1920

It's a pleasure to report that a roll call taken in Chicago the evening of January 4 produced a satisfactory response. Just four Twenties were absent; none unaccounted for. Nate Whiteside, Hank Spero, Len Davis,Frank Corbin, Ed Curtis and Laddie Myers, along with recorder Pearson, gathered around the University Club's festive board for the annual toting up of accounts. Frank Mayer and Wallie Schinz were unavoidably detained elsewhere. Freddy Hamm and Don MacKay made their respective reports by telephone.

Don, finding himself temporarily crippled with a dental affliction, was just getting out of the woods and beginning to feel like himself again. Fred, somewhat longer inactive, was cheerfully communicative in the midst of packing for the long haul to Florida. By this time the Hamms are doubtless semi-permanently established in Clearwater, where they were to be housed in a cooperative apartment owned by Chick Hopkins '22.

The boys who did brave the brisk Januarybreezes of the Windy City were each and all commuters. Laddie Myers and Nate Whiteside are neighbors in Hinsdale, and Len Davis is just over the town line in LaGrange. Frank Corbin and Hank Spero take the same north shore trains homeward, Frank dropping off at Evanston and Hank going on to Highland Park. Ed Curtis, who only comes to town when circumstances warrant it, still puts in his business day down the line in Kankakee. To get back home after a sizeable evening in Chicago, he snoozes on the I.C. to the end of a local line and then completes the journey with a hefty stretch behind the wheel of the family car. Ed's real commutation, of course, is between Illinois and Florida. He runs small-loan businesses in both states. Near him in Kankakee is son Edward C. Curtis '48, whose two growing children (one of them another Ed) make our Ed a relatively ancient grandfather. Reflecting on his Florida operations, our Ed recalls that he met up with Warrie Chamberlain not so many years ago, when Warrie had just established himself among the flourishing brethren of real estate brokers in Miami.

Len Davis is another of the Chicago group who has his son comfortably installed near the parental home. Len's boy, Wabash graduate, has joined up with his old man's outfit, Western Electric. Frank Corbin is not quite so fortunate; his daughter, Mrs. Jimmy Vail, having set up housekeeping in Columbus, Ohio, where young Jim is in business with American Hospital Supply.

Lowdown on our Chicago athletes: Laddie Myers and Nate Whiteside are still in good standing as Class A bowlers. Laddie, groaning at proper intervals from the twinges of a complaining sacro-iliac, admitted that the best game he had been able to put together this season was a barely tolerable 237. Nate, getting the conversation back on the fatherhood track, made mention of son Peter, just this year enrolled as freshman at Colorado College. The older boy, Nate III, is taking his turn with the armed forces and is at the moment based on Guam. A good listener, as always, Hank Spero gave the nod of approval to secretarial interviewing, but remained the old master of understatement when it came his turn to report on domestic and business affairs.

During the evening President Eisenhower made one of his televised reports to the nation, while the gathering of Twenties watched and listened respectfully. Naturally the talk gravitated thereafter to Sherm Adams. Your secretary, beginning to fancy himself as an Inside Dopester, gave out the word (see February notes) that Sherm's "relationships with all the folks around him are warm and personal." But at that moment he had no idea that Edward T. Folliard, Washington Post feature writer, would report on January 10: "Those who work with Adams at the White House quickly acknowledge that he is not the hailfellow-well-met type; they also acknowledge that there is not much blarney in him. But they scoff at the idea that he is cold. Yes, they say, he can be blunt and crisp, but never, they insist, offensively so. They think of him as gentle, somewhat shy, possessed of a terrific drive, a superb administrator and a keen politician." Getting this general idea over to Post readers required a full half-page of the paper's space, including sixty square inches for the latest Harris & Ewing portrait of Sherm. The page-width headline said: YEAR HAS "DEFROSTED" SHERMAN ADAMS' REPUTATION. And the unveiling of This New Man began as follows: "Sherman Adams, the Assistant to the President, is no backslapper. He is, however, a headlock man. If he knows you pretty well, he may come up to you, throw a muscular arm around your head and squeeze. This rough but affectionate gesture probably goes back to his lumberjack days."

Gerry Baron, licensed real estate broker in Ohio's capital city, reports marital doings among the younger Baron generation.

"My daughter Jo Ann was married December 23 to Bill Morse, Ohio State '52, and they have just returned from a Caribbean wedding trip. Bill is also in the real estate business with his family s company, founded years ago.... Hub Duffy is expected to announce his candidacy for state office again in the spring primaries. He was head of the Kefauver delegation from Ohio in the 1952 Democratic convention."

Good reports have come in on two members of our New Jersey delegation. Jim Parkes, President of Riverview Hospital in Red Bank, writes:

"You might like to know that there is another Jim Parkes at Dartmouth now — my son, who is in the Class of 1957. He played on the freshman "A" team this year and won his numerals; and since he wants to become a doctor, he is hoping to get into the Medical School when the proper time comes. He is taking the courses required for entrance, and so far he is getting along fine.

"I would also like to report that my daughter Mrs. C.V.R. Halsey Jr. (Smith '47) has recently presented me with another granddaughter, so that I can now boast of three. Their names are Dale, Cynthia, and Elizabeth."

The official Athletic Council bulletin on James Creighton Parkes II (our Jim is James S.) speaks of the new numeral-winner as a six-foot, 190-pound guard, who went through his preliminaries at Lawrenceville.

Jim Chilcott is the other Jerseyite again in the news. According to The New York Times of January 21, Jim is now vice chairman of the board of directors of Warner-Hudnut, Inc. He assumed this new title on February 1 when New Jersey's former governor Alfred E. Driscoll took office as president of the company.

Our class Bequest Chairman Sherry Baketel would be the last to seek publicity for a recent inspiration on his part which marked a new milestone in class progress. Apparently Sherry-tired of contemplating the almost-not-quite position in which the class Memorial Fund had been languishing for a number of months - just a bit short of the $25,000 mark. So Sherry fed the kitty personally on January 20 and when the sun set that night our Fund was resting comfortably at $25,000.36.

REX KING '21 is shown with his wife Mickey in the garden of his classmate, Tom Cleveland, in West Newton. The picture was taken last fall.

Secretary, Blind Brook Lodge, Rye 17, N.Y

Treasurer, South Duxbury, Mass.

Bequest Chairman,