1933
When you come to Hanover for our Twentieth this coming June 13, 14, 15 scenes like that in the accompanying snapshot will be a key feature of Reunion, and just who the long and the short, the lean and the larded, the thatched and the bald are will be the questions uppermost in your mind on the first day. The intervening years will have "improved" all of us, no doubt, but this picture frames the dimensions, the range so to speak, of these "improvements" about as well as any we've seen. Jack Manchester looks as if he could put that beer can down, put on his skates, and go out there and give as good an account as ever of himself in the forward line, but Gus Babson looks as if he might just as well go right on drinking his beer—which, come to think of it, he used to prefer in the old days anyway. The picture was taken last summer when Gus visited Jack here in Hanover.
Speaking of Reunion, Chairman Bill Dewey had us all down to the Old Manse in Quechee on March 5 for our first evening of planning. Bill McCarthy, Jack Manchester, yrs. truly and Bill were present that night and we blocked out committee assignments and got the ball rolling. Others who will lend a hand are Forrie Branch, Gordon Ingram, John Meek, JackWright and Burt Hack on local arrangements and Dewey will put the finger on a number of others as their services may be needed. If all goes well, you will have a special Newsletter sometime in mid-April giving you all the dope.
Never rains but it pours. It's been several years since we received any news of BobbyBurns, and now we get a couple of items within a couple of days of each other, one of them nothing less than an epistle from the old boy himself. The first was a notification that Captain Robert E. Burns had recently received the Bronze Star for meritorious service in Korea. Bobby was manager of Frank Sinatra before being recalled to active duty with the Army, and received the award for his outstanding performance of duty as division special services officer. Next came Bobby's letter. Here are a few excerpts:
"We just came back from Korea where we spent the last year and I guess I don't have to tell you that it wasn't much fun. We are now stationed on the Island Hokkaido which is Japan's northernmost island. It is only three miles from Russia's Sakalin Island and tPie Soviets have several divisions of infantry as well as huge air-force units training there. It is good to get out of Korea but the situation here is tense right now. ... I am in excellent health and hopeful of leaving here early in the spring. In fact, I am hoping that it will be early enough to get to Hanover by June 13. Tell Dewey that it is impossible to make any definite plans right now, but will try to let him know later. Say 'Hello' to everyone for me and I'll try to get there in June."
In that same letter Bobby proved that being in Korea and Japan hadn't kept him from knowing what was going on in the class. He was the first guy to get the word to us that Paul Weston (Wetstein) had recently married Jo Stafford and was honeymooning in Europe. Monagan, Black and someone in East Orange also get assists on this one. The marriage vows were given in Los Angeles on February 27. Paul has been Miss Stafford's musical arranger for several years and is credited in the trade with having had a good deal to do with her rise to stardom as a singer.
Had a wonderful visit with Father TedPuree 11 S.J. a few weeks ago. Ted came to Hanover one Sunday to address the Newman Club at the local Catholic Church. We arranged to see him afterward. The boys were so interested in what he had to say about the Catholic point of view in the field of industrial relations that he stayed with them a full hour longer than had been planned. The two of us then took a long walk around Hanover, catching up on the news and talking shop. As our faithful readers know, after Ted entered the priesthood he served in a parish in the stockyard district of Chicago, developed an interest in social problems and particularly labor-management relations, and a couple of years ago came to Harvard to work for his Ph.D. in the Department of Social Relations there. Ted is winding that project up now and will get his degree this June. When he was here last month he expected to finish his thesis, a study of Swift's as a case in industrial relations, in five or six weeks. When Ted completes this work he will probably return to Chicago, possibly to teach at Loyola.
Another '33 Hanover visitor in recent weeks was Sid Stoneham, who was here with his wife for a couple of days late in February. Ran into them one night at the Great Issues course, which they attended, as Sid told me afterward, to see what it was like to be in a classroom and hear a lecture after 20 years.
Today is Town Meeting day in Hanover and interest is running higher than it has in years in the outcome of the New Hampshire primary. For several weeks now this little state has been so full of presidential aspirants that you could hardly throw a stick over your shoulder without hitting one. Mannie Sprague is taking a prominent part in the Eisenhower campaign here in New England as State Chairman of the Eisenhower for President movement in Connecticut. In a note a couple of weeks ago, Mannie wrote: "It will involve a hell of a lot of work for the next five months but will certainly be well worth it if I can have any small part in putting Ike over." Mannie has played a very prominent role in the Connecticut legislature, as Speaker of the House in the last session in which capacity he did such an outstanding job that he won general recognition as one of Connecticut's most promising younger statesmen. We were also interested to note in an article on Mannie in the Hartford Times recently that he was generally regardeci as one of the handsomest men in the Legislature.
Word also reached us this past month of Walt Libby's promotion to assistant manager of the Boston office of the Indemnity Insurance Company.
That skims the cream off the news this month, and in closing may we remind you again of your appointment in Hanover on June 13, 14, 15, for our Twentieth.
REUNION WARM-UP: Gus Babson '33 (left) and Classmate Jack Manchester made a head start on reunion when they met in Hanover last summer.
Secretary, 20 Valley Rd., Hanover, N. H. Treasurer, 2812 Grant Bldg., Pittsburgh 19, Pa. Class Agent, The Stanley Works, New Britain, Conn.
