1920
The ranks of 1920 are thinner by two, with the loss in recent months of two quiet, loyal gentlemen, Ed Higgins and Bob Dow. Ed, who had been living in happy retirement for some years, in Framingham. Mass., and at his Maine summer home, was last seen at a class gathering at our Thirtieth Reunion. Bob got to a class dinner in New York as recently as last December; seemed happy and well and glad to be out with the boys again. The fact is, probably, that his health was far from good, because he had never been at his best since his rigorous experiences in. World War II and had suffered serious ill effects from two different accidents after his return to teaching at New York University. Brief life sketches of both classmates are contained in the necrology section of this issue.
A teaching colleague of Bob Dow's, speaking of him with great affection and admiration, credits him with an unwittingly prominent role in one phase of American literary history. While he was working for his doctorate at Harvard, Bob became well acquainted with the young Thomas Wolfe. This aspiring writer evidently knew where to turn for good advice, for it was at Bob's suggestion that Wolfe came to New York University as a beginning instructor in English, established himself in Greenwich Village, and poured out his pent-up emotions in the torrent of words that eventually became LookHomeward, Angel.
Before the Alumni Fund campaign got under way in fact, on the very last day of winter Stan Newcomer, wrote that he and Grace had found "the spot in all of California." the Santa Barbara Biltmore with its Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club. There the folks were taking their ease, quite unaware of the fact that Gerry Stone could not be far away. Gem had a March business trip to Arizona and the Pacific Coast. Just about that time he and Frances were announcing (March 5) the engagement of their pretty daughter Patricia, who will marry William Newton Ford '52. now serving as an ensign in the Navy. Appropriately—and just to make the thing unanimous young Mr. Ford has a father, Burton Lincoln Ford, of the class of 1923. Question: in Arizona did Gerry meet up with Ted Fellowes, currently president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Tucson?
Stan did not intend to leave California without a call on Abe Winslow, who may have been resting from his annual labor of publishing the directory of Dartmouth Men of Northern California and Nevada. Twenty's quota in this listing is made up of Abe himself, plus Dick Charlock, Rus Cotner, Jake Minnis, TomSmith and none other than Herbert Hoover, recipient of an honorary degree on the Hanover plain in June, 1920. That, at least in Abe's opinion, makes Herb One of Us. And, speaking of our Honorary Members, have you noticed that Twenty continues to supply speaking talent on the Alumni Club circuit? Joe McDonald has been spelling AI Foley this spring, with appearances before the St. Louis Association, the "Heart of America" Association, and the Dartmouth Association of the Great Divide.
Class Agent Newcomer would have been gratified to know that his assistants in the N.Y.C. area were off to a good start, with five of them in attendance at the local kick-off dinner for the Fund on March 25. Phil Gross,George Sackett, Paul Canada, Hal Clark and Clint Johnson answered that particular roll call. Down in Florida, assistant agent BenAyres, winter vacationing, was sunning himself as he readied up for his part in the Drive. He and Ellen had their older daughter Lois and two grandchildren with them. Working north from Fort Myers, they were going to drop in on Pick Hill at St. Petersburg and put on a sales talk for our 35th Reunion. Ben, by the way, is a newly joined-up member of the Dartmouth Club of New York, and so is CarlLenz.
Down there in Florida Chuck Garnsey is serving this year as president of the Dartmouth Association of Southern Florida (the Miami-Palm Beach area), after a preparatory term as secretary. Business ought to be looking up in the Southland, with Hersh Chandler now permanently located in Lutz, TedBliss retired to Sarasota and Wes Jones teach- ing in West Palm Beach. Older residents, comparatively speaking, are George Loehr in Fort Lauderdale, George (Ty?) Green in Gainesville, Jake Gorton in retirement on Merritt Island, Warrie Chamberlain at Miami Beach, Johnny Woods in North Miami and Ken Fenderson in St. Petersburg. Could be quite a reunion in those parts, especially at the time of immigration from the North, just as the Fred Hamrns reuned with the Chandlers not long ago.
Normally Charlie McGoughran would have been doing a stretch in Florida in late winter or early spring. But this year —the year that Sinclair topped the billion dollar mark in assets—Charlie says he had to keep on working. "The virus" did its dirty work on him, as on half the rest of the civilized world, but he fought his way through. Recent stoppers by to say hello at the McGoughran town house were Bung Roland, in New York for the flower show, and Mel Merritt. When Mel's daughter Nancy recently became Mrs. Richard Morse Underwood Jr., at a First Universalist Church ceremony in Lynn, Mass., the Rolands were on hand, in the supporting cast for the Father of the Bride.
The March 30 luncheon session of the New England Council's annual get-together, held this year in Hartford, featured Grover Plowman, pride of U.S. Steel, as the speaker for the occasion. Classmates Art Smith, Jim Frost and Hal Bidwell convened at the Hotel Bond to cheer Grover on his way. The theme of the meeting was "New England Transportation Today and Tomorrow," and traffic specialist Plowman was well equipped to give his listeners an earful on that subject. He pointed out that five loaded cars come into New England for every two that go out; that two-thirds of the New England boundary is international, while facilities for the movement of goods north and south across the Canadian bound- ary are woefully inadequate; that the region's transportation problems, though constantly changing, are capable of solution; and that the Yankees can accept and fulfill the responsibility of steadily improving their transportation system under private enterprise and private ownership.
Manager of the varsity hockey team this year was Tom Davidson's boy Tommy, who graduates in June. When the team played Yale at the Playland Rink, Rye, N. Y., a benefit game in the interests of harder and earlier ice in Hanover, General Motors' Harry Phillips was there on the sidelines, intently concerned with the hard-fought but losing cause.
Newly located in Manhattan are the JoeBrewers, who have taken an apartment at 430 East 63rd St., and the Warren Turners now resident at 130 West 11th St. The Brewers also have a summer and weekend place up in the Fishkill Mountains, about 75 miles to the north. The Turners, with their two oldest youngsters now on their own, have found it relaxing and convenient to settle down in Greenwich Village.
Bill Mezger, Rowayton, Conn., commuter 10 Wall St., reports the marriage of his daughter Barbara last September 1. Barbara became Mrs. Robert Francisco, and in so doing committed herself at least temporarily to life in the Azores. That is where her husband, a civilian engineer under contract with the Army, is carrying out various assignments at the Lagens Air Base.
Secretary, Blind Brook Lodge, Rye 17, N. Y. Class Agent, 438 E. Elm Ave., Monroe, Mich.
