1931
Holy smoke, by the time this column appears in print it'll be March and Reunion only 90-odd days away. That calls for action . . . plenty of it! If things move along all right, time affords, and we can get at least a nucleus of the gang together, you should have had the first Reunion letter before you read about it here. Actually, some of the little bothersome odds and ends have already been assigned for handling; but, as usual, most of the real work will have to start now. This is a big one for us; and those who have already gone through their 20th, tell me that it means more to a class than any of- the preceding Reunions. As a matter of fact, I've never been to a Reunion so I'm looking forward to this one as a great big event.
On the news, front, we've got lots to report. First, a big league success story wrapped around Fred Tetzlaff. Back in 41, Fred started as an Assistant Foreman in the Plexiglas Department at Rohm & Haas Company, later becoming Assistant Plant Manager, Sales Executive, Head of the Plastic Sales Development Group, and now Managing Director and a member of the Board of Directors of Rohm & Haas' British subsidiary. He's now in London. This sort of thing gives me a tremendous charge. Here's a guy whom I knew quite well 20 years ago and then for years nothing much happens ... not a contact, not a word, nothing but an occasional flash of memory as we leaf through the pages of the Aegis. Then ... it happens! A quiet, wellliked, not-too-flashy classmate takes his place in the long list of '3l successes. There need never be any other compensation than that for handling this job as Class Secretary . . . just the thrill of passing good news like this along to you.
I'm using Fred only as an example because, as I say, the list is long. For instance, JimRice has just been promoted to Budget Control Supervisor of the Boeing Airplane Company in Seattle. Johnny Peacock has risen to the post of Vice-President in the Hanson Bennett Magazine Agency (his note was a master- piece of modesty but we finally got that bit out of him); Henry Gorsline has just been awarded membership in the American Institute of Real Estate Appraising ... and so it goes.
In the Tempus Fugit Department, Rog Williams writes that his daughter is now a freshman at Connecticut College for Women and Shep Wolff's boy is one of the six sons of 'aiers now in Hanover.
In the Vital Statistics and Blessed Expense Department, Jonathan Davis, son of HalSeder, weighed in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces. This being Hal's first we shall, of course, expect to get cigars at Reunion. Hal and Mrs. S., the former Estelle Halpern of Holyoke and Smith, manage the Moorland Hotel at Bass Rocks, Gloucester, Mass., during the summer. (This is the one free plug allotted to each '31'er.)
A note from Ralph Maynard's mother explains why we haven't been getting much news from that direction. For the last dozen years, Ralph has been out of the country practically all the time as a technical representative for a Philadelphia firm operating in foreign countries. He is now in India after spending a good many years in South America. HankRichmond's conscience finally got the best of him and he decided it was about time to stop reading other people's mail and start writing himself. Hank's firm makes paper bag machinery and right now the lanky boy seems to be hitting the road most of the time. A little while ago, he gave up being a Manhattan cliff-dweller and moved out where he has some grass to mow. Even that didn't hold him down because he reports that he had lunch with Bill Geiger and Johnny Camph at the old Heidelberg in Chicago (lunch he calls it!). Then he had lunch with George Nickum at the Ranier Club in Seattle and then back to Chicago where he got a phone call from Temple Nieter. How these boys do get aroundl
From a letter and from personal contact, I can tell you that Charlie Schneider is, as usual, busy as a sparrow caught in a badminton game. In addition to doing three men's work as a partner in National Acoustics, he's generally "playing one, rehearsing one and reading one" for any show within jet range of Scarsdale. Along with his dues, Ned Rosen gives us a brief fill-in to the effect that "there's nothing new—no advancements, no honors, no additions—just enjoying what we have." As a matter of fact, he makes it sound very attractive. Lieutenant Commander Jim Laughton is now back in Japan. It seems that when I last passed along some info about Jim, I got a few of the details pretty well fouled up so I'm going to leave it this time with just the simple statement of his location and we'll get it all straightened out when we see him in Hanover next June. Dr. Dave Hewes, Psychiatric Social director for the Child Guidance Clinic in Bakersfield, Calif., has been hitting the rubber-chicken circuit with a talk on "Where Homes Are Bound." After seeing some of those pictures of the floods in California, this would seem to be a very timely topic.
Red Gristede sends up a plaintive bleat anent the failure of '31ers to get together more often for local class dinners. He's, right, of course; we should do it a lot more than we do. All it needs is for someone to make himself the M.C. and handle the arrangements. Once these things get started, they snowball and before we know it there's a full-fledged class get-together underway with a lot of fun for everybody ... and a lot of good for the class.
Splashed across the front society page of the Boston Sunday Herald is a picture spread of a big musical benefit held in Winchester and right in the middle of the page is a very lovely young lady, wife of one Dick Chase. We'll be glad to see you at Reunion, Dick, but by all means see to it that Mrs. C. is there.
Secretary, 6 Walbrooke Circle, Scarsdale, N. Y. Treasurer, 730 Sherman Ave., Plainfield, N. J. Memorial Fund Chairman 224 Beverly Rd., Scarsdale, N. Y.
