1920
The script for our feature this month might well be titled "In and Out of Washington with Twenty," for Grover Plowman bows out of the Nation's Capital amid merited acclaim (see below) while Sam Stratton checks in again for another year of Government service. Twenty salutes Vice President Plowman of U.S. Steel and President Stratton of Middlebury College!
Grover resigned January 7 from the double job of Special Consultant to the Secretary of Defense on Transportation and Traffic Management and Adviser to the Chairman of the Munitions Board on Supply Management. His fine work was hailed by the award of the Certificate of Appreciation, highest honor given by the Department of Defense for civilian service. Secretary of Defense Lovett made the presentation and read the following citation:
"E. G. Plowman, for exceptionally meritorious service with the Department of Defense from 14 August 1950 to January 7, 1952. "At the request of the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Plowman devoted himself unstintingly to the establishment of coordinated, efficient, and economical traffic management under one authority and to the improvement of transportation planning within the Department of Defense. ...
"Through his wise counsel and guidance in organizing and directing the Military Traffic Service there have been established common loading rules and practices, improved and more effective negotiation with carriers, competent presentations of military problems before regulatory bodies, conservation of transportation, greater availability and more effective use of transit privileges. These have not alone resulted in savings of great magnitude which will continue to accrue but also result in more effective management methods for meeting essential military needs with minimum impact upon the transportation system of the nation.
"He has likewise contributed to the establishment of more effective means for coordinated transportation planning within the Department of Defense as well as contributing to the establishment and support of close coordination between and among all regular and emergency federal agencies concerned with transportation.
"To each of these accomplishments as well as through his advice and assistance in numerous other matters, Mr. Plowman has brought his exceptional wisdom, knowledge and foresight. In recognition of these distinguished contributions the Department of Defense awards him its highest civilian honor—The Department of Defense Certificate of Appreciation."
The assignment that Sam has accepted is that of Director for the Technical Cooperation Administration (not TCA, but Point 4 to you) in Saudi Arabia. So for the next 12 months he can be reached in care of the American Embassy at Jidda. According to the News Letter of Middlebury College, where Sam was in the middle of his tenth year as President, he has been granted a one-year leave of absence by the Trustees and will take charge of all American economic and technical aid to Saudi Arabia. Years back, early in World War XI, it will be remembered, he served as Director of the Priority Reviews Division of the War Production Board and later, in 1944 and 1945, was a public member of the Regional War Labor Board in Vermont. Under his leadership the Middlebury enrollment has increased from 800 to 1200 and the college's assets have grown from seven million to nearly nine million dollars.
A Middlebury graduate, AI Stillman's daughter Nancy, has been helpful in keeping us informed about the above matters. But we had to go outside the family, to Os Skinner '28 of Troy, Pa., to learn the latest about Al himself, the pride of nearby Laceyville. The story on Al is our #1 industrial item for this opening month of spring. Os refers to Al as "Mr. Laceyville," because on February 7 he became president of the town's biggest business, Whipple Bros., Inc. Whipple is a bigtime lumber concern, with sawmills and retail yards all over northern Pennsylvania and southern New York state. Al joined the organization as treasurer in 1923 and moved up to the vice presidency in 1950. He is also president of the Grange National Bank of Laceyville and of Tyler Memorial Hospital in Meshoppen, Pa. His niece, Sylvia Stillman Spaulding, is the wife of one of your secretary's numerous nephews.
Twenty's pictures have been in the papers in profusion lately. Jim Chilcott made the Nexv York Herald-Tribune financial section on January 31, in recognition of his election as a director of Warner-Hudnut, Inc., pharmaceutical manufacturers. This happened after consummation of a deal whereby 95 per cent of the outstanding common stock of the Maltine Company was tendered in exchange for Warner-Hudnut common, but Jim continues as president of Maltine.
Just a couple of days earlier Clint Johnson had been the focal point of an interesting picture in The New York Times. He was shown observing his Chemical Bank and Trust Company's new radio teleprinter service, springing into action to link the bank with a network of correspondent banks throughout Europe. Naturally Clint would be an interested bystander, inasmuch as he is vice president in charge of Chemical's International Division, in which capacity (according to helpful Ernie Earley, 1918 secretary) he "gallivanted all over Europe last summer," giving Chemical's president who was with him an opportunity to meet their foreign customers. Now that they are represented in 54 foreign countries, Clint is said to be off again in March to catch up with some more of them.
Speaking some more about pictures, PaulSample had a beauty, "Morning in Clark Steady," hanging in the Boston Society of Independent Artists' 19th annual exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Close by was "Kearsarge in Winter," painted by former pupil and current fellow-artist Herb West '22.
Winter Sports
Back in December, before those six-and eight-foot drifts began to pile up in New England, Mel Merritt clipped off a neat 76 in a golf tournament at the Kittansett Club. As a score this may have been a bit above Mel's usual 18-hole figures, but it was an unusual accomplishment, even for him, considering that he was conked by somebody else's off-line shot while playing the 1 ith hole. Bob Dunbar, reporting the incident for the Boston Herald, remarked: "The accident didn't help Merritt's game. He was even par leaving the nth tee but lost six strokes to regulation figures over the rest of the route." ... Coach TommyThomson down at the Naval Academy is said to have "six sailors with untested sea legs" who are real candidates for the United States Olympic Team. Three of them got their start in higher education at Southern Cal, while the others "prepped" for Navy at Pepperdine, San Jose State and Arkansas. Pet of the lot with Tommy, naturally, is Dick Attlesey, world's fastest contemporary hurdler, who will only be following in his coach's long footsteps if he cops top hurdling honors when he gets to Finland. The Washington Star ran a photo of Tommy showing Attlesey how to do it, and Tommy looked good even under the weight of felt hat, overcoat and gloves.
AI Cate was good enough to "cover" the annual dinner of the Boston Alumni Association for these columns. Gathering at the Statler the evening of February 26, under the presidential gavel of Roc Elliott, who served as toastmaster, the Boston boys put on quite a show. Roc had some real speaking talent lined up in the various forms of President Dickey, Myles Lane, Bill Cunningham and young Pete Reich, captain of the 1952 football team. The Herald cartoonist gave the occasion his customary coverage and did what must have been a post-prandial job on our Roc, because there was extra poundage evident around the jowls. There in their tuxedos to speed Roc along the road to retirement as Boston Association president were classmates Al Cate, BunHarvey, Paul Hutchinson, George Macomber,Mugs Morrill, Ken Spalding, Charlie Sargent and Eb Wallace. Seating the Twenties at table 13 and planting them way down front with the real old guard may have frightened some of the other boys away.
Bob Van Iderstine sends interesting news of himself and his two daughters. Reminding us that Margaret, his older daughter, would have been the class baby if Dean Travis hadn't nosed him out, Bob reports that this Class Baby #2, so to speak, is now head of the children's department with the Remington Book Stores there in Baltimore. The fine ninepound boy, Barry Boyce Norris, born to younger daughter Ethel on February 1, is Bob's third grandson. The new arrival's father is a lieutenant-colonel, stationed at the Pentagon. Bob himself resigned from his Leonhart and Company connection last August and has since been carrying on in business for himself, at. his lifelong specialty of reinsurance. He saves wear and tear on himself by managing the operation from his home address at 4 Upland Road in Baltimore.
Swezey & Newins, "A Complete Department Store," "Famous for Famous Labels since 1894," made itself ready to stay in business for at least 100 years when Carroll SwezeySr. welcomed Carroll Jr. '4B to a career within the establishment, starting on January 28. Previously the young man had made ready for the future by taking an M.A. degree in retailing at N.Y.U. in 1951, having served in the Pacific with the army during World War 11. Carroll Jr. married a Colby Junior College girl, Nancy Hunt, at the Unitarian Church in Wellesley Hills, Mass., on December 29, and they honeymooned in the Virgin Islands before the department store apprenticeship began. It is pleasant to report that the new inlaw relation of the Swezeys, Nancy's father, is Donald Hunt '25. Still another bulletin from Carroll Sr., dated February 5, brought news of the arrival that morning of his first grandchild, a close-to-seven-pound boy, born to daughter Priscilla, erstwhile Carnival queen, now Mrs. Jerry Knapp.
CLASS AGENTS, NEW AND RETIRED: Pete Potter (r) takes over the reins as the 1920 Class Agent from Al Foley, his predecessor, who passes on some useful tips.
Secretary, : Blind Brook Lodge, Rye 17, N. Y. Treasurer, 1 Windmill Lane, Arlington 74, Mass. Class Agent, 1128 Clover St., Rochester, N. Y.
