1932's "World's Best" 20th

IF anyone thinks our reunion did not live up to the advertised "World's Best 20th Reunion," the burden is on him to prove it. The fact that we had more members back than our fellow celebrants of '31 and '33 gave us an edge over them, but their presence in nearby tents added greatly to the fun of the whole affair. The list shows that 119 of our class came back, 81 of them with wives. There were 38 children in the group. We received the prize for the best attendance for the weekend. Butch Modarelli was in excellent voice, though it is said that there was a bit more bull in his offering than usual.

A few arrived early to take in the Hanover Holiday, which is a really delightful way to spend a week in June. Our whole family was there, and even my critical son thought it was a lot of fun. We moved from Sage Hall on Friday to join the Class in the Fayerweather group and the Smith, Ripley and Woodward connecting dorms. There were three tents out in front, one for catering, one for '32 beer to flow through, and an extra for overflow (of people). The beer tap started operating early in the afternoon of Friday the 13th and I never saw it closed for the next 45 hours.

The first scheduled event in the crowded agenda was the cocktail party in Dartmouth House, which was still Commons to us. This was for wives, too, while the kids were given a special supper followed by movies in Thayer Hall. After a few rounds, we separated for a stag dinner at the Inn and a distaff lobster plate in Thayer. Ray Bartlett, as reunion chairman, presided; Marv Chandler made a few well-merited awards to those who had labored long on the class' behalf, and then Modarelli was prevailed upon to say a few words about the old days when he was in College. When he finished, we picked ourselves up from the aisles and went to the Dickeys' reception for all the reunioners.

Thereafter the evening was spent in the tents, with the '3l and '33 group mingling in to renew a lot of valued friendships that had been on ice for some twenty years. There were a certain number of remarks like, "you don't look a bit different, now that you're wearing your '33 hat," or, "I recognized you immediately—after I saw your identification badge."

On Saturday morning the picture was taken, in front of the Library, followed by the Alumni Luncheon, to which wives were invited. The children during this time had a snack lunch in the tent with a special show at the Nugget afterward. In the afternoon, there was a brief ceremony for the presentation of the John Clark portrait to the College, and then we had our picnic at Bob Keene's spectacular ski lodge out beyond Etna. There were swimming, baseball, class meeting, beer, extra plump hamburgers, and so forth. It went on through a magnificent sunset, and then we returned for the Players' show and more of the pleasures of the reunion tent until the not-so-wee hours of the morning. It was a memorably successful party, and the praise that went to Ray Bartlett for his organization, to Dot Bartlett for her work on the bookkeeping, and to Ray's secretary for her behind-the-scenes labors, were more than deserved.

A number of things must be specially mentioned. Chuck Owsley made the presentation speech for the excellent portrait of John Clark painted by his brother-in-law, Elmer Greene, who donated the picture. It now hangs in the public affairs laboratory of the Great Issues Course, in the nature of a shrine where members of our class may long feel proud to visit when in Hanover. In his talk, Chuck told simply of those aspects of John's career that led us to pay this homage to him. It was not an easy thing to do; emotions have a way of tripping up the easy flow of words, but Chuck did it beautifully. John's family were there, and President Dickey said a few sentences of acceptance for the College.

Some of those who have brought distinction to our class were welcome participants in the festivities. It is no reflection that Assistant Secretary of State Howie Sargeant and Congressman Tom Curtis were outshone by Howie's wife, Myrna Loy, whom we found it a pleasure to get to know. Whip Walser interrupted his travels and brought two small replicas of himself, and then put on a wonderful show at the picnic to the words of "Alouette."

Our class meeting was held during the picnic. Prizes were awarded, such as one for the longest trip to get there: Dave Castleman, who won, came from Hawaii; Rod Hatcher from London; Jim North from California. Short trips like the Joe Robinsons' from Florida were hardly in the running. Marv Chandler welcomed the wives with the briefly misunderstood remark, "We're all glad we have had as many wives as we have!"

Then we elected officers for the next five vears: President, John Sheldon; Secretary, John Amos Wright; Treasurer, John B. Wolff,Jr.; Memorial Fund Chairman, Charles Doerr; Alumni Fund Class Agent, James Corbett; Executive Committee; Bartlett, Olmsted,Chandler, Cardozo, Mackenzie, Drew, North,Fanelli, Sawyer (Pete), and Pearson.

The Class adopted a resolution to accept Charlie Doerr's proposal that we aim for $100,000 as our 25th Reunion gift to the College. He pointed out that this means, for each classmate, an average gift of ten times his average annual gift to the Alumni Fund. Put this way, it seems attainable. It was particularly encouraging that before the Reunion was over, enough spontaneous pledges had been made—there was no soliciting—to assure $15,000, including the amount already in the fund. John Wolff's treasurer's report showed a balance of class funds of $2,417.75, some of which will go into the Memorial Fund.

The class meeting ended with cries from the wives that they had never heard Modarelli perform with words; so, over his protests, he was induced to rise to the occasion. They still haven't heard him, though. Fate stepped in and let reality triumph over symbolism. Just as that silver tongue was about to start, there was a startled cry across the greensward, and everyone began to scurry about, sweeping children into safe places as they went. Believe it or not, a real, live black bull had appeared in our midst, tossing his head and otherwise making like he meant business. He was soon confined by the farmer, but everyone seemedto assume that nothing that Butch could saywould be able to match the real thing. Wewonder, though.

I hope you will read the notes for '31 and'33, for their parties were also ours to a largeextent. It all made for a grand weekend. Andnow, let me say "finis" and thanks for yourreading time. Writing these notes has been aburden but it's been fun, and I have had a realreward from those in many classes who havesaid they found them enjoyable.

The following attended reunion with theirwives:

Allyn, Alpert, Auten, Bang, Ballou, Barber, Bartlett, Bladworth, Blaesi, Blais, Bowman, Brett, J. B. Brown, F. Browning, Buckley, Cappio, Car- dozo, Castleman, Corbett, Curtis, Daniels, Dickey, Doerr, Downs, Drake, Drew, Eichler, H. Elliot, Englander, Fanelli, Fish, Foley, Fox, Frisbie, Gage, Gardner, Goldberg, Hall, Harper, Hill, Hazen, Hosmer, Hubbard, Jenkins, Keily, Kenworthy, Kramer, Kurson, Knight, LaVine, Lyons, Mcßae, Mackenzie, Marcus, Mayo, McConnochie, Modarelli, MacPhail (from Baltimore), Newfang, Olmsted, Parker, Pike, Power, Prentiss, Richardson, Roberts, Robinson, Rowe, Sails, Saltzman, Sargeant, G. C. Sawyer, E. S. Smith, Tomlinson, Walser, Weinberg, Whitcomb, Whitehair, J. B. Wolff, Woodman, Zimmerman, Zinggeler.

Without wives: Adkins, A. E. Allen, Allyn, Altman, J. Bennett, W. J. Bennett, Brister, Burch, Chandler, Couzens, Crone, Davis, Flint, Fendrich, Geary, Gilmore, Gould, Hahn, Hastings, Hatcher, Isaacs, Leach, Lewis, Mays, Milgroom, North, Owsley, Obrien, Pearson, Pierpont, Roe, Sheldon, Stoiber, Sundeen, Weinseimer, M. Wolff, Wright. Children came with Altman, Auten, Brister, Cardozo, Doerr, Elliot, Gilmore, Goldberg, Harper, Hill, Kenworthy, Knight, Mayo, McConnochie, Modarelli, Olmsted, O'Brien, Pike, Prentiss, Robinson Walser, Whitcomb, Wolff, and Zinggeler.

THE CLASS OF 1932, WITH 121 MEMBERS BACK FOR REUNION, WAS THE RUNNER-UP FOR THE ATTENDANCE CUP

LUCKY 1932 had Myrna Loyamong the wives who came to Hanover for reunion. She is shown here with her husband, Howie Sargeant '32, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.

RETIRING CLASS SECRETARY