Southern California
Seventy men of the true faith were solvent enough after March 15, sober enough after March 17, and salubrious enough on March 18 to gather on the latter date at the Terrace Room of the Huntington to celebrate our fifth annual Over-East affair.
And a very successful affair it was, thanks generally to the efforts of a lot of people, and specifically to the presence of Beardsley Ruml '15. Since Mr. Ruml is a distinguished tax expert, a lot of us came to the dinner expecting to ask questions on the subject. But he is also, and I suspect first, a Trustee of the College, and the best compliment to his talk was that not one man remembered to ask about taxes; all the post-speech questions concerned Hanover. One of his answers, by the way, was particularly memorable: an alumnus was concerned, perhaps because of The Dartmouth's endorsement of Stevenson, about why the College had let the students "go haywire," and Mr. Ruml's reply in defense of free education to the effect that the boys were alert, questing, spirited, experimental and not subversive drew spontaneous applause. He did admit, however, that the abolishment of compulsory chapel might have caused some of this experimental thinking, on the ground that if the boys still had to roll out for eight o'clock chapel, that's the only thing they'd ever beef about.
As for the meeting itself, Frank Danzig '37 presided and introduced our many welcome guests with his usual aplomb. Bob Williams '26 led all the verses of Eleazar with his usual actor's memory; Bob Purvis '49 took in the money and made his usual plaintive pitch for dues; and Wes Hadden '41 made sure that the Huntington gave us its usual unusual hospitality. Bob Morris '36 presented Mr. Ruml and, to insure bringing out a full audience for his introduction, chairmaned the arrangements committee, made up of Bill Gamble '26, Bob Cone '37, John Merrill '37, Brad Peterson '37, Ed Skowrup '37, Wes Hadden '41, Lee Abbott '46, Ken Shaeffer '48, Marty Ullman '48, John Flanagan '49, and Bill Hawkins '50.
The next big affair, the dinner for President Dickey, will have come and gone by the time this report appears, but watch your mail for the traditional And-Women deal probably along in June. See you there.
BOSTON DINNER: The annual Dartmouth alumni dinner in Boston, March 4, included among the headtable guests (I to r): Brock Brower '53, former editor of "The Dartmouth"; Bayard Johnson '54, newly elected football captain; President Dickey; President Henry Wriston of Brown; Edwin M. Murphy, president of the Brown Club of Boston; Robert M. Edgar '28, former Boston Club president; Alex J. McFarland '30, new Club president.
Secretary, 218 No. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills, Calif.
