New Blood Needed
THE activities of the D.O.C. of Boston were reported in this section of the MAGAZINE with some regularity in the 1930's. Since then active members of our group returning from the war have married or found so many other claims upon their time that we have suffered a gap and have as yet not enlisted an entirely new group of younger alumni members.
Dartmouth men and their love of skiing and the out-of-doors have not changed in the few years since our Club was flourishing. The basic problem is that of finding an altogether new group, specifically uncovering two or three leaders who would be willing to tackle this job in real enthusiasm and carry their contemporaries along with them.
Unless such leaders are miraculously found in this eleventh hour, there is now no choice but to recommend to the trustees who hold the title to the Club's property to dispose of it and to turn the proceeds over to the College under the terms of an existing trust agreement.
Perhaps I may tell in a few lines about our decade of active Club life, so that some of the young alumni in the Boston area will be able to judge what kind of organization we had; and if they think it is worth restoring.
The D.O.C. of Boston, started in December 1930, seems to have been one of the few things which prospered in the depression years. Small groups of us spent months roaming the countryside to search for a mythical site that offered skiing, swimming and generally the backwoods atmosphere of the Vermont and New Hampshire hills. Strangely the perfect site was found in Groton, Mass., and 12 acres purchased in the spring of 1931. The building project started in July, simultaneously with a fund-raising and membership campaign. In December 1931, on a miserable day, 100-odd people—Club members, parents, girl friends and a score of "angels" among the alumni who had helped and advised us in our project—crowded the living room with its roaring fireplace to cheer the grand opening.
In 1932 when we plumbed the depths of the depression, the Club had one of its most active and successful years. With $1,000 owed on the mortgage of the cabin, we started an annual policy of mortgage reduction, carried on an active Club program with hikes, dances, skiing weekends, treasure hunts and smoke-talks. The majority of the Club membership, strangely, was not a group of former active D.O.C. men, nor, with a few exceptions, a gang that had known each other in Hanover. Never once, after the original building fund campaign were funds solicited, and the overhead, including the retirement of the mortgage and two sizable projects of later years, were financed out of dues, and the work was performed by the members. There is still a tiny balance left for necessary replacements.
The D.O.C. of Boston started with just two or three men, none of them big shots on campus, none of them over two or three years out of college. It grew on enthusiasm, hard work and the confidence and help of a wonderful group of older alumni.
If you would like to have a part in a new endeavor, write me at 320 South Broadway, Tarrytown, N. Y. I will get any interested men in touch with each other and assure them of the full cooperation of the old-timers. They need not fear unwanted interference and advice from the now inactive group of founders. I have had a part in this undertaking from the beginning. To a group which is larger than any of us could attempt to count, it meant for many years fun and good fellowship, and brought lasting friendships. That is all that really counts.
HANS PASCHEN T'28
