Ann Arbor to join his mother and sister Eleanor during the holidays.

New Addresses: Gustave A. Braun, North Shore, Culver Lake, Branchville, N. J.: PerryHayes, 29 Castlewood Road, West Hartford, Conn.

Through the kindness of Stanley Weld '12, we are able to publish the following excerpts of a tribute to Russ Durgin by the Executive Committee of the International Y.M.C.A.

"Mr. Durgin, after 32 years of service to the youth of Japan, submitted his resignation from the staff of the International Committee as of January 31, 1951. . .

"Mr. Durgin began his Association work while still an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, from which he received a B.S. degree in 1915. In January of 1919 Mr. and Mrs. Durgin sailed for Japan, thus beginning their long and distinguished term of service with the International Committee. In 1939 he became Honorary Secretary of the Japanese National Committee which post he has continued to occupy.

"When World War II began, Mr. and Mrs. Durgin were in Japan and for many weeks their fate was a question. Occasional reports filtered out, but it was not until August of 1942 when they reached New York as repatriates on the 5.5. Gripsholm exchange ship that the whole story of their war-time experiences in Tokyo was told. Permitted to live in their own home, helped by hundreds of Japanese friends, respected and treated with courtesy by officials, honored by a near public demonstration of regret at their departure, they were treated at all times as beloved aliens in an enemy land.

"From October of 1943 until September of 1945, Mr. Durgin served as a visiting lecturer at Yale University in its department of Japanese Area Studies, teaching Japanese history, government, politics, commerce, culture and psychology to students in the Army Special Training Program and the Civil Affairs Training School.

"From September of 1945 for two years, at the urgent request of the Department of State, Mr. Durgin was on leave of absence from the Committee to serve as Special Adviser to the late Ambassador George Atcheson, then Political Adviser to General Mac Arthur in Japan. As one of the first former representatives from Christian movements to reenter Japan, he did much to re-establish contacts between the Japanese Churches and those in the United States. He took charge of all Japanese youth organizations under the Civil Information and Education Section of General Mac Arthur's staff, traveling extensively through Japan helping to organize new democratic youth associations, and under his leadership the program reached approximately two million members.

"In final tribute to his outstanding service in the field of youth activities, Russell Durgin was awarded just before he left Japan the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class, by Emperor Hirohito. This high honor came as a culmination to a lifetime of service to the people of Japan, in whose hearts Russell and Delphine Durgin have left imperishable memories."

SINGING SECRETARY: Stirling Wilson '16, wellknown to Barbershop Quartets, is host at a Christmas party at Dartmouth House, Bethesda, Md. Present (I to r) are: Mrs. Edward L. Kiley, widow of Ed Kiley '16; Jim Kiley '53; Janet A. Wilson; Stirling Wilson; Mrs. Wilson.

Secretary, 24 Midland Ave., White Plains, N. Y, Treasurer, 60 Stevens Rd., Needham 92, Mass, Bequest Chairman, 422 Lexington Ave., New York 17, N. Y,